Rob Blake
Rob Blake
Robert Bowlby Blakeis a Canadian retired professional ice hockey player and the current assistant general manager of the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League. He was originally drafted by the Kings in 1988, appearing in the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, winning the James Norris Memorial Trophy and serving as team captain for five seasons in his initial 11-season stint with the club. In 2001, Blake was traded to the Colorado Avalanche and helped the team win their second...
ProfessionHockey Player
Date of Birth10 December 1969
CitySimcoe, Canada
I think people understand there's a business side to the game and that's been put in the past now. It's time to move on and the excitement of the game will live again.
This was big because we needed these points. I got a power play at the end and Danny made a strong move down the wall, put the puck to the net and it went in.
I think the last 25, 30 games, we've been battling to find our way into the playoffs, and once we succeeded, I think the emotion was tough to bring. But now we move on against Dallas, and I think you'll see we won't have trouble bringing emotion.
That makes it even more special to play them. It's nice that they're coming. I think the people around here and anybody that is from Canada originally and moved out here, the Leafs carry a lot of weight with them.
We finally had to battle to win a game. I think we've been getting away with just outscoring teams and it's kind of caught us the last two weeks. We haven't been working nearly hard enough to win games.
I was trying to go up high and he was right there. He made it look real easy.
I think our power play can be more consistent. At times it's real good. In a couple other games, it's let us down. You know you're going to have three or four opportunities every night, and that has to be there.
The power play has to be the key. You look around the league and see the penalties that are being called, you have to take advantage of the opportunities.
When you look at the standings, that second point is big.
When you give them a chance like that in the third, they are going to bury it. It only took a couple of plays to turn this thing around.
When the final outcome is either win or you're going home ... the intensity will pick up.
We didn't get the puck in the net. That's the bottom line. Three out of four games, it's tough.
We needed to get something there. It was big. We could have used that one.
We had a quick one early on but the second one was a major one, it lasted a minute. The big difference in their 5-on-3? They made the play.