The Rob Blake of old

From Lisa Dillman of the L.A. Times posting at Versus:

It’s the uptick of the Shark defenseman Rob Blake’s plus-minus rating, standing at plus-19 on Monday, with three games remaining in San Jose’s regular season.The minus-19 was a byproduct of a desultory campaign with the Kings last season. Stats may not lie but they can certainly deceive.

“When we signed Rob Blake

, we wanted Rob Blake to be Rob Blake,” said Sharks coach Todd McLellan on Sunday before San Jose defeated the Ducks, 3-2. “We didn’t need him to be a mentor or a king for all the young princes. We needed him to be Rob Blake. That’s all we wanted.”

Read Lisa’s whole story here.

We all know Rob Blake is a future HOF’er but I found McLellan’s quote there very interesting.  Many believed Blake was brought to San Jose to help them with leadership in the room and to provide a nice example for the team’s young defensemen, but clearly the team had different intentions.  By telling Blake to focus on being himself, basically telling him just to play hockey and not worry about anything else, McLellan seems to have read the situation perfectly.  Not many people thought Blake could have this type of season at his age (39), but McLellan clearly wasn’t one of those people.