Blake has five points (two goals, three assists) in nine games, including a power-play goal in a 4-0 win against the Capitals in Game 3. He has moved around from the top line to the fourth line in the second round and done so with ease, his game and his impact remaining the same. He is net front on the Hurricanes' power play, which is 9-for-30 (30.0 percent) in the playoffs. He's averaging 19:17 of ice time per game, up from 13:51 in the regular season, when he had 34 points (17 goals, 17 assists) in 80 games. He is third among Hurricanes forwards in ice time in the playoffs behind Sebastian Aho (21:06) and Seth Jarvis (20:37).
"I started on the fourth line for half of the year, and I think that was good for me, honestly, to get the pace," Blake said. "I think I'm an offensive guy, a skilled guy and I definitely want to play every minute, and I want to play against their best players, too, see what I can do against those guys.
"I played with 'Fishy' (Aho) and whoever in some games. I'd be on the fourth line but if we were down a goal, (Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour) would jump me up there if I was playing well. Then I think against Vegas about halfway through the year, game 50 or so, he put me with 'Fishy' and 'Svechy' (Andrei Svechnikov) and we had a pretty good game.
"After that, my confidence was just growing and growing, and I played with Fishy the rest of the season pretty much. I know I'm only 21 but I expect a lot of myself. I put a lot of pressure on myself to help the team and do what I can, and I've obviously come a long way since the first game to now."
Brind'Amour knew Blake's game well before the Hurricanes selected him in the fourth round (No. 109) of the 2021 NHL Draft. He and Blake's family have a mutual friend in Raleigh, Colin Muldoon, the director of player development for the Carolina Junior Hurricanes.
"He had been on him since he was in bantam, talking to us about this player, and he was even smaller back then," Brind'Amour said. "He watched him every step of the way and was always throwing reminders at us like, 'This kid is going to be a player.' He was right."
Blake has obvious skill, but it's his hockey sense that gives him an advantage.
"Hockey sense can be many things, but I always think it's you're ahead of the play," Brind'Amour said. "Where guys are, where they should be, both offensively and defensively, having that next play ready before you get it, knowing where it's going. He has that ability."
Jason said his son has always had that.
"When I retired, I spent so much time with him," Jason said. "His IQ, to me, it's off the charts. Someone might say differently. I don't know, he just sees it."
Said Svechnikov: "He feels the game. He always feels where the [defenseman] is behind him, in the corners. He is always actually beating them."
It shouldn't be surprising.
Blake spent part of his childhood in NHL locker rooms. He had a bond with Bobby Ryan when he played with Jason in Anaheim. He could talk to Teemu Selanne, Scott Niedermayer, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Saku Koivu. He played knee hockey with their kids.
"I'll tell you this, I was like his sixth favorite player on the Ducks," Jason said. "He had his thing with Bobby Ryan. Bobby Ryan was so nice to him. All the guys were great to him."
To Jackson, that was all just normal.
"You don't realize it until you grow up that not every dad is playing in the NHL," he said. "I didn't realize that until I was like 10 or 11, maybe even 12. … I definitely don't take that for granted now. I grew up with it because I was always in the room with those guys. I learned a lot."
The learning continued in the playoffs last season, when Blake was with the Hurricanes as a Black Ace and working daily with head strength and conditioning coach Bill Burniston.
"I think it helped me a lot coming into training camp, getting to know the staff and kind of know the boys," he said.
Jackson made his NHL debut April 16, 2024, Carolina's final game of the regular season, but said it felt like a throwaway game because the Hurricanes didn't have anything to play for and it had been almost a month since he played his last game for the University of North Dakota.
