Kings’ Blake feels for NHL’s Shanahan

Rob Blake. (Darren Calabrese/CP)

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KINGS’ BLAKE: NHL GIG WAS ‘TOUGH JOB’

LA Kings Insider recently caught up with new assistant GM Rob Blake. Included in the lengthy discussion was what he took away from his role in the Department of Player Safety:

“I learned that you could never make the right choice. (laughs) No, believe me, it’s a tough job. Brendan’s in the firing range all the time. He’s got to answer these questions, and that probably one of the more interesting things I learned there is how much research has to go into it. You have to be able to defend your decision to the best that you can. And then you’re still going to have critics say, ‘That’s the wrong thing.’

“As long as you believe in what you’re doing, then going forward – it’s kind of like a team. We had myself, Stephane Quintal, Colin Campbell, Mike Murphy. We were kind of his team. We came out of it. We all had varying opinions and that, but when a decision was made, we stayed with that decision, and we went forward with it. But I learned that you have to be able to back up your answer. There has to be a reason, and 30 GMs have to hear it. Not all of them are going to agree with you, but they do want to hear that.”

REPORT: COWEN, SENS FAR APART IN TALKS

The Ottawa Sun indicates Senators assistant GM Tim Murray and Jared Cowen’s agent, Rick Valette, will continue talks this week to try to get the Sens’ last remaining restricted free agent signed to a new deal.

While there was talk on the weekend, sources say the 22-year-old Cowen and the team aren’t close to a deal, and more work is needed in order to get a contract in place before training camp opens Sept. 11.

OSGOOD REMEMBERS BURR’S PERSONALITY

The Detroit Free Press reports 47-year-old Shawn Burr died Monday evening.

Chris Osgood overlapped with Burr during Burr’s last seasons with the Wings, and remembers a guy who never stopped talking – or laughing.

“He was a funny guy, a non-stop talker, always had a trick to play,” Osgood told the Free Press. “My first game as a rookie, he put my name upside down on my jersey. He was the guy in the 90s who kept everybody else relaxed. He did the dirty work for the team on the ice, and then kept the guys relaxed in the dressing room.”

Burr also played for the Tampa Bay Lightning and San Jose Sharks. He joined the Wings’ alumni association after his career was over. The quality of the games may have changed, but Burr’s personality hadn’t.

“I know some of the other guys on the alumni team, they told me he’d sit in the dressing room and talk non-stop,” Osgood said. “Then he’d take a shift on the ice, and when he was done with it, talk again.

“He had a lot, a lot of energy. He always had something going on.”

CANADA’S DROUIN HELD OFF THE ICE MONDAY

The Tampa Bay Times details that calling it simply a precaution, Hockey Canada is holding Lightning top prospect Jonathan Drouin out of the early skating sessions of its summer junior development camp because of what it said is a bruised left foot.

“The foot was just sore after taking a puck off it a few days before camp,” Hockey Canada spokesman Andre Brin wrote in an email. “Kept out of our two ice sessions in Montreal for precautionary reasons.”

Brin added that Drouin, 18, the No. 3 overall pick in the June draft, could have skated in the Sunday-Monday sessions in Montreal. “But since he and other returning players aren’t coming with the team to Lake Placid (Monday) afternoon,” Brin wrote, “it was decided not to put him on the ice.”

Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman told The Times in a text message that he had no other details.

Sean Monahan, incidentally, put on a show Monday.

STARS’ ROUSSEL PAYING FOR FANS’ REPLACEMENT JERSEYS

The Dallas Morning News relays this exchange between the Stars’ Antoine Roussell and one of his Twitter followers. This was back in March:

On Wednesday of last week, it was announced by the team that Roussel was one of four Stars who would be switching to a new jersey number.

Which prompted this exchange:

REPORT: CHELIOS HIRED AS TV ANALYST

The Detroit News relays that former Red Wings Hall of Fame defenseman Chris Chelios, currently a hockey operations advisor for the organization, will be an NHL analyst for the new Fox Sports 1 network. This according to a report in Sports Illustrated.

Chelios will work throughout the regular season and during the Olympic hockey tournament in Sochi, Russia.

“I think he can be great,” Rick Jaffe, senior vice president of news operations for Fox Sports, told Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated.

WHAT THEY’RE TWEETING ABOUT

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