Say what you want about Blake, but he's always been extremely accessible and nice to fans off the ice. Waiving his NTC this year is a gift to the team, which needs to trade him.

I will be disgusted to see his name on the Staples Wall. I refuse to watch any ceremony in his honor.

Ya, he didn't kill anyone, but he disgraced this organization for the person he became in 2001 and quite honestly, hearing his comments this season, it looks like he has not changed.

Seriously, what has he done deserve such an honor? 450 points as a defensemen who did not play defense? Great he knows how to hip check.

People who deserve this honor should have some smidgen of heart which he clearly never has.

Goring? Nicholls? Even Simmer belong up there before Blake should be considered.

if rob waives his no trade clause and nets the kings some good assets/picks, then he is doing whats best for the kings. i'll happily stand and cheer for him the day his number is raised to the rafters.

good to hear from you, rich!

All things considered, Blake being traded at this point in the season and at this point in his career should only be seen as a positive for the Kings organization. He should be applauded for his selflessness in wanting to help the team at the cost of uprooting his life to a certain extent, while other veterans like Mats Sundin selfishly continue to prevent their clubs from moving forward.

Nice article Rich, many valid points. As a long time Kings fan I have empathy for Blake, he's played many many hard games for the team. As fans we just see the Kings logo on the uniform, players see everything behind it and more than likely it's not always pretty! I'd become a bigger fan of his if he actually did come back to the Kings this summer, at a fair salary, and played a role developing the younger team, providing leadership and direction while still doing what he can on the ice.

Great article Rich. We miss your passion around here.

I agree with Danny above - why in the world would we put #4 in the rafters! Seriously!

How many playoff gams has Rob Blake led the Kings to?

How has he ever promoted the Kings like Luc or Wayne?

We endured year after year of injury, overpaid for his not so stellar services and for this we want to put his name in the rafters?

That will be a game I will happily give my tickets to Rental Man

Pretty good take on the whole situation I would say.

Two points:
1. AEG have not been the worst owners in franchise history. They will be the best if they support Dean Lombardi in his building plan and allow Luc Robitaille to become the face of the franchise from a business standpoint. Both men can and will bring respectability to the franchise,
2. If we keep Blake for another year, fine. If we trade him, fine. But I would not trade him and bring him back. I am so sick and tired of that dynamic. What if he were to win another cup with another team. To bring him back again would be an insult to me and the good work being done to transform this franchise into one to be proud of.

Butch Goring and Bob Berry
were true Kings and should
both have their numbers
retired. Without their efforts there may be no team here in L.A. now. They
helped bring this franchise
to respectability and were
heart and soul players. Rob
Blake was a good player for Kings but never IMO a
great player, however he is
probably sadly the best all around defenceman that they have ever had and will
be honored for that reason.

I look at it this way... If Blake didn't get traded in 2001, Adam Deadmarsh wouldn't have been around to score a hat trick in Gm 6 against the chicken Wings.

Deadmarsh's career was cut short to the Kings' loss but I would take him over Blake any day.

Again I don't question his desire to win but If he really wanted to make a cup run then why did he sign with the Kings who where clearly rebuilding to only turn around and whine about it?

He could have signed in Anaheim or Detroit from Colorado and saved us all the drama.

Great article Rich. I agree about how Blake is received here.

I listen every morning to XM Radio, which does a show called the War Room on their 24 hour hockey channel. Yesterday the topic was "hockey breakups". Here's what I sent to them yesterday morning:

"How about the love/hate relationship between Rob Blake & the Kings fans? When he leaves for $$$, we hate him. When he comes back, we love him. He's probably leaving again in the next 2 weeks, and we'll hate him again."

Regarding AEG being the worst owner in Kings History...Hello? Bruce McNall? Anyone?

Wow. Very low blow to AEG and Leiweke.

As a Yankee fan, I don't understand guys getting their number retired when they haven't won anything. I can understand with Robitaille, same as with Don Mattingly. They were "institutions" with the organizations, but guys like Blake and even Deadmarsh I don't understand. The Deadmarsh night made absoluely no sense to me. I loved the way he played, but the problem was he didn't play often enough and certainly wasn't around long enough to have a day. Having said that, if he got a day, Blake certainly deserves one as well. Same as Nicholls and Simmer.
I also don't understand how anyone can say McNall was the worst owner. He was the only Kings owner who cared about the franchise. Does anyone think Buss or AEG would have ever considered bringing Gretzky here? Hell no! Without Gretzky, this franchise no longer exists and we're all rooting for someone else.
AEG and Liewieke are nothing but greedy maggets. They've hurt this franchise from day one and have given nothing except empty promises. They brought the Kings over to London, Why? To showcase their O2 arena. Not to showcase the Kings franchise.
Oh yeah, we were talking about Blake..."Whatever" is my reaction.

RICH!

"The Kings have a small-but-fierce fan base, one that has suffered through 40 years of heartbreak and mismanagement, none worse than the last 12-plus years under AEG and Tim Leiweke."

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

You spoke the truth about our feelings on AEG and Liewieke.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey...who's this Rich Hammond guy? :-)

You are all seriously misguided if you believe that AEG have been the worst thing to happen to this franchise.

What happened to Matt?

I'm just waitin' on the damn bus.

If Blake truly cared about this franchise he would waive his no trade clause for any team and not just a contender. If we signed him to provide leadership to this team and experience to our younger players that would not stop after the deadline. Blake is being selfish as I’m sure he will not waive his NTC to go to a team who is on the outside of the playoffs looking in looking in. He will only do it if the team is a solid contender.

ha, "organ-eye-zation"... nice article rich.

there certainly is a population of very vocal haters or indifference towards blake, but i think there are also a lot of fans that remain. other than johnson and kopitar, blake always has one of the longest lines at meet and greets... i can't imagine all of LA's hockey fans are loudly expressing disdain while quietly asking for a photo and auto. heh.

Sorry but two years of Blake and 2 years out of the playoffs.Kings only
marginally improved this
season. After missing post
season Quack have gone to
conference finals and won
cup in the last 2 years.
Kings supposedly have all
this talent but are out of
playoff race in December.
Something is wrong with this picture.

I am truly ambivalent when it comes to Blake and certainly don't view him as much of a polarizing figure as Rich's article would suggest. I can see both sides to the jersey retirement issue.

I didn't really appreciate his antics during 2001 when he was negotiating his contract in the media and I did boo him the first time he game back to LA as an Av, but after that it didn't find it necessary to boo him.

As for his second stint with the Kings, people need to take a look at any comments Jack Johnson has made about Blake to realize the reason Lombardi brought him back. That along with the fact he was playing some pretty good hockey until he got hurt makes me inclined to want to see him back for one more year with the Kings.

It would be great if he agreed to waive his NTC to help Lombardi stockpile more assets, but he has every right to decide not to waive it.

On balance, what happened in 2001 wasn't all Blake. The NHLPA had their hooks into Blake BIG-TIME...wanting him to set a higher price for defensemen. Being the good union man that he is, he went along. However, Leiweke and AEG did as much to drive him out of LA as Blake did to leave. They took their "case" to the public, trying to put pressure on Blake. Blake was also not wise to tear the captain's C off his chest. Bad, bad move. So you can't blame just Blake or just AEG. The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between.

I agree with others who feel retiring Blake's jersey would be a travesty. As mentioned, there are other former players whose deserve the retiring of their jerseys over that of Blake.

As far as the organ-eye-zational comparisons I don't think this is the worst. There were a lot of behind the scenes shinanigans going on during the McNall era, only a part of which he went to jail for.

Good to read an article by you, Rich. Although Matt is doing a good job covering the Kings, the passion we can feel in your writing just isn't a part of his articles and I miss that.

Great article, Rich! Your passion for the blog and providing timely & articulate information for us fans is truly missed around here. AEG & Lewekie have undoubtedly been the worst ownership group EVER in Los Angeles. People might have a problem with Bruce McNall and his lack of business ethics. But that guy truly wanted to win. AEG just seems primarily concerned with having plenty of tenants to occupy their shiney new arenas, and the overall success of their teams can be damned. Does everyone here realize that Philip Anschultz is the wealthiest owner in the NHL? Check it out here: http://www.forbes.com/sportsbusiness/2008/02/11/hockey-billionaires-katz-biz-sports-cx_af_0212hockeybillies_slide_2.html?partner=yahoosports

One last thing, Rich. I'm at a loss as to why you hyphenated "organ-eye-zation" in your article. What effect were you hoping to have with that?

very good article,

as for retiring Blake's jersey, yeah I knew it was probably going to happen all along but I just don't care about it anymore. if he somehow turns as greatful as Luc overnight and gets to at least 750 career points + 1200 games (I have heard him comment 1200 is his goal), then it could be justified.

"Goring? Nicholls? Even Simmer belong up there before Blake should be considered." I agree with Goring and possibly Simmer. Larry Murphy was the best all-around defenseman this franchise has ever seen (and better numbers than Blake bear this out). it was just unfortunate he only got to play 3 of those seasons in LA. but 1200 games through 2 lockouts is nothing to sneeze at.

Why the fuss over Blake anyway? He was never *that* good of a defenseman. His play in the defensive end has always been abysmal and his offense is very hot and cold. He has been hurt so much in his career that his teams have probably spent as much time over the years playing without him as with him. His two terms as team captain have both been pathetic. Missed the playoffs in '96, '97, swept by an average Blues team in '98, missed in '99, and swept again in 2000 by the Wings, and of course there are the last two seasons. The team may well have won it all in '01 if they had been playing with him in their line-up against the Avalanche instead of against him in that second round series that went 7 games.

Frankly, he has done more harm than good for the organization. Speaking of giving up the C in '01, he should not have even gotten to that point because when Luc Robitaille returned to the team in '97 Blake should have given it to him right there and then.

I hope the Kings trade him soon and actually get something for him this time!

Rudy: that's how Canadian good-ole-boys say "franchise". it was tongue-in-cheek humor, some will get it and probably get a big laugh - some won't. and speaking of which, that's enough hyphens for one day.

Didn't Blake say that "The truth will come out" regarding his trade to the Avs? That was in 2001. I am still waiting for "the truth."

I don't blame Blake for requesting a trade back in 2001. What angers me is that he tied management's hands by saying he wouldn't re-sign with the team that traded for him. It's like he deliberately reduced his trade value to the Kings.

Of course, he then turned around and re-signed with Colorado. When he became a free agent again, he was said he was virtually assured of re-signing with the Avalanche. He signed with us a few days later.

Blake was a great player but he doesn't exhibit much loyalty. We should expect more from a captain, especially one who follows Matty Norstrom.

GMatsuda,

While I agree with your point that the PA had a huge influence over 2001Blake, I have to say it was Rob who was most offensive to me personally in his use of the media. I felt that he blatantly tried to manipulate fan support to put pressure on management. Then, as now, he says things that have no business being said in the paper. Much as I love his play on the ice (when healthy), I will be glad to see this chapter come to an end.

Nice to hear from you again Rich. A very fine article by the way. Thank you for putting the Kings on the front page of the sports section.

Rob Blake, while a Franchise defensemen, is no shoe-in Hall of Famer... He doesn't deserve to have his jersey retired and does not really belong in the Hall of Fame. There really isn't anything overwhelmingly special about him and his numbers are not groundbreaking by any means. He was a really fine player but he wasn't no Orr or Bourque.

Matty Norstrom is more deserving to have his jersey retired than Blake...
At least he bled the royal blue while he was here...not watered down green.

Rob Blake has been a great, gritty player. It's not his fault that the team never has enough good players in their prime (not way past it), so to blame all of the team's failings on him is absurd. He's great to fans, he came back here by choice this season and he'll leave a gentleman. Yeah, I wish he hadn't left. But why not use the media? AEG was. Everyone else does. Should he settle for less than he's worth -- none of you would if interviewing for a job.