Results matching “Rob Blake” from Inside the Kings

More extensive and interesting answers from Jim Fox. One more set to go...

The third set of questions and answers from Jim Fox, who graciously agreed to do some guest-blogging this month...

As I start to get back into the flow of a normal existence, I'll start posting the questions and answers that Jim Fox has graciously taken the time to answer. As always, Jim is candid and comprehensive in his answers, so I hope you enjoy the first set of answers...

OK, I believe I got through all the non-duplicated questions from this week. Thanks to everyone for all the interest and the questions. I'll be going out to at least one day of the prospects camp, so hopefully I'll get some good stuff from that. Here's the final set of answers...

Rob Blake signed a one-year, $3.5-million extension with San Jose today. I was really hoping a Blake-to-Kings rumor would pop up, for entertainment purposes.

From one big week to the other...

Wednesday, for those who don't keep close tabs, is the first day that unrestricted free agents can sign contracts with new teams. The Kings don't have much work to do in terms of their own UFAs, as only Derek Armstrong, Kyle Calder, Denis Gauthier and Matt Moulson fall into that category. Restricted free agents needing new contracts include Teddy Purcell, Jack Johnson, Corey Elkins, Kevin Westgarth, Joe Piskula, Drew Bagnall, Scott Parse, Danny Taylor and Vladimir Dravecky.

I'm still awaiting confirmation as to which players the Kings have made qualifying offers to, but we should find that out today.

As for the unrestricted free agents, the Kings have identified the three ``top-tier'' left wingers. Not surprisingly, they are Marian Gaborik, Martin Havlat and Marian Hossa. Realistically, the Kings' chances of landing any one of those three is iffy at best. Hossa and Havlat are likely to bring huge multi-year contracts. That leaves Gaborik as the wild card, and the Kings are likely to be interested only if Gaborik is willing to sign a one-year contract, or maybe two years at the most.

After that, there's a long list of potential targets at left wing, so anything could happen this week. As previously discussed, I also wouldn't be surprised to see the Kings go after a veteran defenseman on a short term deal. Rob Blake is available...just kidding. It should be an interesting couple of days...

Drew Doughty was selected to the NHL's All-Rookie Team, along with goaltender Steve Mason (Columbus), defenseman Luke Schenn (Toronto), and forwards Patrik Berglund (St. Louis), Bobby Ryan (Anaheim) and Kris Versteeg (Chicago).

Doughty becomes the seventh King (and the eighth selection) on the All-Rookie Team, which began in the 1982-83 season.

Jimmy Carson 1986-87
Steve Duchesne 1986-87
Luc Robitaille 1986-87
Rob Blake 1990-91
Jamie Storr 1997-98
Jamie Storr 1998-99
Lubomir Visnovsky 2000-01

Here's how the NHL awards were handed out in Las Vegas tonight:

Hart Trophy: Alexander Ovechkin
Norris Trophy: Zdeno Chara
Vezina Trophy: Tim Thomas
Jack Adams Award: Claude Julien (former Kings coach Andy Murray was second)
Calder Trophy: Steve Mason
Lady Byng Trophy: Pavel Datsyuk
Selke Trophy: Pavel Datsyuk

First, a Happy Birthday to Jim Fox, who celebrates No. 49 today. Most likely, he started the day with a large cup of Jamba Juice and will end it with a choice bottle of wine. All the best to Jim!

Here's the first set of answers. Feel free to keep the questions coming...

Picking up from yesterday, here's the fourth round of the open forum questions and answers...

The Kings tonight held a 90-minute ``teleconference'' in which season-ticket holders were allowed to call in and ask questions of Dean Lombardi, Terry Murray, Luc Robitaille, Ron Hextall, Chris McGowan and Jeff Solomon. According to Nick Nickson, who moderated the event, more than 1,300 people called in, and the Kings allowed me to be one of them. There were some technical issues that made it a bit difficult to hear at times, and I wasn't attempting to get a full transcript anyway, but I'll give a rundown of each of the questions and answers.

Here it goes...

Question: Can you give people a general sense of what this month is like, leading up to the deadline? How many GMs will you talk to in an average week?

LOMBARDI: ``You know what? You'll take your list, and it's almost like a funnel effect. First of all, your due diligence requires you to do your job properly and talk to every team. Generally -- you see the pro scouts in here right now, and they've been here the last four days -- you try to see a match. The one thing that's different for us now is, before we were clearly sellers and looking for draft picks. Those are easier deals, whether it's Brad Stuart or Rob Blake or all those guys that we had on the market when we were trying to acquire draft picks. Those calls are, `OK, what are you looking for? And here's the price.' So you were able to set up a framework.

``We're not in that situation now. We're the youngest team in the league, so I don't have a lot of those veteran guys. So that part of the trade deadline is very different. To me, that's one of those things that, when you're looking for progress, that indicates progress. The bridges are gone, and you've got a lot of players that you're trying to build with, and you don't have a lot of those guys. That's progress. It's one of those intangible things, because you know your reserve list is getting stronger and you're heading in the right direction.

Jill has written a nice feature on Drew Doughty that will run tomorrow and, as part of it, she talked to Luc Robitaille about Doughty's rookie season...

ROBITAILLE: ``When he gets the puck, the whole game slows down. It's very rare to have a defenseman that when they get the puck, you feel the game is in control. It's very hard. People ask me, who do you compare him to? It's hard to compare him to anyone. Rob Blake, when he was a rookie, was a different player. He wasn't as good with the puck, but he had a bit of an edge. Maybe Lidstrom, because as a young guy he was so calm when he got the puck. It's really amazing.''

The third set of answers from today's open forum questions...

Getting back to the forum answers from yesterday, here's the fourth set...

Here's the third set of answers from today's open forum...

Here's the third set of the open forum questions and answers...

Here's the fourth and final set of answers. Thanks to everyone for all the great questions. I hope I was able to answer them to everyone's satisfaction...

Here's the first set of answers from this morning's questions. Great questions so far. Keep `em coming and I'll try to get through all of them today. Here's the first set...

At least at the start, Matt Moulson stays on the first line with Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar. Rob Blake was met with an expected level of loud boos in pregame introductions. And coach Terry Murray was introduced correctly the second time.

It's LaBarbera vs. Boucher in the nets.

I'll have a report from practice a bit later this afternoon, but for now I figured I'd get your thoughts on this subject... As we all know, Rob Blake is coming back to town Sunday with San Jose. I'm curious to see what people's thoughts are on Blake, four months after the whole situation went down...