Offspring of a Female Dog

“So why, oh why
Do I, look to the other side?
Cuz I know, the grass is greener,
But just as hard to mow…”

--John Butler

Man, Charles Dickens must have had it right when he was writing “A Tale of Two Cities.” “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” Ever since Thursday when Rob Blake decided to screw the Kings again, I’ve been trying to decide if it was the best of times or the worst of times. On the one hand, you have the fact that Blake, his horrible defense, his game that consists of zero heart, and his $5 million salary are gone. I’ve been waiting for Blake to leave since we signed him 2 years ago, so I have no right to be upset. On the other hand, there’s the problem that the Kings actually have to present a team that looks like they deserve to be in the NHL. Looking over their current roster, it looks more like an AHL defense corps. For that, equal blame goes to Dean Lombardi and Rob Blake.

When it came out that we were looking to sign Blake to a short term contract to mentor the young players coming up through the Kings pipeline, there could be some serious problems. First of all, if he was a short-term “bridge” player, Blake would have to swallow some of that pride that King fans have come to love him for. Secondly, the rumor was that the organization was looking to sign him in the range of $2.5-$3.5 million per year. After Blake made $6 million the last 2 seasons (I’m not sure if he earned more than the league minimum), I knew that he wasn’t going to be overly eager to sign a contract for half the salary. Taking that type of pay cut could be tough for your average NHLer to endure, but even more so with Blake. We’re talking an ego of epic proportions!

I can’t say this really surprises me. The minute I found out, I emailed a co-worker and compared him to the offspring of a female dog. After I tried to let the anger simmer for a while, the emotions didn’t subside. I sent a mass text to just about everyone I know comparing him to a feminine hygiene product. That helped a little bit. In fact, I reconnected with a friend that I hadn’t talked to in 6 months…. his entire response was, “Hell yes he is, how have you been?” See, a hatred for Rob Blake brings people together!

Clearly there are 2 sides to this story. Most of the Kings fans that have watched Blake over the last two seasons in LA agree that his game has taken a few steps back. Even though we knew he was a free-agent at the end of the season, it was pretty much understood that management would offer him his retirement contract and he’d finish his playing days in Los Angeles. For better or worse, it was just reality.

So after the organizations attempts to sign Brad Stuart and Brooks Orpik came up short at the beginning of the free-agency period, there was a real reason for signing Blake. With the younger players developing (but not quite at the NHL level yet), Rob would be needed to fill out one of the 6 defensive spots and serve as a role model that the younger players could emulate themselves after. First-round pick Drew Doughty has said that he’s grown up watching the Kings’ captain and views him as something of an idol. Since the trade with Lubomir Visnovsky, the top-6 increasingly looked like it would have to include Blake. It just seemed to go right along with most of us had assumed all year. He’ll resign (for probably too much money), his production will continue to slide, and he’ll retire. With San Jose’s offer, it looks like that plan that we’ve begrudgingly accepted has been permanently derailed.

Now the Kings organization is left without enough defensemen that are ready to play at the NHL level. The development plan with the younger players has been to bring them up slowly, through juniors, then the American league, and when they’re 100% ready, up to the NHL. This is supposed to be the plan with Colten Teubert and Alec Martinez (college instead of minors for Martinez). The organization wanted to let them gain confidence, and then when they were ready, the players would be able to adjust to the speed and skill under the best of circumstances. Since the Kings have had a history of rushing young defenseman to the NHL and watching them crumble under the pressure, most fans welcome this change in philosophy. Since Blake left, he has the potential to not only ruin the organization’s present, but also its future. Bringing some of these players up too early could be a disaster for their confidence.

It’s in this environment that Rob Blake decided to unexpectedly leave the Kings, in favor of their rivals in Northern California. We were going to resign him when we didn’t really need him—and he was more than willing. It seems like the moment that desire to resign Blake turned to necessity, he took his new found leverage and decided to do what he does best: look out for himself. He could have taken this opportunity to restore the faith of the fans that still haven’t forgotten 2001, but instead he only reinforced the perception of his selfishness. I honestly doubt he’ll be forgiven anytime soon.

As in any tragedy, there are more players that conspire to bring heartache. Every ounce of my being wants to place the blame squarely on the selfish athlete. But that would be too easy. Real life is messy and never so easily explained. How did Dean Lombardi let the situation get to this point? How in the hell was there no fall-back plan? Why are we looking at 2 players that barely made their team and 2 rookies looking to be important pieces of the line-up that will be depended on game in-game out?

Part of the blame has to go to the General Manager. If the Kings had exclusive negotiating rights for the entire off-season up until July 1st, how was a deal not in place? If Lombardi wanted to wait to see if he could sign Stuart or Orpik, he should have had the back-up plan in case both decided to sign elsewhere. Lombardi has stated that on July 3rd, Blake’s agent explained that the Sharks had made a proposal, and described the details of the deal. Lombardi responded by asking for more time because he, “needed to see what he could work out.”

Is it laziness, lack of decision making abilities, non-decisiveness, or simply gross incompetence? Neither of the 2 defensemen that Lombardi had targeted were a sure thing. There had to be a specific contingency plan in place in case they were forced to sign Blake for next year. Exact numbers should have been hammered out before July 1st to avoid, well…. to avoid THIS EXACT SITUATION! Furthermore, with the team that’s in place, both Blake and another defenseman were probably needed. Again, Lombardi was quoted in stating that the organization was looking to sign BOTH a left-handed shot from the point and Rob Blake. If that’s the case, then why wasn’t the deal finalized the day free-agency opened. Forget that, why wasn’t Blake locked up before free-agency? Since it was clear the Kings had no desire to go out and sign one of the top-tier defensemen (Brian Campbell or Wade Redden, just to name a couple), then Rob Blake was a predetermined piece to next years puzzle.

There’s that old saying, “fool me once, shame on you…. fool me twice, shame on me.” Everyone should have known where this was going to end up. If you put money in front of Rob Blake, then he’ll follow it. That’s how whores work. He’ll call it a business decision, but it wasn’t business when he openly whined how he wanted to retire as a King and move to the front-office when his playing days were done. I’m convinced that the only reason he wanted the Kings to resign him this year was because he figured that this situation was the scenario that presented him with the best opportunity to max out his earning potential.

When the Sharks failed in their attempts to re-sign Brian Campbell or lure Wade Redden to the west coast, they were forced into a position give to Blake a hard look. The Sharks are a Stanley Cup contender with their window closing. With the dissention of Campbell, they desperately needed a point man on the back end of their power play and another veteran in their locker room. Unlike the Kings, they had a back-up plan. When their Plan A & B failed, they aggressively went right after someone that would fill the gapping hole in their line-up. I don’t blame the Sharks; they did exactly what their organization thought they needed to do.

My problem with Rob Blake (and I think the problem that most fans have) is that this isn’t an isolated incident. We’re talking pattern here. This is the same player that refused a contract that would have made him the second highest paid defenseman in the entire league. How many people would refuse that type of offer from the team that he’d grown up with? It wasn’t only the notion of him turning down the proposal-- it was the manner in which he did it: whining to the media, telling anyone that would listen that he wanted to test free agency, and ripping the captain’s “C” off of his jersey. With acts and comments like these, he destroyed his trade value because every team in the league knew the Kings were going to be forced to unload him. One event after another, he tested the patience and the goodwill of King fans all over. Once he was in Colorado, he provided the cherry on top of the sundae of ill-will. After consistently stating his intentions to test free-agency (so he could cash in on his payday), he signed with the Avs before he was unrestricted. I still haven’t figured out why he couldn’t do that in L.A., nor have I figured out why he was so public with his desire to leave. I have no problem with a player wanting to leave. It was the overwhelmingly negative manner in which he did it that rubbed me the wrong way.

So this is the backdrop to the current situation. It’s not like this is a player that doesn’t have history. It’s not like it’s an isolated incident. It’s not like King Fans haven’t been trying to put those events in the past. With sports figures, the good comes with the bad. The good is that a person like Rob Blake can ask for $9 million a year to play a game that he loves. The bad is that when he asks for this payday, then leaves to chase the money, he’ll be marked as a greedy traitor for years to come. Everything has its price.

When Blake signed his last contract with the Kings after the lockout, there was a different economic climate in the sport. The financial side of the game was supposedly created so that all teams would be able to compete for the elite players. It was under these conditions that Rob Blake signed his 2 year, $12 million contract. While it was a step back from his previous contract in Colorado, it was in line with the new realities of the NHL. In fact, it could be argued that he was even overpaid when looking at comparable players. To this day, it’s the largest post-lock out contract the Kings have given out.

After the first year of this new contract, the Kings were in the position to trade this defenseman to the San Jose Sharks for one of their goaltenders: Evgeni Nabakov. At the time, they still had Vesa Toskula and it was much more desirable to trade Nabokov’s contract. Straight up, the Kings would be able to find that #1 netminder that had eluded them since Rogie Vachon. We’re talking 30 years of goaltending from the likes of Rob Stauber and Daniel Bertheume. When you look back and yearn for the days of Kelly Hrudey or Felix Potvin, you know that your team has had some serious problems in net.

Unfortunately, Mr. Blake didn’t see it that way. He had a No-Trade contract, and he took this opportunity to enact it. For a man that said he cared about the Kings, an incredibly selfish act. As an isolated act, this isn’t a big deal. It’s a veteran that’s respected around the league enacting a clause in his contract that he’d negotiated. Under the surface, with the wounds of 2001 still healing, it was a reminder of his biggest flaw: his character. Of course, as the Kings fans went into the season with Jason LaBarbara as the #1 goalie, you couldn’t help but wonder “what if” as the puck ended up in the back of the net with depressing regularity. (By the way, Nabokov was a finalist for the Vezina trophy and had the best year of his career)

Halfway through the season, it was painfully obvious that the Kings were not going to do anything that resembled winning last year. As the trade deadline approached, they were obvious “sellers” who were trying to cash in any tradable assets to help for their future. High draft picks were the target of choice, and Lombardi made it clear exactly what he was looking towards. Again, the San Jose Sharks came a-calling. This time, the Sharks offered their 1st round draft pick for the services of Rob Blake for the rest of the year. Again, the ball was in Blake’s court. He had spent the season praising the development plan of the Kings and how he hoped to land a job in the front office at the end of his career. His actions seemed to insinuate, “nevermind those selfish acts of the past, I have the Kings colors running through my veins.”

Please, I know better. At that instant, he had an opportunity to help the Kings more than he could on the ice. Accept the trade and the Kings would receive a valuable 1st round pick for his trouble. Not only that, he’d be a free agent at the end of the year and would be welcomed back to the City of Angels, quite possibly with a warmer reception than he’d had for a decade! So at this crossroad, what would Blake do? Well, he’d do what he always does, of course… turn the trade down. He went on to express that the only team he’d consider waiving his no-trade clause for would be the Colorado Avs. By going public, again, he handicapped Kings management from receiving an equitable trade proposal. After discussions, Colorado decided to bring back Adam Foote to help their blueline by trading their 1st round pick for his services. Apparently, the 1st round pick wasn’t even on the table during the negotiations with Los Angeles because the Avalanche management knew that they were the only team that Blake would consider. For the second time, he had cut the legs from under the Kings organization when attempting to trade him to Colorado.

So instead of “taking one for the team,” by accepting the trade and going to a contender, he stayed at his cozy job with the Kings where he could suck in relative obscurity while the rest of the league geared up for the stretch run. When presented with an opportunity to make a run at the Cup, Blake chose the path of least resistance (and hurt the Kings in the process).

After 2 seasons of talking about how much he wanted to stay with Los Angeles for the rest of his career, it became apparent that the Kings were the front-runners to resign him in free agency. Clearly he didn’t want to move at this stage in his career, and since the team he loved was trying to develop youngsters who idolized him at his position, he’d obviously stick around, collect a significant paycheck, and mentor the next generation. Of course, it’s never that easy.

When San Jose lost out on their two primary targets in free agency, their focus went back to the player that Doug Wilson had been trying to acquire for the last calendar year. But Rob Blake’s not interested, right? He’s been offered the chance to move to the contender in Northern California twice, and on both occasions he declined. But this situation was much different. He was being offered more money, and as most King fans will tell you, this is the altar to which Blake worships. Just for kicks, this situation would leave the Kings organization completely empty handed for an asset that they had attempted to trade multiple times.

No Evgeni Nabokov. No 1st round pick from San Jose. No 1st round pick from Colorado. No, that would treat this organization with respect. What’s the use in that? After all, there was potential money out there. Once again, this is not personal, this is business.

So here we stand on the 4th of July weekend. Rob Blake is a Shark. The Kings have about 4 defensemen that are qualified to play in the NHL, but I’m glad he’s gone. Hopefully this time, its permanent. I can only speak for myself, but I can’t wait for the first time San Jose visits Staples Center this coming season. I’ll be boo-ing from the parking lot. I’ll practice on the 5 freeway on the way. I’ll bring lozenges for myself, my fiancé, and anyone sitting in the same section as me.

It’s no wonder that he ended up on the same team as Jeremy Roenick. In the eyes of most King fans, they deserve each other. Here’s to the Sharks choking in the first round again! And here’s to another Kings season shooting for that #1 overall pick. If I’m simply driven by hate, it’s going to be a long year.

On that note: Booooooooooooooo!