LA Kings Retire Defenseman Rob Blake's No 4 Jersey
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Los Angeles Kings retired Rob Blake's No. 4 jersey on Saturday night, honoring the Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman who delivered huge hits and scored big goals on their blue line for parts of 14 seasons.
The Kings recognized Blake during a ceremony before the defending Stanley Cup champions' game against the Anaheim Ducks at Staples Center. Roughly 40 former teammates and family members took the ice to recognize the versatile defenseman who served as Los Angeles' captain for six seasons.
Blake says he dreamed of having his number in the rafters from the first day he pulled on the Kings' sweater at the Forum in 1990.
"In my wildest dreams, I didn't think it would feel this good," said Blake, now an assistant general manager for the franchise.
Blake is the sixth player whose jersey has been retired by the Kings, a Second Six franchise that joined the NHL in 1967. Los Angeles also has retired the numbers of Marcel Dionne, Rogie Vachon, Dave Taylor, Wayne Gretzky and Luc Robitaille.
"I knew back then that we would stand here one day, from that first game I played with him," Robitaille said.
Blake leads the franchise in points, goals and assists by a defenseman, and he won the Kings' first Norris Trophy in 1998. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame last year.
Not bad for a fourth-round pick from Simcoe, Ontario, who played at Bowling Green with slow-developing dreams of NHL stardom.
Blake developed into an elite defenseman in the early 1990s during the Kings' best previous run of team success before the current club, which has won two Stanley Cup titles in the last three years. Current Kings captain Dustin Brown played alongside Blake before the defenseman notoriously left for San Jose for his final two NHL seasons.
"We feel that you're finally back where you belong, where it all started, as a member of the L.A. Kings family," Brown said during the ceremony. "You taught us what it was to be a pro, and you showed us what it really meant to be a teammate."
The Kings reached the 1993 Stanley Cup finals and lost, but Blake treasured the chance to play alongside Gretzky, Taylor and Larry Robinson, his childhood idol.
"I remember walking into the Forum for the first time and seeing him coming up and introducing himself to me, like, `Hi, I'm Larry,"' Blake said. "Well, I knew that for the past 15 years. So it was special, for sure."
The seven-time NHL All-Star and Olympic gold medalist was a bruising hitter and an opportunistic scorer, leading the Kings through several mediocre seasons. When Staples Center opened in 1999, Blake bought a luxury suite for Kings games and donated the tickets to charities.
"No person has meant more to me and my career than Rob, and no player benefited more from playing with Rob than me," said Mattias Norstrom, Blake's defense partner and successor as Kings captain.
When the banner was raised, Blake invited Norstrom to stand on his left side -- their familiar alignment for all those years on the ice.
Blake then won the Stanley Cup with Colorado in 2001, highlighting a productive five-year tenure with the Avalanche. Blake returned to the Kings amid much fanfare in 2006, only to leave the struggling club again in 2008 to play his final two seasons with the Sharks.
Many Kings fans expressed bitterness about Blake's two departures from Los Angeles, booing him regularly in his returns. But in July 2013, Kings general manager Dean Lombardi hired Blake as a vice president and assistant GM, bringing him back to the franchise.
Blake realizes some Kings fans still haven't forgiven him, and that's fine with him.
"The good thing about fans in general -- if you're not wearing their jersey, they're not going to be happy," Blake said. "And that's the way they should be. They back their team and look after it. I'm on their team now, but at least I'm out of shouting distance."
