Blake Among Missing From King Camp

If someone was conspicuously not at the opening of their camp at the Iceoplex, the Kings weren’t going to bring it up.

Certainly, they said, it will be nice to have Rob Blake back. Blake, suddenly the elder statesman of the team with six years experience, missed all but six games last season because of a knee injury.

And yes, it will be nice to have Mattias Norstrom of Sweden and Kai Nurminen and Kimmo Timonen, both of Finland, back from the World Cup.

But didn’t anybody notice it was a bit different without Wayne Gretzky?

Actually, there aren’t that many players left on the Kings who played with Gretzky.

“It is different, and I feel lucky to have played with Gretzky,” center Yanic Perreault said. “But when you play with a big star, maybe you’re a little shy and kind of wait for them to make the play. Maybe it was a little bit like that last year. This year we can’t wait for someone else to do the job. It’s a little aggressive out there.”