Broken Foot Surprised Blake

Rob Blake went to a doctor expecting to find a diagnosis of a bruised foot affirmed, then left on crutches after finding the bruise was a break and his season would be truncated.

Blake said Saturday that he had even hoped that a cast could be arranged for off-days, allowing him to continue to play for the Kings. No such luck.

“I figured I had been playing on it, so it couldn’t be that bad,” he said. “And X-rays didn’t show the break. But they found it was an essential bone, a navicular, one that helps carry blood to the foot.”

The break was revealed in an MRI on Friday and the verdict was that Blake would be out six to eight weeks.

“Actually, I was lucky,” he said. “The doctor said I was lucky that the bone wasn’t pulled apart. If it had been, it would have meant surgery and I would have been out for the season.”

Blake suffered the break during the second period of a game against Tampa Bay on Oct. 30, when he stopped a shot with his foot. He continued to play that game, made every practice and played twice more before going back to the doctor.

The theory was that he could handle the injury because he could skate without extreme pain, and it wasn’t until the foot was taken out of the skate that it swelled.

But the ailment lingered.

“A bruise generally heals and this one just wasn’t,” he said. “We had another X-ray, and it didn’t show anything either. The break showed up on the MRI.”

Coming off a season in which he won the Norris Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s best defenseman, Blake had two goals and seven points through the season’s first 12 games.

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As expected, the Kings called up Jan Nemecek to replace Blake on the roster, finding Nemecek on the road with the Long Beach Ice Dogs at Utah.

Nemecek, who had two assists in the Kings’ final exhibition game, at Bakersfield against Vancouver, had four assists with the Ice Dogs.

Nemecek made his NHL debut Saturday night, being paired with Mattias Norstrom.

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Star Coach Ken Hitchcock broke up his lines for Saturday night’s game, with the effect of moving Brett Hull from left wing to his more-accustomed right wing.

Hull, acquired in the off-season from St. Louis to bolster the Dallas offense, had been playing left wing with Mike Modano and Jere Lehtinen on the Stars’ top line. Hitchcock moved Mike Keane into Hull’s spot there, moving Hull to a line with Joe Nieuwendyk and Dave Reid.

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Before the game, the Kings honored defenseman Doug Bodger for his 1,000th NHL game. He played it at Carolina on Oct. 25.