Blake, Grimson Make Their Move

The reason to activate Rob Blake for Monday night’s game at the Arrowhead Pond was obvious. If Blake can play, he plays, and he said a hairline fracture in his lower back would keep him off the ice no longer.

If there was any doubt, Blake’s goal in the opening period put it to rest.

Any questions about the wisdom of his playing were amplified when he skated off at 18:16 of the second period after slamming Matt Cullen into the boards, seconds after meeting Steve Rucchin headup at center ice. Blake merely had the wind knocked out of him.

The reasons for putting Stu Grimson in the lineup was less obvious, except to Kings’ Coach Andy Murray, who was quick to list the reasons.

“He’s worked hard for us and sometimes you have to reward people,” Murray said of Grimson--who has been nursing a hand injury suffered in an exhibition game against his former Mighty Duck teammates. “They have [Andrei] Nazarov and [Jim] Cummins. And Stu is a positive person. He’s very positive in the dressing room, and we could use something positive right now.”

The Kings were 0-3-1 in their last four games before Monday.

To clear roster room for Blake and Grimson, the Kings sent defenseman Andreas Lilja and center Eric Belanger to Lowell of the AHL.

Belanger went from centering a line with Ziggy Palffy and Luc Robitaille to the minor leagues in a week, displaced by Jozef Stumpel’s signing and dispatched to Lowell because of a technicality. Belanger played in eight games, and if he had played in two more, the Kings would have had to ask waivers to send him down

“I expect Eric to be back,” Murray said, pointing out that Belanger, who had two goals and four assists, had showed he could play in the NHL in his brief stay with the Kings.

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Wingers Craig Johnson and Jason Blake were scratched, costing the Kings much of their team speed. . . . The Kings will pay tribute to Robitaille before Wednesday’s game against the Ducks at Staples Center in honor of his 1,000th point as a King and his 600th NHL assist.