Blake’s New Role Is a Welcome Change

It took Jason Blake a while to understand he’s not an NHL center.

And it has taken him a while to understand what to do with the puck when he gets it.

Blake scored the game’s only goal Thursday in the Kings’ 1-0 exhibition victory at America West Arena, where 16,210 kids played hooky and screamed their lungs out at a special day the Coyotes dubbed a “Cool Field Trip.”

Blake’s trip was with the puck, from just inside the Phoenix blue line to a one-on-one confrontation with Coyote goalie Robert Esche, his teammate with the U.S. team in last summer’s World Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia.

A year ago, Blake would have gotten to the faceoff circle and fired, and Esche probably would have stopped the puck.

“I remember I had a breakaway like that at New Jersey and it was like I had a grenade on my stick,” Blake said. “I didn’t even get off a shot.”

This time he took the puck in close, deked Esche to his left, then backhanded the shot home, 51 seconds into the second period.

“That’s the ‘energy line,’ ” said Coach Andy Murray, whose system calls for two offensive lines, a checking line and a fourth line of speed merchants.

Blake and wing partner Nelson Emerson qualify there, and center Steve Reinprecht is relatively swift.

But the nomenclature seems limiting.

“We could be called 10 different things,” Blake said. “We’re supposed to provide energy, and we’re supposed to have scoring chances and keep the other team from scoring. And we want to do all that.”

Blake, a puck-dominating center at the University of North Dakota, had to learn he couldn’t be one in the NHL. He had only five goals in 64 games last season, even though he ranked sixth on the team in shots with 131.

The answer was moving him to wing.

“I don’t have the size to take the big centers, the [Eric] Lindroses and the [Jeremy] Roenicks,” he said. “But I have speed.”

And on Thursday, he had knowledge of what to do with the puck in open ice.

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Stephane Fiset started in goal, turned back 10 shots in 30 minutes 17 seconds, then sat in favor of Steve Passmore, who came to the Kings from Chicago in an off-season trade.

His mission is a difficult one.

“My job is to play so well that they have no choice but to keep me,” said Passmore, who stopped 14 shots in relief of Fiset.

Passmore’s primary claim to fame came last season when he went 2-0-1 for Chicago at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena.