Blake Returns to Scene of His Prime

Rob Blake turned his jersey around, putting the Kings crest in the back and his name in the front.

“It’s spelled this way,” he said, indicating the letters BLAKE, outlined in silver.

“Not, ‘BOOOO.’ ”

His name had become mud among Kings fans, who branded him a traitor for making the salary demands that triggered his 2001 trade to Colorado. Smiling for photographers and TV cameras during a news conference at the Kings’ practice facility Wednesday, he enjoyed his first local appearance in five years that was not punctuated by jeers.

He said he had “always hoped the road might lead back to L.A.,” where he had kept a home and a chunk of his heart, and it has. The toll for the Kings is two years at $6 million a year, but Blake will also get a $2.3-million bonus from the Avalanche that will count against its salary cap.

Blake acknowledged he had never gotten accustomed to the catcalls that greeted the announcement of his name whenever the Avalanche visited Staples Center, or the shouts that erupted each time he touched the puck. He learned to regard them as a sort of compliment.

“The fans, the ones I experienced when I played here, are very passionate about the Kings, and if you’re going to come in here wearing another uniform, that’s what you’re going to get,” he said. “I respect them 100%. I think they’re behind the Kings, and we love that fact.”

Signing Blake was not a sop to Kings fans. Nor was it a case of AEG, the Kings’ parent company, trying to make up for its appalling season-ticket price increases by saving fans money: With Blake back, all fans have to do is pull their old jerseys out of the closet instead of buying new sweaters with the name CHARA or ELIAS on the back. How considerate of Philip Anschutz.

Despite the Kings’ sad history of signing players who once were standouts but could no longer stand, Blake can still play at a well-conditioned 36. He can help a power play that last season ranked 28th among 30 teams. He has already boosted that hard-to-define character component by declining Mattias Norstrom’s offer to surrender the captaincy. Blake succeeded Wayne Gretzky as the Kings’ captain, wearing the “C” from the 1996-97 season until he was traded, when he knew he had become too pricey for the Kings and would be traded before season’s end.

“My feeling is that Matty is the captain of this team,” Blake said. “I would be happy to be involved with that, and I will help him as much as I can.”

Like many of the other moves made by Dean Lombardi in the dawn of his term as general manager, signing Blake has a theme: Lombardi is undoing many of the failed deeds done by his predecessor, Dave Taylor.

Taylor traded Blake after being told Anschutz wouldn’t meet Blake’s $9.6-million salary demand. Lombardi got Blake at a lesser stage of the defenseman’s career and for less money, but not as a franchise player. This time, Blake can supplement the offense sparked by Lubomir Visnovsky and add a physical element to complement Norstrom and Aaron Miller.

Lombardi also pushed aside Mathieu Garon, who was acquired by Taylor to fill the black hole that is the Kings’ net, and pushed Jason LaBarbera down a rung in the goaltending ranks. Lombardi said he acquired Dan Cloutier from the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday to get a steady and proven commodity, and he gave Cloutier a boost by hiring former NHL goalie Bill Ranford as a goaltending coach. Previously, the Kings had employed Andy Nowicki, who never played in the NHL, as a goaltending consultant.

Blake, asked whether the Kings can win the Cup within the life of this contract, said only that he hopes so, but added that he took heart from the underdog Edmonton Oilers’ run to the seventh game of the Cup finals.

“If you get the right group of guys, you get yourself battling hard through the season and you understand what it takes to win and you get yourself into the playoffs, anything can happen,” he said. “The Oilers played a great system. I liked the way they played, with the speed and the skill, and I think L.A. has a lot of attributes too.”

Two days after Blake rejoined the Kings, the Ducks one-upped them by trading for Chris Pronger, a younger, stronger version of Blake. Blake said the Kings should respond, but in a way that’s appropriate to where they are and where they hope to be.

“You wish you could go get a guy like Pronger, but there’s only one, and the Ducks were fortunate to get him,” Blake said. “The goal on this team is to be very competitive. And when you look at last year, Anaheim coming as far as they did in the playoffs, San Jose coming as far as it did, those are the teams you have to look up to, to be chasing. You have to look up at that level.”

The Kings have been down so long, almost anything looks like up to them. But adding Blake and Cloutier should move them along what looms as a long and potentially bumpy process.