Blake’s Bruise Becomes a Break

There has been a steady erosion of manpower since the season started for Team M*A*S*H, doing business as the Kings, but on Friday that erosion became a landslide.

Rob Blake learned that the nagging bruise he has been skating on for a week was actually a broken right foot and that he would not skate on it again for at least six weeks.

Blake, the team’s captain and the Norris Trophy-winning defenseman, believed he had bruised the inside of his foot in a game Oct. 30 against Tampa Bay when he stopped a shot with the boot of his skate.

He continued to play.

“As long as I keep the skate on, it’s OK,” he said. “I’ll be all right if I stay off it [except while playing hockey].”

When the skate came off, the foot swelled, but X-rays taken that night were negative.

Hobbled but still able to skate, Blake made all of the practices and played two more games, most recently the 2-2 tie with St. Louis on Thursday night in which he struggled, drawing an uncustomary penalty at the end of the first period.

An MRI examination Friday revealed the break the X-rays had not found.

“You could see something was wrong, but you didn’t know if it was the injury or something else because the whole team had problems,” Coach Larry Robinson said.

That difficulty manifested itself in successive shutouts at the Great Western Forum for the first time in King history. That little streak was broken in the tie with St. Louis.

Blake had two goals and seven points this season, played on the NHL’s best penalty-killing unit and on the power-play team, logging more ice time than any other King.

His loss leaves the Kings with only five uninjured defensemen, one short of a game complement, and Jan Nemecek probably will be the next player on what has become a shuttle between Long Beach and the Forum.

Nemecek plays for the Ice Dogs, as did Dan Bylsma, who was called up Friday to replace winger Steve McKenna, who suffered an abdominal strain against the Blues.

McKenna is listed as week to week.

Others injured include goalies Stephane Fiset and Jamie Storr--goalie Manny Legace is also a Long Beach alumnus called in as a replacement--defenseman Doug Bodger, winger Sandy Moger and center Jozef Stumpel.

Blake’s injury is particularly troublesome to him because of a string of injuries that he believed he had put behind him. Several times voted the Kings’ outstanding defenseman early in his career, he suffered a torn knee ligament in 1995 that cost him all but six games of the ‘95-96 season.

His return was thwarted by a broken hand suffered when hit by a puck.

But last season he led the NHL’s defensemen with 23 goals and had 50 points en route to winning the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman.

For that, he was rewarded with a three-year, $15,081,000 contract, the highest ever signed by a player at his position.

“It’s a big loss,” Robinson said. “It’s always a big loss when you lose your best player. But it’s an opportunity for a younger player to step up.”

There have been plenty of those this year for Team M*A*S*H, also known as Team Opportunity.