Time to forgive Rob Blake (History/Jersey Retirement Chat)

[etherialone]

I was never mad at Blake. I believed that the entire problem sat directly at the feet of Timmy.

That said if Rob is good enough for the one person I have met in my entire life who's character is above reproach in Luc then that is all I ever need to know.

I am surprised to see him as an asst GM but that is where my faith in DL comes in. If DL sees something in Rob that he believes makes him worthy of the job then that is good enough for me as well. I look forward to seeing what Rob can do when he gets his shot at the helm of whatever team he goes to when his time is over with the Kings.

 

[fsanford]

Leaf fans are saying Timmy is more focused on the Raptors and other things than the Leafs. The Leafs are like the Cubs, they can suck forever but they will always make money because they have an enormous following.

 

[Ron*]

10/29/13


I am so glad that piece of **** is out of LA. He is a total Esa Penis!

He's not even good at that.

This parade and rally were far superior than last time. Even though the lines to get in still were long and poorly planned, but once inside the rally was ****ing awesome.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

Got to say the org is so much better without Lieweekly running things. Have to wonder if there's ever been arguments between Dean and Timmy, you keep hearing nowadays that AEG never turns down Deans requests for funds or anything like that to help the team.

 

[Buddy The Elf]

I forgive Blake for being a sinner. Still don't want them to retire his number. I'm not vindictive or anything but someone else pointed out that at the rate they are going, Quick, Brown, Kopitar and Doughty all have the possibility of having their numbers retired. All Blake ever did was be a standout during a period of mediocrity for the Kings organization. That is like getting all A's in remedial classes. Or being the star of the JV football team.

I'm taking all of the emotion out of it. Does the leading scoring defensemen on the Kings deserve to have his number retired? That's the bottom line. He won a Stanley Cup for a different team so that does nothing for his cause. He'll likely have his scoring record broken in the next 5-6 years. So, at the end of the day, his accomplishments were standout 10 years ago. After what this team has done in the past 3 years, it is marginalizing his accomplishment because quite frankly, all he did was get a lot of points for mostly crap teams. He was a great player no doubt but I just don't think his accomplishments are worthy of it.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

How do you not retire a HOFer who spent the majority of his career with the Kings?

It's gonna happen and have to believe guys like Luc will push for it, hell they already have awhile back.

 

[Bandit]

I forgive Blake for being a sinner. Still don't want them to retire his number. I'm not vindictive or anything but someone else pointed out that at the rate they are going, Quick, Brown, Kopitar and Doughty all have the possibility of having their numbers retired. All Blake ever did was be a standout during a period of mediocrity for the Kings organization. That is like getting all A's in remedial classes. Or being the star of the JV football team.

I'm taking all of the emotion out of it. Does the leading scoring defensemen on the Kings deserve to have his number retired? That's the bottom line. He won a Stanley Cup for a different team so that does nothing for his cause. He'll likely have his scoring record broken in the next 5-6 years. So, at the end of the day, his accomplishments were standout 10 years ago. After what this team has done in the past 3 years, it is marginalizing his accomplishment because quite frankly, all he did was get a lot of points for mostly crap teams. He was a great player no doubt but I just don't think his accomplishments are worthy of it.

The Buddy The Elf nailed it.

 

[johnjm22]

I get what you're saying, but I also see why Blake wants to bury that stuff in the past. It really shouldn't be all that his career is known for.

I understand wanting to forget about it, but ignoring it hasn't made it go away. I just think fans would sympathize with him more if he came off as more personable.

As Rorschach already mentioned, if he didn't care for the team so much, why would he keep coming back? He knew the Kings had no chance of being a contender in 2006 yet he came back and didn't complain or ask to be dealt from one of the worst teams in the league, with one of the worst coaches in team history (Marc Crawford).

I don't think him coming back for that short stint means anything. He got paid 12M, and likes being in CA. I always got the impression that his play was halfhearted on most nights.

 

[LombardiTool]

Never had a problem with him.

Fans are oversensitive about the situation. Hockey is a business. Business decisions have to be made by both player and team. It should never be personal. Obviously no one in the Kings organization holds a grudge. They have brought him back now multiple times.

If you don't want to retire his number because of his play, that's one thing. To not want it because he "ripped his C from his chest" is pretty petty.

 

[Buddy The Elf]

Compare his stats to the guys who have their jerseys currently retired. While he is the leading defenseman in scoring, he doesn't stand out in any other area. His 800 GP which is 4th is going to be passed Brown in the next few years, Kopitar in the next 3-4 years. That's about 70 more GP than Butch Goring who put up some impressive numbers while he was here and DOESN'T have his number retired. The more time marches on, the more I say he doesn't deserve to have his number retired. If you retire Blake's number, why not Goring and Nicholls? You start getting to a point where you're watering down what is hanging in the rafters.

The guys that have their numbers retired have some incredible numbers. Dionne's points probably will never be broken (at least with this generation of players) unless Kopitar plays 20 years for the Kings. Luc and DT both put up over a 1000 points and 1000 games played in a Kings uniform. It is unlikely those totals are hit for sometime, if ever. Vachon's win's, GAA and GP were at the top of the heap until Quick came along. Now, compare those player's respective accomplishments against Blake's lone record of highest scoring defensemen that is likely broken by Doughty in the next 5 years.

 

[KingsCourt]

forgive but don't forget

 

[kingsholygrail]

Compare his stats to the guys who have their jerseys currently retired. While he is the leading defenseman in scoring, he doesn't stand out in any other area. His 800 GP which is 4th is going to be passed Brown in the next few years, Kopitar in the next 3-4 years. That's about 70 more GP than Butch Goring who put up some impressive numbers while he was here and DOESN'T have his number retired. The more time marches on, the more I say he doesn't deserve to have his number retired. If you retire Blake's number, why not Goring and Nicholls? You start getting to a point where you're watering down what is hanging in the rafters.

The guys that have their numbers retired have some incredible numbers. Dionne's points probably will never be broken (at least with this generation of players) unless Kopitar plays 20 years for the Kings. Luc and DT both put up over a 1000 points and 1000 games played in a Kings uniform. It is unlikely those totals are hit for sometime, if ever. Vachon's win's, GAA and GP were at the top of the heap until Quick came along. Now, compare those player's respective accomplishments against Blake's lone record of highest scoring defensemen that is likely broken by Doughty in the next 5 years.

They didn't retire Simmer or Nicholls or Goring. So why Blake? Especially now that you have Doughty who will most likely pass him for franchise tops.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Got to say the org is so much better without Lieweekly running things. Have to wonder if there's ever been arguments between Dean and Timmy, you keep hearing nowadays that AEG never turns down Deans requests for funds or anything like that to help the team.

Lombardi talked about him having to approach the owners about an offer that he had received for the 2nd overall pick back in 2008. You know Lombardi would straight up say no, but if Leiweke has his way, who knows what he'd want to do because his goal was always to just get some star attraction to sell tickets, as opposed to putting a long-term, winning team on the ice.

 

[Reclamation Project]

Obligatory...

 

[kingsholygrail]

I don't get it... We're gonna be okay with Blake being all about the $$$ but we're gonna sit around complaining about Leiweke?

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I don't get it... We're gonna be okay with Blake being all about the $$$ but we're gonna sit around complaining about Leiweke?

Leiweke would cry about the team bleeding money, every year. Are guys like Blake, Robitaille, Boucher, Schneider, etc. to blame for that?

Remember how often the Kings would have players locked out of training camp? It wasn't just Blake. It happened to Norstrom. It happened with Storr. Stumpel. Matt Johnson. Just about every year this team had problems re-signing their own players. Hell, Aki Berg bolted for Finland for a whole season due to his contract holdout with the team. It was common for players to have contract squabbles with the Kings back then. That's why Leiweke should be faulted.

Remember when Allison and Deadmarsh were supposed to comeback by Christmas? Then changed that to after February? Guess who was the man responsible to making those lies up.

 

[Captain Mittens*]

I don't get it... We're gonna be okay with Blake being all about the $$$ but we're gonna sit around complaining about Leiweke?

Lie-weekly was the source of all the problems.

He is also already rumored to not be happy in Toronto
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1647171

 

[takk]

Weren't the contract holdouts a common theme in early 2000's? I was reading a thread about Lombardi in Sharks board and they were bickering about how he had issues signing extensions due to pre-lockout situations.

 

[Captain Mittens*]

Weren't the contract holdouts a common theme in early 2000's? I was reading a thread about Lombardi in Sharks board and they were bickering about how he had issues signing extensions due to pre-lockout situations.

Yes and No

But the biggest problem was how Kevin Gilmore and Lieweekly handled them.

 

[niomosy]

Business is business. I was never mad at him in the first place.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

How do you not retire a HOFer who spent the majority of his career with the Kings?

It's gonna happen and have to believe guys like Luc will push for it, hell they already have awhile back.

Very easily.

The guy played 805 of his 1270 NHL games in a Kings uniform. He spent 465 with the Avs/Sharks. that's not even 2/3 of his games. He spent 63% of his career in a Kings uniform. That's a really low bar for jersey retirement for simply being the best player on a crappy team.

For comparison, Luc spent 1077/1431 games here, which is 75%, and that's being one of the best LWs of all time holding several records, not just a one-time Norris winner.

Gretzky is the outlier for I think very obvious reasons, and some of the others (Dionne, Vachon) were a caliber Blake can only hope to sniff.

My personal feelings aside, I don't see any statistical reason Blake should ever get his jersey retired here, but he'll likely be an emotional choice for management, which irks me, but not enough to boo or raise hell.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Leiweke would cry about the team bleeding money, every year. Are guys like Blake, Robitaille, Boucher, Schneider, etc. to blame for that?

Remember how often the Kings would have players locked out of training camp? It wasn't just Blake. It happened to Norstrom. It happened with Storr. Stumpel. Matt Johnson. Just about every year this team had problems re-signing their own players. Hell, Aki Berg bolted for Finland for a whole season due to his contract holdout with the team. It was common for players to have contract squabbles with the Kings back then. That's why Leiweke should be faulted.

Remember when Allison and Deadmarsh were supposed to comeback by Christmas? Then changed that to after February? Guess who was the man responsible to making those lies up.

It's not a one-way street Ziggy. You seem to live in this fantasy world where the poor downtrodden hockey player just never gets a fair shake in the league and everyone's just trying to rip him off.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Lie-weekly was the source of all the problems.

He is also already rumored to not be happy in Toronto
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1647171

If he was the source of all the problems...is he not the source of all the success we have now? Or is it only when it fits your narrative?

 

[Buddy The Elf]

Weren't the contract holdouts a common theme in early 2000's? I was reading a thread about Lombardi in Sharks board and they were bickering about how he had issues signing extensions due to pre-lockout situations.

I think Lombardi had issues with the ownership that were causing problems with holdouts in San Jose. Not to say he wasn't at fault too. He also has admitted he's learned from mistakes he made there. Whether or not he was referring to the hold out situations he had is unclear.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

It's not a one-way street Ziggy. You seem to live in this fantasy world where the poor downtrodden hockey player just never gets a fair shake in the league and everyone's just trying to rip him off.

You seem to live in this fantasy world where the poor downtrodden billionaire owner just never gets a fair shake in the league and player's just trying to rip him off.