‘C’ THE LIGHT’

He told the Kings he could no longer be their captain, demanding they remove the “C� from his sweater.

It didn’t work. It felt cheap. Like somebody had cut a letter out of his name. Seven exhibition games later, he politely asked if they could sew it back on.

He told the Kings he was angry, confused, potentially distracted and disruptive.

That also didn’t work. The feelings soothed him, but could suffocate the team.

Wasn’t it still about the team?

Rob Blake was prepared to perform a one-man retrospective of the world’s great egotistical athletes this fall at the start of an ugly and unnecessary contract battle.

But he soon realized he couldn’t be anyone other than Rob Blake.

“I thought about it, but I couldn’t see disrupting things, hurting our team, putting myself before my teammates,� he said.

So here he sits, the leader of one of the league’s hottest and most exciting clubs, but a leader on wobbly skates, in the final year of a contract, with his bosses threatening to trade him before he becomes an unrestricted free agent.

And there sit the Kings, seemingly with no idea how lucky they are to have this guy, or what a nightmare it will be if one day they don’t.

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They have not lost in eight games and have fewer points than only four other teams, but, typically, this King column has nothing to do with Lord Stanley.

It’s about Mike Piazza.

That’s what is happening here, and if you are one of the millions who haven’t noticed it before, just wait until Rob Blake is traded this winter or skips town next summer. You’ll hear about it then.

The Kings will be hearing about it, I don’t know, forever?

“Yeah, I guess there are a lot of similarities between my case and Mike Piazza’s,� Blake said after a recent practice. “But, you know, I don’t think it has to be like that.�

Right now, with that notable attitude exception, it’s exactly like that.

One of the most popular stars in team history begins the final year of his contract, at which point he will become a 31-year-old unrestricted free agent.

The star wants an extension so he can remain with the team the rest of his career.

The team says it wants to give it to him.

But then just before the season, the team makes him only one offer, and it actually reads, “Best Final Offer.�

This means the star must accept it or risk the possibility of being traded during the season.

Piazza, of course, did not accept the Dodgers’ offer and was stunningly traded.

Blake turned down the Kings’ three-year, approximately $21-million carrot, and now he waits.

The Kings, apparently unsure exactly how much Blake wants, wait.

Every hockey fan in this town waits.

“I’m fine right now, but ask me in February,� Blake said, referring to the league’s March trading deadline. “It could be tough. I’ll be running to get the phone.�

By then, it is hoped that the Kings would be running to get a clue.

(We pause here to insert the usual disclaimer about how $21 million is more than the gross national product of your entire neighborhood, and the only bigger fool than someone who turns down that money is someone who feels sorry for him.)

Blake is considered one of the top three defensemen in the league. The best, Chris Pronger of the St. Louis Blues, recently signed a three-year deal worth $29.5 million even though he wasn’t going to be an unrestricted free agent.

So Blake is older and is not quite a league MVP like Pronger. There still must be allowances made for his importance to the franchise, and for the Kings’ inability to find any other legitimate home-grown stars since he arrived 11 years ago.

Translated: When it comes to the Kings, hardly any average sports fan can name anybody else.

Blake may not be worth $24 million or $25 million in St. Louis or Dallas or Detroit. But given the market conditions, he is certainly worth that much here. And he is certainly worth more than one offer with no room for negotiation.

Said Blake: “I was so surprised that it was their final offer. . . . I thought negotiations were just starting.�

Said General Manager Dave Taylor, who will not discuss negotiations specifically: “Our objective, our first priority, is to sign Rob. We want him back.�

Said Blake: “I thought we had the same goals. That’s why I’m so surprised how it’s been handled.�

Said Taylor: “We have an asset in Rob, so we have to look at all our options.�

Said Blake: “To say I’m not bothered by this sometimes, I’d be lying about it. In some way, you think about it every day.�

It bothered him so much at the start of the exhibition season, he asked for an impromptu meeting with Coach Andy Murray.

In a hallway in Phoenix, he told Murray he was turning in his “C,� reneging on the most important leadership symbol in sports.

“I didn’t want to remain captain if I wasn’t going to be here in the long run,� Blake said. “I just didn’t feel it was right.�

Murray handled it as he has handled most things in two seasons with the Kings--with a combination of smarts and heart.

Murray told Blake that while he couldn’t refuse the resignation, he was not going to find a replacement.

“I told him he was our captain, and would always be our captain,� Murray said. “I felt I owed him that.�

Murray took it a step further by removing all the “A’s� that designate alternate captains.

“I didn’t want there to be any confusion,� he said. “If Rob wasn’t going to be our captain, we would have no captain.�

And so the Kings strangely played the exhibition season without a designated on-ice leader.

When he saw his coach and his team waiting for him to take charge again, Blake was touched. When he saw the potential for victories here, he was inspired.

Before the final exhibition, he walked into Murray’s office and said, “I thought about it, and I’m the captain.�

Murray called for the equipment guy, and the “C� was sewn back on his jersey in minutes.

“I have a contract for one more year that I signed, and that I must honor to the best of my ability,� Blake said. “This team needs me. I owe it to them. I can only worry about what I control.�

So he has controlled opposing scorers, and his team’s league-best attack, while “playing as well as I have ever seen him play,� said Murray.

He suffered a broken bone in his back, the team went 0-2-1 when he was sidelined, so he quickly returned.

He recently purchased and distributed John Wooden motivational books for the team.

The other day after practice at El Segundo, he was rewarding a local kid for good grades by giving him a tour of the facility and some sticks.

“He is Mr. King,� said defenseman Mattias Norstrom. “He is the ultimate team player.�

And earlier in this column, he said he was worried about, “putting myself before my teammates.�

Did you catch that?

Yeah, Kings, push this guy against the wall, force his hand, run him out of town. The Dodgers didn’t need Mike Piazza, and you don’t need Rob Blake.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: [email protected].