THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — The fact that Toronto forward Jason Blake has yet to score in his first three games as a Maple Leaf suddenly doesn’t seem that important.
Blake announced Monday that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. The 34-year-old left-winger said he has already started treatment, is in no immediate danger and shouldn’t miss any playing time.
"When you find out that you have something it’s definitely shattering to your whole family and so on," an emotional Blake said after practice.
"Overall I feel good. I’m still here and my goal this whole season hasn’t changed. Obviously you take a step back and you kind of re-evaluate everything but for the most part I feel good.
"I think to get it off my chest and to move forward is a big weight lifted."
Blake has chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), a highly treatable, slow-growing cancer of the white blood cells. He will take oral medication each day and will have blood work done once a week for the next six months.
Blake will also be monitored closely by both the team’s physician and a leukemia specialist.
"I think the prognosis is outstanding," team doctor Noah Forman said. "He’s taking medication which he has already started, it’s a daily medication, and it should definitely put the condition under really good control and allow him to continue on with a long and healthy life — as well as his career."
Blake broke the news to his teammates before the morning practice at the Air Canada Centre. The Moorhead, Minn., native, who signed a US$20-million, five-year contract with the Leafs in the off-season, is expected to be in the lineup for Tuesday’s home game against Carolina.
Big things were expected from Blake after his 40-goal campaign with the New York Islanders. While he has two assists in his first three games, his failure to score had some impatient fans in this hockey-crazed market lighting up the phone lines last week on the sports radio call-in shows.
"That’s the least of my worries," Blake said. "(The goals) will come in time. I’m just trying to move forward now and get back on track. It’s only three games in, it’s a long season. I think my mind right now is in a good state."
Blake first learned something might be wrong after taking a blood test during a pre-season physical.
Head coach Paul Maurice said he got a call last Tuesday from GM John Ferguson that doctors had found something but that more tests needed to be done. Blake said the final test results came in last Friday.
"It’s an unusual sentence to hear — the first word is cancer, the next word is leukemia, and then everything should be all right," Maurice said.
"I’m not familiar with the condition so it was new that something like this would be as treatable and for such a positive sentence to come after such a negative sentence, it takes a little while to get your head around it."
Forman said CML is caused by an abnormal chromosome of cells in the body’s bone marrow, and that about 500 new cases are diagnosed each year in Canada.
Blake missed the last 13 games of the 2000-01 season with the Islanders to be with his pregnant wife, who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She gave birth in April 2001, two weeks early, to a girl and later had throat surgery to remove a tumour that turned out to be benign.
"I’m not going to sit here and say, `Why me?"’ Blake said. "I’ve been very fortunate and blessed in my life. I’ll continue to do the things I love to do and move on." .
Blake, who broke into the NHL with the Los Angeles Kings in 1998-99, is a four-time 20-goal scorer. His 40 goals and 69 points last season were both career highs.
"We’re going to be his backup family here too as a team," said Leafs captain Mats Sundin. "We’re going to support him with everything we can to make him feel better, go through this, and have a great year."
Forman said Blake’s medication, called the Magic Bullet, has a very low side-effect profile. He added there is full agreement across the board that it’s the treatment of choice.
"Obviously on the most base level, neither myself as a physician or the team would ever put anybody at risk — I think that has to be made really clear," Forman said. "If there was any concern at all about Jason’s ability to play from a safety or health point of view, it just wouldn’t be happening."
While in the prime of his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Hockey Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, a form of cancer that attacks the lymph nodes. He began radiation treatment in February 1993 and returned to the lineup a month later.
Hours after receiving his last radiation treatment, Lemieux flew to Philadelphia and had a goal and assist in his first game in two months. He went on to win his fourth NHL scoring title despite missing 24 games, more than one-quarter of the season.
Montreal Canadiens captain Saku Koivu also resumed his career following abdominal cancer and missing most of the 2001-02 season. He recovered in time for the playoffs, where he had 10 points in 12 games and led the Canadiens to the conference semifinals.
Blake spent parts of three seasons with the Kings before being traded to the Islanders in 2001. In 511 career regular-season games, he has 134 goals and 154 assists for 288 points.
"I think this is something that was thrown at me for a reason," Blake said. "I’ll become a stronger person when it’s over and done with."
He also remains confident that he’ll be able to contribute with the Maple Leafs.
"My goal has not changed since I heard this news," he said. "And that’s come to Toronto, bring another piece of the puzzle and hopefully win a Stanley Cup here."
With files from The Associated Press.
