Flyers' Laperriere Faces The Rather Unsightly Facts
(from the Delaware County Daily Times)
By Rob Parent and Anthony J. SanFilippo
Delaware County Daily Times
April 23, 2010 - NEWARK, N.J. — His face a puffy mess surrounding 60-some stitches tracking across his right brow, Ian Laperriere made a painful vow.
No more face-butting rubber bullets.
Unless he suddenly starts feeling dizzy today in the wake of a dizzying, 3-0 series clincher over the New Jersey Devils Thursday night, the affable "Lappy," — lucky to still have a mouth with which to fill notebooks – is likely to line up for the Flyers' next game.
That probably will be the opener of an Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Washington Capitals. But whoever, wherever and whenever, Laperriere said, one thing is clear – he'll be seeing it through a plastic looking glass.
"I'm mad at myself, not the shooter," Laperriere said of New Jersey's Paul Martin, whose slapshot 3:56 into the third period caught Laperriere flush on the forehead, above the right eye. "That's a position I don't want to be in. It's too bad that I needed that to make me realize I need to wear a shield, you know? But I will."
So the vow was made. After nearly 15 years of NHL abuse, and in a season in which he's taken two slapshots to the face, the shield will be attached to the helmet.
Should help everybody else to have Laperriere cover up his mug.
But the jokes didn't start until after he asked one very serious question of athletic trainer Jim McCrossin, while they were still on the ice after the shot.
"It scared me," Laperriere said. "I couldn't see anything out of my right eye. I asked Jimmy, 'Can you see my eye?' He said, 'Yeah, it's there.' "
Let the jokes commence then. First on stage, seriocomic Chris Pronger...
"You've got a good-looking guy like Lappy throwing his face in front of one there," he said. "Sometimes blocking one with your face is what it takes. When guys see that on the bench, that only makes them want to push harder and sacrifice more."
"You learn from your mistakes," Laperriere said. "I'm 36. I'm still learning from my mistakes."
The Flyers are still benefiting from them. The club that continues to block shots as if it were an art form – they totaled 96 in this five-game series – was largely following the lead of Laperriere and his puck-riddled linemate, Blair Betts.
"Poor guy. Nobody I've played with has sacrificed his body more than him," Betts, who took a shot off a hand in this game, said of Laperriere. "You hate to see something like that happen, but he's a warrior on this team and he'll be all right. If there's a chance he can play, we know he will."
They know that because it happened before. After losing seven teeth – but hey, only five of them were real – after taking a Jason Pominville shot in the face Nov. 27, Laperriere never missed a beat. He called it "stupid" to allow his face to get in the way. He also played all 82 games this season.
"He said it was stupid, but it was the fact that he was so far away from the shot then...this time, I don't know what happened," Betts said. "But he's not going to change the way he blocks shots. It's just bad luck. Poor guy. I feel for him."
So did so many grateful teammates. Without so many sacrificial acts like that, goalie Brian Boucher said, "we wouldn't have won this series."
Laperriere was Exhibit Ouch.
"I do what I do and I don't think twice about doing it," Laperriere said. "The next game, if I get a chance to block a shot, I'll go down, because that's what I do. The day I stop doing that. I'll retire.
"Call me dumb, call me stupid, whatever. I block shots."