Flyers Get The Message
Lindros Drops Notch
(from the NY Daily News)
By Frank Brown
Staff Writer
January 14, 1996 - Ian Laperriere lifted his hand politely, asked for a moment of pause in the conversation.
"I just want to find my teeth," the Rangers center said. "It's hard to talk without them."
Laperriere turned toward the wall in the visitors' dressing room. He reached into the right pocket of a black wool coat that hung from a heavy steel hook, then withdrew the appliance that plugged the gaps in his smile.
Your eye is drawn to the smile, then to a nose that swoops and swerves like a slalom run. At the top, between the black brows, was a puffy purply jellybean that for the next day or two, at least will help Laperriere recall the first faceoff of his life against Eric Lindros.
It happened in the circle to the right of Glenn Healy, just over five minutes into yesterday's game. Laperriere crouched for the draw, the linesman dropped the puck and Lindros jabbed downward at it. Then, on the follow-through, Lindros brought his stick up sharply in welcome.
"First time I've seen him on the ice," Laperriere said. "He's huge."
Yesterday, Lindros also was irrelevant, and Laperriere helped make it so. The New York newcomer had lots of help; all kinds of Ranger woodsmen teamed to chop down the Flyers' giant oak in a 4-0 Spectrum triumph as dominant as Lindros is supposed to be. Ultimately, the bridge of Laperriere's nose absorbed the only real impact Lindros made.
This was an extremely important game, more so for the Flyers, when first place is concerned. A Philadelphia victory would have closed the gap in points to 61-57, would have reduced the gap in victories to 27-24 with the Flyers having played two fewer games. Now the difference is eight points, five victories and light years in a lot of things that can't really be measured, such as confidence, determination and cohesion.
"They are a better hockey club than we are right now," understated Philadelphia coach Terry Murray.
"Certainly, they beat us in every area of the game. They won the races to the puck, (the battles) along the boards, the one-on-one situations. They scored three power-play goals, did everything they had to do to win the game."
They reduced Lindros to a sullen pout and at the end had him running around, putting cheap hits on Rangers too disciplined to retaliate. Healy was magnificent in holding the Flyers without a goal, and any number of Rangers excelled in holding Lindros without a shot.
Coach Colin Campbell used Laperriere between Darren Langdon and Dan Lacroix, and when he couldn't get that matchup, he deployed Sergei Nemchinov between Niklas Sundstrom and Wayne Presley. On defense, Ulf Samuelsson and Alexander Karpovtsev gave Lindros no time or space and Karpovtsev angered Lindros into a silly slash with a whopping crunch at the side glass.
Lindros is supposed to be the next Mark Messier, but yesterday, Messier took his young successor to school with two goals, two assists, five shots. In the first minute, Messier stole behind the Flyers' defense and broke in from Ron Hextall's right before curling toward the goalie's left. Hextall, a lunger, opened a driveway between the skates as he moved laterally; Messier filled it with a whisper-soft backhand and the Spectrum crowd got quiet.
It never got a chance to get loud. The Rangers made sure of that with a persistent, physical road effort that cleared the decks for tonight's meeting with the guy who used to coach the Rangers and who, about two weeks ago, traded Laperriere to New York for Stephane Matteau.
"When get traded, you always want to play well against your ex-teammates," Laperriere said. "You want to let them know they made a bad move, trading you. I'm happy to be in New York. It might be the greatest thing ever to happen to me in my career."
Laperriere finished those words, then provided his own pause in the conversation. His teeth in place now, he showed a big smile.