Game On, And On, And On
Kings' Laperriere, a video hockey fan, has a byte to his play
(from the Daily News)
By Tim Trepany
Staff Writer
January 4, 1997 - Ian Laperriere sounds as if he's revealing a deep, dark secret.
Sometimes, he can't wait to get home to get his fix. On road trips, he can't stand to be without, so he stuffs some into his luggage to keep him company in his hotel room.
"I'm 22 years old and I'm still playing video games," the Kings' center said. "I always love it. I play football, golf, hockey.
"In hockey, I have my own little Ian Laperriere out there. He's a pretty good hockey player. He can score goals. I said, 'What's wrong with them? They (made) me a goal scorer?' "
If the producers of the game wanted a more realistic program, they would have forgotten about Laperriere's goal scoring and just made him infuriate opponents by hitting and yelling at everything that moved.
While he has just three goals, it's hard to tell what Laperriere does more of - check people or talk trash.
"He's always talking and yapping; you couldn't print half of it," Kings coach Larry Robinson said. "And nobody likes getting hit. That's how he gets under people's skin."
And that's made him invaluable to the Kings. Robinson doesn't give compliments cheaply - especially during the team's current skid - but he has consistently praised Laperriere this season.
Laperriere's hard work and checking have endeared him to the Kings coach. In his first full season with the Kings - he came over from the Rangers with Ray Ferraro and Mattias Norstrom in the Jari Kurri/Marty McSorley/Shane Churla trade last year - he's become a key component of the penalty-killing unit, one of the Kings' few bright spots with an 88.4 percent success rate. He centers the checking line, which Robinson said has been the team's best.
But opponents have grown to loathe him.
Laperriere helped raise emotions in the Kings' Nov. 17 game against Chicago - which ended in a brawl - by leveling Blackhawks center Brent Sutter with a check along the boards.
"I respect Sutter or (Chris) Chelios or (Wayne) Gretzky or (Mario) Lemieux," Laperriere said. "But if I let them play it might cost me my job. I have a job to do. You can't let those guys skate because they're going to hurt your team."
Sutter is 5-foot-11, 180 pounds, but don't think that Laperriere only picks on small players. When the Kings played the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden two weeks ago, the 5-11, 195-pound Laperriere angered Eric Cairns, a 6-6, 230-pound enforcer, with a check in the corner.
Cairns spent the rest of the game trying to get a piece of Laperriere, even trying to take a swipe at him going off for a line change.
The Kings were without their enforcers - Matt Johnson had left the game with a shoulder injury and Barry Potomski was being held out for precautionary reasons - but that didn't keep Laperriere from drilling Cairns with another hard check for good measure.
"I feel safer when Matt and Barry are out there, but I won't change my game," Laperriere said. "I'm just going to keep playing hard and keep getting under other players' skins. He was mad at me. He's a pretty big guy . . . but it's all right."
Laperriere said it was nothing personal against Cairns, just that hitting for him is instinctive and something he always has done. When he joined the Rangers, he was kicked out of his first two games, receiving game misconducts for boarding and instigating a fight.
Besides, if he ever backed off from somebody, his father would remind him about the importance of checking.
Michel Laperriere once had a tryout for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadien Football League as a defensive lineman. Ian had consecutive 40-goal seasons in junior hockey, but whenever he phoned home, his father would ask him if he finished his checks.
"He knew if I keep hitting, something's going to happen, like turnovers," Ian said. "He keeps telling me all the time just finish your check. You're going to see those goals are going to come."
Laperriere was reared in Montreal and speaks English with a heavy French accent, occasionally struggling for the correct word.
But it doesn't inhibit him. Even when he's off the ice Laperriere is nonstop chatter. Before games, he's talking. When he's playing video games, he's talking. During card games on flights to games, he's talking.
"He's always very vocal," forward Dan Bylsma said. "He's a very high-energy person in the dressing rooms before games and between periods and on the bench. Those things all add to energy of the team. It helps us."
Said Ferraro, "He's nonstop. The French guys don't understand him. The English guys don't understand him, but it doesn't deter him one bit. He's a hard-working kid and he's going to play a long time in this league because his work ethic is such."
Maybe it's because he puts so much into playing that he takes losses so hard. After hitting a crossbar against the New York Islanders two weeks ago in a one-goal Kings' loss, Laperriere said he was going to have trouble sleeping that night.
The Kings' downturn has been especially disconcerting to the competitive Laperreire not just because he hates to lose but because he doesn't believe he's contributing enough.
He scored two goals in the Kings' first four games, then went 2-1/2 months before scoring again. His third came Dec. 22 at St. Louis.
"I know I can bring more to the team," he said.
Ferraro agrees, saying that Laperriere's offensive skills are too good for the slump to last.
"Sometimes I think he gets so wrapped up in trying to be a sparkplug that he forgets he has some skills," Ferraro said. "You're not going to see 30 goals from Lappy, but you will see 15.
"Guys who can score 15 goals, kill penalties and win faceoffs, those guys are invaluable. People are always looking for them."