That Macho Thing
(from the National Post)
By Bruce Arthur
National Post
May 24, 2010 - Philadelphia -- Ian Laperrière is a tough guy. His nose leans sideways near the top, before slouching back towards the bottom. He is closing in on 2,000 career penalty minutes, at which point he presumably gets a gold watch, or at least a silver whistle. He blocked a shot with his mouth back in November in a game against Buffalo, and returned in the third period with 50 and 100 brand new stitches, and without seven of his old teeth. Someone stole a shipment of his replacement teeth in January. All in all, it was a bad experience.
But when it happened a second time, in Game 5 of Philadelphia's first-round series against the New Jersey Devils, it was worse. As Devils defenceman Paul Martin reared back to take a slapshot, Laperrière didn't think about that puck in the mouth from November; he just did what he has done for his entire adult life, like a reflex. He went down to block it.
Martin's shot came skimming up and struck Laperrière like a hammer just above his right eye, and the Montreal native clutched at it while spinning around in pain and panic, leaving squiggles of spattered blood on the ice, again. In the dressing room he couldn't see and asked if his eye was still there; he was told it was just the blood. After two minutes of lying on the table, panicking again, he started to see shadows, then more. His vision returned.
He suffered a concussion, and a brain contusion, and another 70 stitches. He called his refusal to wear a visor after the first incident "a stupid, macho thing in my head," and that it made him realize, in his words, that "I need to smarten up."
But he wasn't sure if he would get a chance to smarten up. He sat in the press box and watched Philadelphia go on without him, and wondered, at 36, if that puck to the temple wasn't the last professional hockey play of his life.
It wasn't. Wearing a full-face shield, Laperrière returned for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference, which his Flyers won 3-0 to take a 3-1 series lead. And his view of the game wasn't just changed by being behind Plexiglass.
"Trust me, that injury kind of made me forget about the warrior personality," Laperrière said yesterday, before last night's Game 5. "After that first one in November, the puck I took to the face, Craig Berube, one of the toughest guys to ever play the game, said maybe you should wear a shield.
"After that first one in November, I was like no, no, I have that mentality, like I'm tough, I want to play tough, I want to look tough. After that second one, never even crossed my mind. I'm wearing a shield next year. Not a big one like [the full shield], but, yeah, next year I'll come back with a shield."
There is still a resistance to visors in this game, despite the eye injuries that have affected players like Ethan Moreau, Tom Poti, and most notably, Bryan Berard. Some players just don't want to wear them; the players' association, citing the will of its members, won't agree to a discussion to mandate them. The argument for mandatory visors stays an argument, nothing more.
But for some guys, it takes an injury for them to see the light. Laperrière is a changed man. He's just glad he could get back on the ice, and get back to playing physical hockey.
"I took a couple punches to the face," he said after Game 4. "And that kind of got me going. I knew I could take a hit. I won't lie to anybody. I was nervous all night last night, and today just to take that first hit, and I did, and I got bumped around like I usually do.
"That's what the neurologists told me, all four of them, and that's why I'm here tonight. I want to emphasize that ... if I was more at risk than before my injury, I wouldn't be out there.
"I said that before, when I got injured. I'm a family guy. I've got two kids at home. I've got a wife. I've got to think about that. I didn't want to be selfish, and all four of them were 100% sure that I wasn't. That doesn't mean I won't get hit, but I wasn't more at risk than before. And that's why I made my decision to come back. That's it.
"Hockey's my passion, but I've got to think about my family. That's my life."
But right now, he is back on the job. This is not a game for the faint of heart - Chicago's Duncan Keith lost seven teeth against San Jose in Game 4 on Sunday night, and didn't miss a shift - but some warriors, after a lifetime of scars and pain and gutting it out, realize that sometimes a compromise isn't such a bad thing at all.
"Trust me, it's like if I got a chance to go down, I'll go down again," says Laperrière. "If I'm afraid of that, I might as well retire, because I won't be effective. If I can't come back now, I might as well not come back at all. That's why I'm back."