Rypien Fights In First Shift
Ignores coach and gets into a bloody scrap with Laperriere
(from the Vancouver Province )
By Gordon McIntyre
The Province
December 4, 2006 - Rick Rypien, his hand not fully recovered from an injury in a previous fight, obeyed his coach for about 20 seconds on Saturday night.
Then he dropped his gloves and took on challenger Ian Laperriere, winning a decision in a bout that left blood on the ice and sent the combatants to their dressing rooms for repairs.
"He really listened to me," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said with a smile after the Canucks' 2-1 win over Colorado. "I told him, 'Ryp, I don't want you to fight.' It took one shift. His hand's not 100 per cent, but I guess it's better than I thought."
That one shift, Rypien's first as a Canuck this season, was a capsule of what the 5-foot-11, 180-pound centre is all about. He nailed Avs defenceman Brett Clark into the end boards 1:54 into the game, rose to Laperriere's challenge, got his team and fans buzzing, and required medical attention.
He also earned the respect of Laperriere, a middleweight who enjoys a two-inch, 20-pound advantage.
"I didn't know the guy," said Laperriere, who has 1,358 NHL penalty minutes. "I found out half an hour before the game that he was a tough kid, and he ran one of our best defenceman. I went and asked him and, give him credit, he went.
"It's part of the game, even if some channels on TV say it's all fake or an act or something like that. Look at my face and look at his face tonight, I don't think it's any acting there."
Laperriere sported a couple of cuts on the bridge of his nose. Rypien needed five stitches to close his gash in the same spot, and there was a small goose egg growing between his eyebrows.
"I wanted to bring energy out right away, but I didn't see it happening like that, fighting on my first shift," Rypien said.
The Canucks, after eight straight days on the ice, had Sunday off. With Matt Cooke (oblique muscle in the rib cage) and Josh Green (broken toe) on the limp, Rypien and fellow Moose Tyler Bouck were called up. Cooke is day-to-day, Green is out about two weeks.
"It was a good hit," Rypien said. "[Laperriere] was obviously sticking up for his teammate, so what can you do? You've got to stick up for yourself after.
"You're going to get hit in a fight, that's all part of it. You're going to give some, you're going to take some."
According to his Moose teammate Jason Jaffray, quoted in Winnipeg newspapers, a Rypien fight is good for an over-under of at least 100 punches.
The Alberta native, undrafted out of junior with the Regina Pats, was first called up last season, but broke his fibula on New Year's Eve at Minnesota in his fifth game. He would have made the team out of training camp this season, but broke his thumb in a fight with Anaheim's Geoff Peters in preseason.
Then, just as he was to be called up in late October, he pulled his groin during a Manitoba Moose skate.
"He doesn't back down from anybody," said Canucks defenceman Kevin Bieksa, a former Moosemate of Rypien's. "He's one of those guys who gets in on the forecheck and throw the big hit.
"And afterward he can handle himself when the gloves are dropped."