"I won't make the same mistake. I promise you that. What I did was stupid. I was too far away from him, and I went down on my knees and the puck came up."
The frightening incident occurred on Nov. 27 when Laperriere put the wrong part of his body in the path of a shot by Buffalo's Jason Pominville in the first period.
Remarkably, Laperriere, 36, returned to play in the third period. Since then, he has never thought twice about blocking shots and has continued to put himself in harm's way, leading Flyers forwards with 74 blocked shots.
Getting in the way of a frozen rubber disk traveling about 100 m.p.h. probably requires a touch of insanity - "Call it what you will," Laperriere said with a smile - but shot-blocking is an integral part of defensive strategy. Especially for a penalty-killing unit. Especially in the playoffs.
A key to the Flyers' 2-1 victory Wednesday was their success in killing five Devils power plays, including a double minor. Penalty killers such as Laperriere, Blair Betts, Chris Pronger and Matt Carle are the Flyers' premier shot-blockers. The Flyers had the fifth-most blocked shots (1,254) in the NHL during the regular season.
"It's something I pride myself in," Laperriere said. "The day I no longer want to block shots, I'll call it a career."
Obviously, there's a certain fearlessness and abandon in blocking shots.
"If you're afraid of the puck," Betts said in an understatement, "you're probably not going to do a good job blocking it. I've never had a serious injury doing it, certainly nothing like what happened to Ian. That was ugly."
With that, Betts turned and knocked on the wooden divider in his locker.
Although there is risk in blocking shots, it's a calculated risk. Technique and timing are involved. Laperriere said he learned from a master of the craft - Guy Carbonneau - when he broke into the NHL.
