Ian Laperriere

Nothing changed for the Kings over the All-Star break. Even before they reconvened Monday afternoon at their training facility in El Segundo, another player had dropped out of their lineup. Ian Laperriere had surgery earlier in the day to remove bone chips and scar tissue from his right knee, a 15-minute arthroscopic procedure that the Kings said will sideline the forward for four to six weeks. Laperriere, not surprisingly, said he'll be back much sooner.

Ian Laperriere, a mouthy irritant to King opponents, was neither disturbed nor surprised to find himself among the Sun newspapers' so-called "Dirty Dozen," defined in Sunday's Toronto Sun as "chippy and sometimes-underhanded ... players who will stoop to anything to help their team win." "I wasn't looking forward to making the top-10 list," said Laperriere, who came in at No. 5 in an informal poll of players, coaches and broadcasters.

No matter the circumstances, Ian Laperriere plays with passion. He's not as talented as the premier centers he plays against, but he never gives an inch. Where does he find the energy? "More coffee," he said. Laperriere's emotion isn't caffeine-driven. He knows he's lucky to be in the NHL and will do what it takes to stay there. This season, that means fighting less and learning more from veterans Nelson Emerson and Kelly Buchberger on the Kings' third line.

About 3 a.m. today, Montreal time, Michel Laperriere got a phone call from son Ian extolling his exploits of a few hours earlier. The kid can send along a few hats later. "I know he's still up," said Ian Laperriere after the first three-goal game of his NHL career and the work of Steve Passmore earned the Kings a 5-0 victory over Boston before 14,352 Friday at Staples Center. "I want to dedicate this hat trick to him."

The Kings' annual visit to Children's Hospital to distribute toys for the holidays, always an emotionally draining experience for the players, was especially wrenching Monday for veteran forward Ian Laperriere. Laperriere's 55-year-old father, Michel, was diagnosed two years ago with pancreatic cancer. Though pancreatic cancer barely ranks among the 10 most commonly diagnosed cancers, according to the Web site pancreatica.

The swift, bloodless dismemberment of the Kings' Wayne Gretzky era continued on Thursday with the departure of defenseman Marty McSorley and forwards Jari Kurri and Shane Churla to the New York Rangers in exchange for four players and one draft pick. It had been widely expected that Gretzky's close friends, Kurri and McSorley--who were also with him in Edmonton--would soon follow the path out of Los Angeles after he was traded to St. Louis a little more than two weeks ago.

Sometimes Ian Laperriere has to stop and wonder where he is supposed to be. And what. Is he a center? A winger? He has been both in games lately, as he was Saturday, when he had his usual job, centering a checking line with Matt Johnson and Dan Bylsma, then moving to wing in the second period on a line centered by Jozef Stumpel, with Vladimor Tsyplakov on the other wing. Oh, and Laperriere also killed penalties, the job he enjoys most.

He was like so many other French-Canadian kids from Montreal. Ian Laperriere could shoot. He could skate. He could create--if without real artistry, certainly with effect. But unlike so many others, he was willing to sacrifice his body. He had goals and assists, but also penalty minutes in three figures annually, and so he was called a defensive center. "I've always thought I could do more for the club offensively," Laperriere said. "You get this reputation. I guess I got it in St.

Ian Laperriere has been called everything. Agitator. Pest. Mouthy irritant. But Wednesday afternoon, in a dimly lighted hallway in the quiet pregame underbelly of Dallas' American Airlines Center, he was something else. Human. The Kings were hours away from playing the Dallas Stars, but the feisty Laperriere wasn't thinking about a hockey game. He was crying.

All this talk of fatigued power plays and absent defense, all these theories of post-Gretzky stress syndrome--none of them addresses the Kings' biggest problem. Which is: Nobody has heard of any of their players. You think this an overstatement. You think, a professional sports team in a major sports league in America's second-largest city and nobody knows any of their players? You think, heck, this is a team that has been in town 29 years--who doesn't know the Kings? Fine. Name one.