Ian Laperriere

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."

Ian Laperriere has been antsy, with little to curb his adrenaline, which generally doesn't run but instead gushes. He has been recovering from off-season knee surgery and has been skating for two months, but was not declared ready for contact until earlier this week. And he is certainly ready to play tonight against Colorado at Las Vegas in the Kings' final exhibition game.

Any question as to why the Kings, then struggling to score, signed defensive center Bob Corkum were answered Sunday at Iceoplex when Ian Laperriere skated off the ice 15 minutes into practice. The answer was emphasized later in the afternoon when the Kings' charter took off for Dallas without Laperriere. He will be examined today for an injury to his left knee, which he sustained in the first period of Thursday night's victory over Edmonton.

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.

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's not on the ice to score, or to set up the rest of his line to score. Ian Laperriere knows he's there to hit people. Not that he wouldn't like a goal or two. "It's always great to score goals," he said Saturday. "At least I think it's great." He laughed, because he has only one goal and his assist Wednesday had set up Matt Johnson's goal, both actions a relative rarity. "For sure, my job is to play physical," Laperriere said. "When you hit someone, the whole team responds."

Ray Ferraro has watched the Kings' first two games from a vantage point high in arenas in Edmonton and Vancouver, and he wants badly to get back into the lineup. But not this way. "I want to be in there because they want me to be in there, not because Lapy's hurt," Ferraro said about Ian Laperriere, the King center who was injured Monday at Vancouver. "I went through that last year and I hope that he's just twisted his knee and is going to be out a week."

The team the Kings will face tonight in their season opener isn't the same team that handled them pretty easily, winning four five games a year ago. It isn't the same team that came back from a 1-3 disadvantage to dispatch the Colorado Avalanche in the playoffs last spring. That team had Doug Weight and Ryan Smyth scoring goals, and this team still hasn't signed either. That team had goaltender Curtis Joseph keeping the Kings from scoring. Joseph stops shots for Toronto now.

On Monday, forward Ian Laperriere was considered out for Tuesday night's game against Vancouver because of a right shoulder injury. But by game time, Laperriere was in the lineup at right wing instead of center and he quickly made his presence felt. His hard check on the Canucks' Gino Odjick helped lead to the Kings' second goal when Vancouver's Donald Brashear was given a two-minute penalty at 4:18 for interference in an attempt to retaliate.

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.