Philadelphia Flyer IAN LAPERRIERE Used HBOT: Cleared For Skating May 18th, 2010
Laperriere cleared to resume skating for Flyers
May. 18, 2010
By FRANK SERAVALLI Philadelphia Daily News [email protected]
IAN LAPERRIERE is cautiously optimistic.
Thursday will mark 4 weeks since Laperriere took a Paul Martin slap shot to the face. He fractured his orbital bone, needed 60 to 70 stitches and medical glue to close the wound above his right eyebrow, and had a brain contusion so big that it showed up as a spot on a CT scan.
Yesterday, Laperriere was cleared for contact – to begin bumping with his teammates as they prepared for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals against his hometown Montreal Canadiens.
Wearing an oversized, protective helmet, Laperriere said he never would have guessed he would “feel this good, this soon.”
“I look like the Great Gazoo [from 'The Flintstones'],” Laperriere said. “But who cares? I’m skating. You go back 2 or 3 weeks ago, with my vertigo, I would have never dreamed about skating this soon or even this year.
“Hopefully, a little miracle is coming my way.”
Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said Laperriere will not be ready to return for Game 2 tonight, but could be available as the series progresses.
Interestingly, Holmgren said it was fair to say that Laperriere likely would return to the lineup before Jeff Carter, who has missed 4 weeks with a fractured metatarsal in his right foot.
“They weren’t going to let him back until he was clear,” Holmgren said.
Laperriere said he suffered from vertigo for about 6 days after the gruesome shot-block that epitomized the Flyers’ run in the playoffs, but that was fixed by a short procedure that rebalanced the crystals in his ear that control equilibrium.
“I’m so glad they fixed that,” Laperriere said. “The impact put them off. It’s the worst feeling ever. The room was spinning. It was positional vertigo. The vertigo was my biggest pain. The way I felt with my vertigo, I thought I was dreaming that I’d ever play again this year.
“Once they took care of that, I’m not feeling too bad.” Laperriere knows he was fortunate the injury occurred in an area of the brain that can handle blunt-force trauma – and fortunate he didn’t lose his vision for good.
“They all told me if you want to get hit in the head, you want to get hit in the front,” Laperriere said. “If you go any further back, you are in trouble. I could have been blind, I could have lost movement in the left side of my body . . . I haven’t felt anything like that.
“I’m moving [recuperating] really fast. I really believe that when you do take care of yourself – and I’ve been taking care of myself for 20 years – that it pays off. It’s thanking me back for taking care of my tiny, tiny, little brain.”
Laperriere first started lightly skating on Sunday, then took part in the Flyers’ pregame skate that day before a full practice yesterday, though he wasn’t really bumped by teammates.
Since he said has been “bored” at home, Laperriere has tried an alternative therapy – using a hyperbaric chamber to have oxygen pumped into his body.
“I’m doing it every day,” Laperriere said. “They told me I had an outside chance. And even if I didn’t have an outside chance, I still would have done it, because it can help everything else.”
Even though it is the playoffs, the Flyers are three wins from the Stanley Cup finals and he grew up skating on the outdoor rinks in Montreal, Laperriere said he will not cave under the pressure of returning too soon.
“I’m going to see four neurologists. I need to be 4-for-4,” Laperriere said. “What I want to hear is that it’s going to take the same kind of shot or same impact for you to hurt yourself and start bleeding again. Then I’ll be back in. Until then, I won’t.
“If you’re 80 percent and you do that with a knee or an elbow, that’s fine. But not with my brain. We take pride in playing through injuries. I love the game. Hockey is my passion. My kids are my life.
“I want to make sure I’m 100 percent. When you see me back, it’s because I’m 100 percent and there won’t be any doubts in my mind.”