Dallas – With a mashed nose and a scarred head, Ian Laperriere laughed at the grisly irony of his hockey hard looks.
One of the game’s top shot blockers didn’t get that mug by taking pucks off the face.
“Obviously, that’s tough to believe,” he said with a smirk. “I’ve never been hit there.”
Besides, when it comes to hurling your body in front of 80-mph chunks of hard rubber – as the Avalanche did 19 times Saturday – that’s just not how it’s done. According to Laperriere, the first rule of shot blocking: Use the shins. They’re cloaked in a hard plastic padding.
Like that matters.
“This season I took one in the shin, exactly where I was supposed to,” said Laperriere, who this season led all NHL forwards in blocked shots with 92. “And three months later I still feel it. Big bone bruise.
“You do everything you’re supposed to do and you still suffer.”
It is hockey’s dirtiest job. And the Avalanche did it with gritty regularity against the Stars in Game 1. Seven Colorado players made stinging sacrifices. But the fattest ice packs were saved for Karlis Skrastins and Rob Blake. Combined, the defensemen blocked 12 Dallas shots. The Stars put only 18 shots on net for the game.
For Skrastins, the art of the block comes in a Zen moment: Don’t think, just do.
“It is, what is the word, instinct,” Skrastins said with a smile and a thick Latvian accent. “If it helps the goalie, I do this thing.
“The pain is more in your head. I’m used to it. I never think about that. If you start thinking about it, it is going to be painful.”
During the regular season, Skrastins used his sundry body parts to repel 207 shots, second most in the NHL. During his career he has deflected pucks by using his feet, shins, thighs, hips and, once, his jaw. He now turns his head to the side.
Most shot blockers directly face the shooter, stay on their skates and, if possible, move even closer to cut down the angle. There is one problem with that ploy, Skrastins said: “You never know where the puck is going.”
But some desperate moments call for even greater bodily risk.
If Skrastins is staring down a 2-on-1 rush, he will typically slide hard toward the player with the puck, flashing the maximum amount of flesh to stop either a pass or a shot. And if an opposing player is roaring toward him alone at a brisk speed, Skrastins often will drop to one knee so he can stand up quickly if the shooter fakes a shot.
These nuances are shared by veteran shot blockers and are soaked up by today’s new breed of grinders.
Laperriere began to master the craft in the junior leagues when his coach, Jean Hamel, would fire hundreds of tennis balls at him on the ice. When Laperriere got to St. Louis as a rookie in 1994, he had a ready-made tutor.
“I learn from the best. I watch Guy Carbonneau,” Laperriere said. “He would give us advice. He would say, ‘When you block shots, only the shins should take it. If you take it on the foot or on the leg, there is something wrong.’ Even now, when you see guys out there blocking shots, you watch the way they do it. You take little tips.”
Sometimes that tip is to stand clear. New Colorado goalie Jose Theodore has reached an understanding with his block-happy team: If you get in the way, make darn sure you knock down the puck.
“When they block the shot, they’re pretty sure they’re going to stop it,” Theodore said. “And when they’re not sure, they’re going to let me see the puck.”
During the regular season, Colorado placed four players among the NHL’s top 30 shot blockers: Skrastins, Blake (175), Brett Clark (146) and Patrice Brisebois (137).
In the locker room after Game 1, Dallas players mentioned that tenacious tactic while assessing their own faults – especially their inability to put the puck on net.
“With a guy who’s new to the situation like Theodore, we’ve got to test him more and make him work a little harder,” Stars center Mike Modano said. “They are one of the best shot-blocking teams. But if they are getting blocks, we just have to find other ways of moving (the puck) there.”
Bill Briggs can be reached at 303-820-1720 or bbriggs@denverpost.com.
