Las Vegas – One year ago at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Ian Laperriere spent the majority of his game-day morning in the Los Angeles Kings’ hallway, despite the fact he had changed his sweater to that of the Avalanche.
It was understandable. Laperriere spent nine seasons with Los Angeles and became a fan favorite. He had a lot of old friends to greet in the wake of the strike-canceled 2004-05 season, before the Avs and Kings played their annual “Frozen Fury” exhibition game here.
On Saturday morning, Laperriere spent almost all his time in the Avs’ hallway. Not just because the past 12 months have made him feel like a full-fledged Av, but because the Kings of even two years ago look vastly different.
“There’s definitely a lot of new faces over there, even though I still have some good friends on that team,” said Laperriere, who assisted on the first goal of Colorado’s NHL preseason contest with the Kings.
One of those friends is Rob Blake. The former Avalanche defenseman returned to the Kings this season, after parts of five seasons with Colorado, and received cheers from the mostly partisan Kings crowd Saturday after constant boos when he left L.A. in 2001.
“It’s tough to lose a guy like Rob. You can’t really replace a guy like him, but I think it’s just a situation where, as a team, we have to all do a little more,” Laperriere said. “But I’m sure he’s happy there. It’s home for him and his family and I’m sure they’re happy.”
Laperriere, 32, is just as happy in Colorado. He is coming off a career-best 21-goal season and enters this season as one of the Avalanche’s alternate captains. He hopes he can duplicate his statistics of last year, but isn’t going to judge his game by stats.
“I just want to go out and play the way I’m capable, stay within myself and have the best year I can,” he said. “I’m not going to change my game now. I’m going to do it the way I’ve done it for 12 years now.”
Laperriere said he senses this season’s Avalanche team has as good or better chemistry than the one that advanced to the second round of the playoffs.
“We still have great leadership, with guys like Joe (Sakic) and we’ve got a lot of young kids who I’ve been real impressed with so far,” Laperriere said. “We’re going to be a good team, I have no doubt.”
Konowalchuk limbo
The Avalanche still does not have further news on the condition of left wing Steve Konowalchuk, who left training camp after abnormalities surfaced on an electrocardiogram.
The team hopes to get a prognosis early this week.
Budaj starts
Peter Budaj started in goal for the Avs and looked strong in the first period, keeping Los Angeles scoreless. Starter Jose Theodore had the night off.
The “Kid Line” of Wojtek Wolski, Paul Stastny and Chris Stewart played another game together, while Joe Sakic, Milan Hejduk and Andrew Brunette skated on the first line. Sakic left the game after the first period with an undisclosed injury and didn’t return.
Staff writer Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com.
