Savage Doesn’t Blame Laperriere

While combatants and pseudo-combatants tussled below, Brian Savage, for whom the misguided machismo was carried out, said there was no need.

“It wasn’t his fault,” Savage, wearing a surgical collar to support his neck while three cracked vertebrae heal, said softly while high above the Molson Centre ice Saturday. “It was a hockey accident. I don’t blame him.”

“Him” is the Kings’ Ian Laperriere, a participant in the horrifying incident at Staples Center.

On Nov. 20, Montreal’s Savage fanned on a shot and, with his head down, collided with Laperriere, then fell to the ice in convulsions. Savage was taken to a hospital, and after the Kings lost, 5-3, Laperriere raced there to learn of his condition.

“We’re friends,” Savage said. “We play summertime hockey in Montreal.”

That didn’t stop Laperriere from getting a Saturday night challenge from Montreal’s Aaron Asham, who said he was championing Savage, and from Jim Cummins, who rubbed his glove in Laperriere’s face--in hockey parlance, a “face wash”--during a stoppage. Cummins told a Montreal Gazette reporter of the Laperriere-Savage incident, “Sure, it was a clean hit, but you have to stick up for your teammates.”

All of this silliness cost both teams time in the penalty box, but the Kings had two power-play goals in their 4-2 victory.

Savage was watching his teammates for the first time since the incident.

He had just gotten good news, and he hasn’t had much lately. “There’s no ligament damage,” he said. “That means no surgery, and I can start rehabilitation in about a month and maybe come back before the end of the season.”

Gone is the plastic upper-body cast with the metal rods attached to a crown on his head to keep the head immobilized. The surgical collar is in place, and he’s still stiff, but at least he can sleep at night.

And see old friends.

“I’m going to look up Ian after the game,” Savage said. “I want to tell him again there are no hard feelings.”

Somebody needed to tell the rest of the Canadiens.

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Goalie Stephane Fiset will practice with the Kings today in New Jersey, hoping to handle backup chores for Tuesday’s game and, perhaps, start Wednesday against the New York Rangers.