His Toughest Opponent

Ian Laperriere has been called everything.

Agitator. Pest. Mouthy irritant.

But Wednesday afternoon, in a dimly lighted hallway in the quiet pregame underbelly of Dallas’ American Airlines Center, he was something else.

Human.

The Kings were hours away from playing the Dallas Stars, but the feisty Laperriere wasn’t thinking about a hockey game. He was crying.

It is nearly a year since his father, Michel, died of pancreatic cancer, and the mention of it brings Laperriere back to the worst weeks of his life, a time when he lost weight without thinking about it and contended with the biggest off-ice antagonist he’d ever faced, depression.

The hyperkinetic King forward, more popular for his grit and scrappiness than a goal-scoring touch, couldn’t have felt more removed from the theater of 18,000 screaming fans after his father’s death.

“I was depressed,” he said. “I was down to 187 pounds. I play at 205. He was my best friend. I still get emotional talking about him. I play hockey because he’s the one that put skates on my feet. Every day, I would talk to him on the phone, after games, after practice. He would wait for me to call.

“I was looking forward to him seeing my kids grow up. It’s too bad he left so early. I’m 30 years old. I need my dad. I can’t deal with that.”

Michel Laperriere was 55 when he died last April 11, five days after the Kings had closed the books on an unproductive, non-playoff season.

For Laperriere -- Lappy, to teammates and friends -- it was the first of many unsettling chapters. They continued with two off-season hernia surgeries and ended, blessedly in his mind, with the start of training camp in September.

“When you’re at the rink, you’ve got to deal with something else,” he said. “You don’t forget about what you went through, but you’re doing something different. It couldn’t happen quickly enough. It seemed like bad news after bad news. I couldn’t wait to get back.”

Laperriere was his usual self on the ice, yapping at opponents and administering his fair share of face washes. Scoring, however, came slowly.

Laperriere went without a goal in 20 games and then was sidelined by a serious concussion that had him thinking about his career. It was his sixth concussion in 10 pro seasons.

“It’s human nature to think like that,” he said. “I love what I do, but you’ve got a life to live after you’re done playing. To do that, you need to be healthy. Right now I’m fine, but at the time you don’t know if you’re going to snap out of it or when.”

He missed 19 games because of the concussion and went without a goal in seven more games after his return. He finally scored, twice, against the Calgary Flames on Jan. 20.

“At one point when I was at 25 games without a goal, it was at the back of my mind, but I try to do other stuff out there,” he said. “I don’t look at the scoring side of my career because I don’t have a career on that side. My game’s as a defensive player, a physical player, who kills penalties. It never crossed my mind, ‘Oh my God, I’m panicking.’ I’ve been through enough this summer and that didn’t worry me at all.”

Lately, though, Laperriere has been one of the Kings’ top scorers. He has six goals in the last nine games, bringing to mind, however briefly, his flying-circus days in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, where he had 41 goals in 62 games with Drummondville in 1993-94.

The Mighty Ducks, who play the Kings in consecutive afternoon games today and Sunday, plan to use Sergei Fedorov’s line against Laperriere, Eric Belanger and Sean Avery. Usually it’s the other way around -- the stars are shadowed by the checking-line plow horses -- but not this weekend.

“Laperriere and them are the ones who are getting things done for them the last 10 games,” Duck Coach Mike Babcock said. “There are key players on their team, but you have to look at their line as the one that’s been doing the scoring. It’s a work-ethic thing.”

Grinding, scrapping and working the corners are the main reasons Laperriere is still in the league. The scoring touch he had in junior hockey never translated to the NHL. He had 13 goals with the St. Louis Blues in 1994-95 but has never since been back to double figures.

He has led in other categories -- penalty minutes, stitches, broken noses. His 1,002 penalty minutes rank fifth on the Kings’ career list. By the time Laperriere was 25, he had broken his nose six times.

Teammates and coaches have noticed. He has been voted the Kings’ most popular player four times in the last seven seasons, tying Marcel Dionne and Butch Goring in that category.

“He’s been a guy that I’ve relied on ever since I’ve been here to be one of our leaders,” said King Coach Andy Murray, in his fifth season. “I’m a strong supporter of his.”

Laperriere is already bracing for the one-year mark of his father’s death, vowing to stay strong in a tough time that could be tempered by the birth of his second son. Laperriere’s wife, Magali, is due April 5.

“April 11 won’t be an easy day, but I’ll have my new son with me,” Laperriere said.

*

Times staff writer Chris Foster contributed to this report.