Ian Laperriere said pretty much the same thing on the conference call tonight that he had said to me on CSNPhilly.com earlier in the afternoon.
Here's the transcript of the conference call:
Q: Looking back at the playoffs, was it wanting to play in a Final that led you to this, and do you regret it at all?
“I don’t regret it. It’s one of those things where the MRIs, everything was great, even the writing tests I did, everything was great, and I felt good. I went out there and I had headaches, but it’s a hockey game. You get bumped around and you get headaches. That doesn’t mean you have a concussion. I wanted to play, and I thought well, it’s probably from my neck, I had neck issues in the past. I always found excuses. Maybe it was from me wearing a shield now and putting some strain on my neck. I always looked for something to explain my symptoms. But they didn’t get any better in the summer, and it comes down to the real problem is probably coming from my head.”
Q: Did the first preseason game cause any effects that led you to where you are now?
“Well, I didn’t’ feel right even skating with the boys before training camp started. It’s one thing when you work out all summer and do your stuff… like I said, I was always finding a reason why I was feeling like that that day. Right before camp when I was skating with the other guys, I didn’t feel 100 percent. I was always like, maybe I’m nervous for camp or maybe this, maybe that. But that first game, the New Jersey game, I didn’t’ feel myself out there. That’s when I made my decision, when I was watching the game up in the press box in Toronto, just watching the game it kind of got me off a little bit, I didn’t feel myself just because of the lights and everything. That’s when I decided I had to talk to Jimmy and Homer, which I did the next day.”
Q: Does the fact that a few months since it’s happened and you’re still dealing with these issues make you nervous that this might be a long-term thing?
“Yeah, maybe. Who knows. I risked it when I came on the ice and I didn’t get popped again, maybe I did something – who knows. Nobody knows. That’s why I put a stop to it. That’s why I’m like, I can’t risk my health out there more than I did already. I didn’t want to go out there and get popped again or get hit again. That’s my biggest fear. If I feel like that now, how am I going to feel the next time I get hit? Because the way I play, it’s not if, it’s when I’m going to get hit. That was one of my biggest fears. Now I think I made the right call by making sure I get better not only for hockey, but for the rest of my life.”
Q: When will you go to Pittsburgh to see the doctor there?
“Friday.”
Q: Did you talk to anyone else over the summer about this?
“No, you know what, I was still in denial this summer. That’s the thing. I was lying to myself more than anybody. I feel bad that I didn’t tell the Flyers, but to tell you the truth, I really thought I was 100 percent. I was feeling the symptoms, but I was finding excuses for every single one of them. At the end, I was lying to myself and to the Flyers.”
Q: Did you confide in your wife at all about the headaches?
“Quite a bit. But again, I would say maybe I’m dehydrated, I should drink more, maybe I did too much today, maybe I didn’t have enough sleep, maybe the dog woke me up… when you want to play, you’re always finding excuses. I know there’s people who are going to say he’s crazy, why would you do that, but you have to put yourself in my shoes. I’ve been in this league a long time and I’ve never been close like I was last year. For sure that pushed me to play, especially when all the test results came back normal. I ‘m like you know what, I’ll deal with the headaches, I want to play so bad. I know some people are going to judge me on that, but they gotta be careful because they’re not in my shoes and they’ll never be in my shoes. They don’t know what I went through all my life just to get there. For me to miss the opportunity to play in the semifinals and the finals, it would take a lot. Obviously it was a brain injury, but in my case all the tests came back normal and I felt pretty good, so I thought, I gotta go back. So some people are going to judge me, but oh well. That’s my decision and I’ll live with the consequences.”
Q: Do you feel like this is your last chance to get this right?
“Yeah. There’s no doubt in my mind I’m staying out till I’m 100 percent. What scares me the most is getting hit again, and what am I going to be next? Am I going to be a miserable guy? I don’t want to be like that. I want to be myself when I leave this game. I feel like if I get popped again or hit again or punched… the way I play… I just can’t be a 50-goal scorer. I’d love to, but I just can’t change my game right now. I can’t come back 90 percent, I’ve got to come back 100 percent.”
**
Courtesy of the Flyers, here is the conference call transcript from Paul Holmgren with the beat writers:
Philadelphia Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren held a conference call today to discuss injury updates on goaltender Michael Leighton and right wing Ian Laperriere. Below are his comments followed by a Q&A.
“As a follow-up to yesterday, first off all with Michael Leighton – Michael saw another doctor last night and a doctor this morning as well. It was discovered through those visits that right now we’re dealing with a bulging disk in his lower back and we’re going to put him on the shelf for about a month.
“The second guy is Ian Laperriere. He’ll be out indefinitely because of some post-concussion symptoms that he’s dealing with, probably from last year. Over the next period of time… he’s getting an MRI today and Friday he’ll be going to see the doctor he saw in Pittsburgh last year when he had the injury in the playoffs. We won’t have any information on Ian until sometime next week. But he’s going to be out indefinitely with post-concussion symptoms.”
Q: With regards to Laperriere, how does this affect your decision with Bill Guerin?
“That’s a good question. I don’t know how it affects it. Obviously Billy came in on a tryout, which is admirable. We’re continuing with that process. He’s in the lineup for tonight – whether he plays tonight or not, I’m not sure if the coaches have decided on a lineup for tonight, but he is in the lineup – and that process will continue, as well as some of the kids that we’re continuing to look at. As I said yesterday, the play of some of these guys is making the decision-making a difficult process. I don’t mean that in a bad way, that’s probably a good thing. I think Billy, he’s played okay. We’ll just see how it plays out here over the next four or five days.”
Q: With regard to Michael Leighton’s injury, was surgery discussed as an option?
“It’s a bulging disk. My personal experience with bulging disks is they go back in eventually. It’s not a herniated disk, which is a bigger issue in and of itself. It’s a bulging disk, and we think with strengthening and rehab and time that he’ll be OK. Right now we think that time period is a month just to let everything settle down. He’s actually in here working out today and doing some other stuff. It’s uncomfortable when that happens, and that’s what he’s dealing with right now. Because of the position, in goal, it’s a little more dicey than a regular player because of the way he’s bent over all the time in net.”
Q: Are you comfortable with Brian Boucher and Sergei Bobrovsky to start the season?
“The other guy who hasn’t been in the equation yet is Johan Backlund. We’re hoping that Johan, over the last few days he’s had noticeable improvement in how he felt with the hip surgery that he had in the summer. We’re hoping that he’s going to be OK to play one of the last two, if not both of the last two games. I think Brian’s played very well so far in the preseason, and I think obviously Bobrovsky’s played very well too. It is what it is…we’ll deal with it.
Q: So you’re OK with your goaltending right now – there’s not going to be any outside moves?
“No.”
Q: If [Backlund] proves he’s able to go and is ready to play, does your final decision there come down to finances?
“Not really. Because of the bonus cushion, Bobrovsky’s [salary cap] number would be $900 [thousand]. Bouch’s is $925, Johan’s is $800, and Michael’s is $1.55 [million]. So I don’t think finances are an issue. What we decide, either way it will work. That’s not an issue.”
Q: How did this pop up with [Michael]? Did he struggle with it this summer?
“We don’t know that it’s related to what happened this summer. He came in this summer when he had issues, and they didn’t discover any kind of a bulging disk at that time. It wasn’t really discovered until today. There were a bunch of different guys that were reading the MRI between last night and today. We got a curveball thrown at us too. Like I said, it is what it is right now, and we’ll deal with it.
Q: How about Ian?
“Lappy came to me on Saturday and expressed some concerns about how he’s feeling. He never let on over the course of the summer that he was having any effects over the summer. But in my talks with him on Saturday he did say he wasn’t completely honest about how he felt and he tried to work through some things. I think the prudent thing for us to do now is to just get him checked out properly and see what we’re dealing with. The reason we’re having him get an MRI today is to see... if you remember last year he had that little spot on his brain where it showed a little bleeding in front. Before he played last year, the spot didn’t go away but the bleeding had stopped. We wanted to just get that checked out and cover our bases.
Q: On the team having been through this sort of adversity last year
“It’s unfortunate for the two individuals we’re talking about today, Lappy and Michael. They were both obviously big parts of our team at the end of last year. To get out of the gates with news like I’m delivering today to you guys and like I got earlier this morning with regards to Michael… I kind of knew something was up with Lappy, and I was going to talk about it yesterday and I just let it go, but we needed to get it out there today. It’s tough. We do have other players who have played well in training camp. Sometimes the unfortunate things that happen to certain players are actually good things for other players. So that’s the way we’ll handle it.”
**
BTW: Again, it sounds like B. Holmstrom and M. Testwuide are ahead of Guerin ...
Here's my story on CSNPhilly.cOM:
click here 
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»