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| Jeff Carter comes to LA (photo: Ikiri) |
This piece doesn’t need much of an introduction. Ian Laperriere is one of the most honest and straight forward guys in hockey. He’ll tell you exactly how it is and he always speaks from the heart.
In a MayorsManor podcast two years ago he had some choice words for former teammate Sean Avery and he shared his admiration for Mike Richards immediately after the Kings acquired him last summer (note: both of those interviews are linked below).
So, when LA GM Dean Lombardi traded for Jeff Carter last week, of course, the first person I reached out to was Lappy. He’s sort of become the unofficial Flyers correspondent for MayorsManor.
We played part of his interview on Sunday’s MayorsManor LIVE show. However, here’s more of what he had to say about the Kings’ newest forward…
“He’s a goal scorer,” Laperriere began, when describing Carter. “I think the Kings went to take care of their weakness. They’ve had a hard time scoring goals this year. One thing that Jeff Carter can do is score goals, and big goals too. He’s a big body out there who can shoot the puck. He’s really good on the power play (too)…That’s why Dean and his staff went and paid a pretty good price to go get a proven goal scorer.”
As for Carter’s much publicized problems in Columbus, his former Flyers teammate understood part of what was going on…
“Since day one in Columbus he said he was unhappy and pretty much wanted to get out of there. When you’re not happy you won’t perform. But, Carter’s proven in the past that he can perform and he can produce. I’m sure he’s going to be very successful in LA, especially in the first year or two. He’s happy to be back with Richie – and you know what, I think he’s going to score 15-20 goals by the end of the year. He’s one of those guys who’s a streaky goal scorer. Now, he’s happy and I’m sure he’s going to produce big time.”
That’s quite the proclamation when you look at the schedule and see there are only about 20 games left on the season.
Although they’re often linked in conversation, Laperriere also pointed out a few of the differences between Carter and Richards…
“Richie’s a heart-and-soul guy with skill and Carts is a goal scorer. They all have (one thing) in common, when they produce they’re in a good mood. But when they don’t produce they’re in a bad mood – the goal scorers I’m talking about. They’re totally different…Carts will score big goals, but he’s very streaky. If he doesn’t produce, you’ll be able to tell.”
Before you read anything into that last sentence, Laperriere clarified…
“If I’m the Kings, I want him on my team because he’s going to take care of a weakness on the team and that’s scoring goals.”
And just how much does Laperriere love Richards? He pretty much reaffirmed the things he said last June when talking about the former Flyers captain – stating that if he was running a team, Richards would be on the short list of five players he would have to have.
We’ll have more with Lappy later. In the next segment he talks about the criticism Wayne Simmonds took in LA for his comments on HBO’s 24/7 about Philadelphia being a better hockey town.
RELATED ARTICLES:
Laperriere on the Richards vs. Pronger feud
Mike Richards – ‘Laperriere guided me in the right direction’
Interview with former Kings coach Andy Murray – includes word association
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