We could use a heayweight

Rick Stephens
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2

Can someone please show Laraque the way to the stands? He doesn’t belong on the ice. Not on that team. He is painfully slow, can’t create any type of offense, isn’t a good defensive player and doesn’t want to fight.



Actually, Georges of the Jungle actually received three fighting majors this season. The first one was against Shawn Thornton who actually went right for Laraque, knowing full well he would have to pay for what he did to Steve Begin. In hindsight, maybe Shawn could have skated right next to Big G all day long without having to drop the gloves. But instead, Thornton faced the music and did his best hanging to Laraque, trying not to get hurt too badly.

Then there was this farce in Phoenix. After Kurt Sauer injured our most talented left winger, Tom Kostopoulos had to drop the gloves to avenge his teammate. Then the toughest fighter in the league dropped his gloves and danced with Todd Fedoruk, a guy he owned 5 times already in his career. Again, Fedoruk tried not to die.



And then, the funniest thing happened. In Long Island he faced somebody even bigger than him. Mitch Fritz is 6’8” and on this fight, Big G barely tried not to get hit. He probably didn’t want to mess up his good looks.



This year the Montreal Canadiens were involved in 10 fights. Laraque got three. Didn’t we sign him to make sure guys like Kostopoulos, Lapierre and Begin could do their job without fear? Now Begin fear for his job, Kostopoulos had to drop the gloves twice and Lapierre had to fight too. Add to that the two fights Bouillon was involved in, another fight from Latendresse (???) and tonight’s episode with Komisarek and you have to wonder… WHY did we sign Laraque?

I am not questioning Bob Gainey’s move. I’m wondering about Laraque’s motivation to play. I’m wondering about his “code”. After the Phoenix game, he explained his decision not to fight Kurt Sauer by saying that he would have probably been suspended. Here’s some news for you Georges: NOT having you in the lineup would be an improvement. Begin, Kostopoulos, Dandenault are fighting tooth and nails for their job. You don’t want to? Get your towering frame in the press box. Go have a little talk with Michel Bergeron. You are probably the only male in Montreal who could learn from him anyway.



I would love to have Georges Laraque in the Montreal lineup. If he was ready to drop the gloves to protect his linemates fast enough that Bouillon doesn’t have to do it for him. If he was ready to drop the gloves to change the pace of a game where his whole team looked asleep. If he was ready to drop the gloves to shut up Lucic. NOT if he is ready to fight only a list of 17 players he handpicked before the start of the season. People “in his weight class”. Right now “Big Georges” is only a big #*%?$ waste of ice time. Ice time that could be used by Begin. And I’m pretty sure he’d drop the gloves to protect his teammates.

RDS is even reporting that Komisarek might have injured his hand in the fight. It’s funny because in a conference call last summer, Georges said he was brought in so that a guy like Komisarek wouldn’t have to drop the gloves. “He is too important on the ice to have him in the penalty box for five”. How about on the injury list for a week?



Real game review to come later on.

image taken from www.sportsocracy.org

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Rick Stephens
http://www.allhabs.net/
Rick is the Editor-in-Chief, lead contributor, and owner of the All Habs network of websites. His mission is to build a community of Canadiens fans who are informed, engaged and connected. He is the vision behind all four sites within the network - All Habs, Habs Tweetup, We Are Canadiens, and The Montreal Forum - and is responsible for the design and layout of each. In concert with the strong belief that "Habs fans are everywhere!", Rick is pleased that people use All Habs as a conduit to find and connect with other Habs fans worldwide. He is also proud that Habs Tweetups have allowed fans to meet in person and develop long lasting friendships.

2 COMMENTS

  1. I read elsewhere that Lucic injured his hand in the fight. I missed it but it sounded like Komo didn’t fare so well. Lucic has had a lot more practice coming out of the WHL.

    I wonder if Trevor Timmons was watching, he obviously didn’t pay much attention to Lucic in 2006, when the Habs propect list was screaming for a big, physical, left winger. It still is, as a matter of fact. Maybe they can trade one of the many right handed puck moving defensemen (including David Fischer) they drafted in the past few years for an extra pick down the road.

  2. There is a method to Blubber George’s madness. He just packs on more pounds to gradually eliminate all other NHL players from his “weight class”..

    First you get lots of money so you can afford the best cuts of beef at the finest restaurants, as much as you could ever hope to eat.

    Secondly you show up in training camp out of shape so you pull a muscle or two and don’t have to go out on the ice, which would cut into your eating time, and slow the weight gaining process through cardio vascular exercise.

    Thirdly you set forth your “code” which amounts to NOT PICKING ON ANYONE LESS OVERWEIGHT THAN YOURSELF. That eliminates most of your possible opponents, which means less time burning up calories on the ice. Which means more weight gain, which further reduces the list of possible opponents, which further reduces ice time….and so on and so forth.

    It’s brilliant really, but hey, Gino Odjick stole a few million from the Habs a few years back under similar circumstance, so maybe it is not a totally original idea.

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