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