Article Archive

In 1995, amateur draft was held in Edmonton. That year, the Edmonton Oilers held the sixth overall choice. Everybody at Edmonton Coliseum was chanting, “Doan! Doan! Doan!” because they wanted the Oilers to use their first round pick to snag Shane Doan; a homegrown Alberta boy. The Oilers’ weak scouting staff illogically didn’t take the hulking kid, but instead selected Steve Kelly. I remember being pretty angry over it, and turning off my television. The next day, while reading my newspaper, there was an interview with the kid the Oilers drafted with their second choice, 31st overall. I couldn’t believe my eyes; this kid was weighed in excess of 230 pounds. There are many more NHL players these days that weigh that much, but five years ago, it was unheard of. That kid’s name was Georges Laraque, and it stuck with me from that day.

After his draft-year, the Edmonton media never wrote anything about Georges. It was odd, because in the1995/96 season there wasn’t much writable about the Edmonton Oilers. They were pretty pathetic; bottom line. I expected to see an article or two on the Oilers’ budding heavyweight, but was denied. I actually had to wait until training camp the next season to read anything about him. An Edmonton reporter wrote an article about the future of Edmonton’s fighters, and Laraque got a mention. Apparently, this youngster could beat the living daylights out of any heavyweight in the Oilers system. He didn’t stick with the team that year, or the following year, not because he couldn’t fight or hit, but because he couldn’t play with or without the puck. His road to the NHL wasn’t going to be easy.

Laraque got called up early in the 1997/98 season because the Oilers had no heavyweight to protect their star players. I remember his first NHL game because I was there. I had been waiting for this day for some time. This youngster had captivated me, and I wanted to witness his first NHL game. Edmonton Coliseum was filled with 17,100 raucous Edmonton and Calgary fans ready to watch the Battle of Alberta. Laraque wasted no time announcing his coming, by dropping the gloves on his first shift with Todd Simpson. I don’t remember who won that game, but I do remember one thing: Everybody was buzzing afterwards about this new kid who had just pummeled the living daylights out of Simpson. The words coming out of every fan’s mouth that night were, “Georges Laraque”.

His stay in Edmonton that year was short. He only played 10 games in total over a couple of call-ups from the minors. He was improving his offensive skills down in the minors during this time. There was excitement in Edmonton that if Laraque could bring his scoring levels up to the caliber of his fighting, that we might very well have a young terror on our hands here. In retrospect, we had no idea what was really coming. But the 1998/99 season brought new hope and promise for this youngster. It was this year that he managed to stick with the club and score his first NHL goal. (Jan. 7, 1999 against Phoenix). For the most part, Georges was integrating slowly. He had caught the attention of Edmonton, but hadn’t done anything with it just yet. Until February, when the Buffalo Sabres and Edmonton Oilers had pair of games a week apart. The first game in Edmonton saw Buffalo’s Rob Ray constantly pester and annoy Edmonton’s top line. Laraque did his job by inviting Ray to tangle with him, but Ray declined. The incident that set the stage for the following week’s memorable tilt started when Ray picked a fight with Bill Guerin. In the newspapers the next day, Laraque called him a coward for not fighting with him, but instead bullying on the smaller Guerin.

The rematch in Buffalo saw the young gun, Laraque, pitted against the champ, Ray. This was all reminiscent in the hearts of Oilers fans of the 1984 Stanley Cup finals which saw the dynasty New York Islanders against the young cusping Oilers. Ten minutes in, Ray finally answered Laraque’s invitation, and what I witnessed next is a memory that I’ll never forget. Laraque showed everybody in North America not to mess with the Edmonton Oilers, by putting his tilt on the highlight reels on every major news sports program on the continent. Laraque showered countless lefts on Rob Ray and usurped any contender in the NHL that day by manhandling the grizzly veteran in a way nobody had seen for years.

The 1999/00 season saw Laraque fill an Oilers uniform consistently for the first time in his career. Laraque had finally figured out how to use his mammoth size while he had the puck. His problem before was that he was too big. He could hit and fight, but couldn’t keep up with the free-wheeling, fast-skating Oilers. He eventually improved his speed and began using his size to his advantage. Anytime the Edmonton Oilers were playing on the road, I guarantee that at least one fan in every NHL city asked themselves afterwards, “Who was that number 27? He was good in the corners!”. Georges Laraque had learned how to use his size to protect the puck when he had it. I thank the heavens that I get to watch Laraque all the time in Edmonton, because when he’s got the puck behind the net, there is not a player in the NHL that can knock him off the puck. It truly is a pleasure. He’ll push you around, brush you off, and still find a way to keep possession of the puck in the corners.

Now that Georges had learned how to keep the puck, all he needed to learn was how to put it in the net. On February 21, 2000, he scored his first NHL hat trick, doing it in a truly bruiser-like fashion, by scoring on a close rebound, a tipped shot in front of the net, and by skating around... actually, make that bowled over the Los Angeles defence. including the sizeable Aki Berg. Georges Laraque had finally realized how to use his size to intimidate, and create offense. This was the recipe that saw him blossom into a full-time NHLer this last season.

In the 2000 playoffs versus Dallas in the first round, Derian Hatcher was given the tough assignment of eliminating the threat that Laraque posed. In that first round series, these two Goliaths wrestled and fought for every inch of ice they could claim. In game two, Hatcher pulled a cheap shot at the end of the game on Todd Marchant that left the diminutive Oilers center injured for two games. If anybody could remember what Laraque did the last time somebody bullied one of his teammates, just ask Rob Ray. The challenge was issued to Hatcher for Game 3 in Edmonton in front of a crazy sold-out Skyreach Center. A couple of minutes into the game, and Laraque and Hatcher lined-up at a faceoff. Everybody in the building was going wild, including me, because we knew exactly what was going to happen to the hated Hatcher. Apparently, Laraque said something to Hatcher during the faceoff, because as soon as the puck dropped, Hatcher ran with his tail-between his legs back to the Dallas bench. We fans were disappointed, but the satisfaction of seeing Hatcher cower in fear on the Dallas bench was sweet enough.

And here I sit, after asking Laraque in an email what exactly he said that would chase the titanic Hatcher off the ice. All’s that he’s told the public is, “that he couldn’t repeat it because he was Catholic”. Maybe in private I’ll get to find out.

I don’t care about the sympathy votes that Donald Brashear gathered at Rivals.com to be named the NHL’s best fighter. Everyone says that Brashear didn’t lost a fight this year. Well, a little known fact is that he continually declined to fight with Laraque this year. They squared off twice, and neither lasted very long with both of the combatants slipping, and ending the fight prematurely. Where there’s heads, there’s tails, and if Brashear had actually fought Laraque this year, I guarantee that he’d have lost. I’m so confident about this that if someone is willing to meet my challenge, I will eat this article with ketchup and tuna-fish if Laraque loses his next fight against Brashear. I’ve watched how Brashear fight Laraque, and all he does is wrestle with him. He’s too scared to let go of Laraque’s jersey and fight toe-to-toe, because he knows he’ll be pummeled. I don’t care what anybody says, Georges Laraque is the best fighter in the NHL. Bar None. Anybody who can ascend to such lofty heights in 3 short years has got to be skilled. Anybody that can beat the living daylights out of Rob Ray, Tony Twist, Sandy McCarthy and Stu Grimson, has got to be feared. Anybody that can cause Donald Brashear and Derian Hatcher to run and hide like cowards has got to be intimidating.