Big Georges Laraque Talks Big About Series

One can argue this is the series that Bob Gainey signed him for. Him, is of course "Big" Georges Laraque, the oft-named best enforcer in the NHL. When the Montreal Canadiens signed the 32 year old enforcer to a 3 year contract that payed him 1.5 million dollars a year the reason was evident: to try and match the Boston Bruins physical style of play. Gainey gave a quite simple explanation to the media for the signing on July 3rd, 2008 stating "We reached the point last season where our players got better and they attracted more attention from the opposition, we thought it would be good if we could sign a robust, physical player like Georges.".

Although the signing seemed like a plus at the time, it's safe to say things haven't really worked out the way Georges expected. When Georges wasn't hampered by a groin injury, he often found himself in the Press Box. In fact, Laraque suited up in just 33 games for the Habs, his lowest total since his rookie 1997-98 season. Even in those 33 games, Laraque found a dance partner just 9 times, posting a 6-2-1 record according to HockeyFights.com. One of those losses came against Bruins tough-guy Shawn Thornton, but even in Laraque's worst season of his career, he's still finding time to mouth to the press.

Today during an interview with KCAC in Montreal, "BGL" went on to say that Shawn Thornton was "not in his league" and was too small to compete with Georges. Really Laraque? Have you noticed this from your seat in the 9th level of the TD Banknorth Garden? How about all 2 of the games you've played against Boston, was Thornton too afraid to fight you? Oh, you have an answer..great! "A few of his teammates told me that he was scared of me before the October 15th game in Montreal". Really, so let me get this right, Shawn Thornton's teammates told you they're afraid of you? I have an incredibly hard time believing that.

Laraque wasn't done just yet as he went on to further talk about Thornton, "If he wants to step up to me, especially in Boston, I'll be more than happy to go with him because I'll shut up the fans at the Garden.". Wow Georges, those are pretty tough words for a guy who has averaged just over 7 minutes a game, when he actually plays. To quote UConn basketball Coach Jim Calhoun "My best advice to you? Shut up."

Fact is Georgy, your goon hockey doesn't happen in the playoffs. So yeah, go ahead and go after Thornton, I'd love to see Bob "Oscar The Grouch look-a-like" Gainey suit you up for Game 1 because in order to do that, he'd have to take an actual hockey player out of the line-up. As for "shutting the fans at the Garden up", it's going to be pretty hard to shut us up when you're in the box for interference as the Bruins are on the powerplay.