Yeah, I mean he was a pretty damn strong guy. He was a feared and respected enforcer, but he was a cheap fighter.
That was near the end of it. When he first started in Edmonton he'd wail away on people. Then he became a bit of a pansy and was nice and didn't want to hurt anyone.
He didn't even fight much and actually didn't like it. I remember Hab fans ridiculing me when I told them they weren't getting what they thought when they signed him. they all figured "the whole team would grow 6 inches" just due to his presence. Eventually, they found out.
Probert, Nilan (his nickname is Knuckles, for god's sake), Grimson, Peluso, etc are just some examples of fighters from a relatively brief period of "all time" that I would rank above Laraque. It's easy enough to add to the list by expanding the included years to just 10 years in both directions, imo, let alone continue beyond that (at some point we get to include Scott, Boogaard, etc). Heck, I might even consider Lindros to be a better fighter, lol.
Last edited by Ohashi_Jouzu: 10-24-2012 at 08:03 PM.
Georges Laraque might be the best in the sense that, if there was a tournament with all the best fighters, he'd have a shot at winning it. He definitely wasn't the greatest though.
In the sense that I think Georges could ragdoll guys like Probert and Kocur ... the argument could be made.
The problem with Georges was that he wouldn't engage with someone that wasn't very willing to go and as such he was never a very effective enforcer.
Doubt it, Probert and Kocur played in the era of hockey that was hardest on enforcers. Every team had them and there wasnt as many rules policing it so you always had to step up. Kocur would put a couple on Laraques chin and Laraque would be in la la land. Its hard to compare eras, Gordie Howe obviously wouldnt be able to take Laraque but hockey was different then and Gordie dominated fights in a similar way.
However, guys like Probert, Kocur, Dave Brown can be easily compared to him and have much more impressive resumes in my opinion. They also didnt have the pansy attitude Laraque had. Those guys were crazy and loved to fight. An old washed up Chicago Probert hung in there with Laraque in his Edmonton days when Larague was absolutely killing everyone
The few times Probie lost or even had a close figt he would come back and absolutely wallop the guy
Doubt it, Probert and Kocur played in the era of hockey that was hardest on enforcers. Every team had them and there wasnt as many rules policing it so you always had to step up. Kocur would put a couple on Laraques chin and Laraque would be in la la land. Its hard to compare eras, Gordie Howe obviously wouldnt be able to take Laraque but hockey was different then and Gordie dominated fights in a similar way.
However, guys like Probert, Kocur, Dave Brown can be easily compared to him and have much more impressive resumes in my opinion. They also didnt have the pansy attitude Laraque had. Those guys were crazy and loved to fight. An old washed up Chicago Probert hung in there with Laraque in his Edmonton days when Larague was absolutely killing everyone
The few times Probie lost or even had a close figt he would come back and absolutely wallop the guy
Then you had Kocur doing this to people
Was kordic or kocur the one who did steroids? or was it neither of them? i always forget.
