Very good fighter in his prime, a great teammate by all accounts, was anything you wanted in an enforcer. Happy trails, Eric!
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Originally Posted by BruinsNeedaRussian
Great fighter, hope he retired healthy.
He had a bad groin injury the season after he won the Cup, it killed what little mobility he had and he became a liability other than as a fighter. Other than that though, the article says he's in good health.
Godard was my favourite enforcer for years and I was overjoyed when he became a Penguin. The guy was tough as hell, would protect any of his teammates, and did a hell of a job doing it. I too will never forget him racing off the bench to protect Brent Johnson during that Pens/Isles debacle. Best of all, in addition to being a tough-as-nails badass mother****er he was a great guy off the ice as well. I remember reading that he did a whole bunch of extra charity work while with the Pens.
Enjoy your retirement Eric you deserve it. Like others have said, hopefully he retired healthy.
good point. 83-84 was 2 seasons before i started following hockey. i only know of his half season in 93-94. aside from one epic fight with probert that year, i don't recall much of an impact (enforcer-wise). between caufield, tamer, leroux, oliwa, roy, & laraque i don't feel any of those guys came close to godard. they were either capable fighters who didn't perform the role well (laraque?!!!), or horrible fighters who knew what being an enforcer meant (caufield).
anyway, they'r'e all irrelevant if you have a rick ****ing tocchet! ahhh, what a luxury.
Very good fighter in his prime, a great teammate by all accounts, was anything you wanted in an enforcer. Happy trails, Eric!
He had a bad groin injury the season after he won the Cup, it killed what little mobility he had and he became a liability other than as a fighter. Other than that though, the article says he's in good health.
Yeah speaking of health it's interesting how the end of that news article it mentions that he's had epilepsy since he was 17. I never knew that. What a warrior.
So after he left Pittsburgh for Dallas did he actually play any in other NHL games after that??? Or could we say that he retired a Penguin???
He spent all of last season in the AHL, then Dallas bought out his contract this summer. Godard's last NHL game was with the Pens, on April 10 2011 against Atlanta, he even had an assist.
One of my favourite Godard moments was during the Pens cup finals when CBC did short profiles with alll of the players. "I'm Eric Godard. When I was a kid my favourite player was Petr Sykora."
Great enforcer. Great guy. Great Vernon guy.
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Originally Posted by Jules Winnfield
Godard was a great guy on the Pens. Wonder what he's going to do now.
Always loved seeing him and his girlfriend at the games. She's a hawty...
McSorely was brought in to spotshift with Mario thinking he'd be able to score a little bit, while kicking ass. Then Mario was too banged up to play that year, so McSorely was a man without a job to do on the Pens for about 40 games, then was traded.
I was super young during his first tour, but I'm not even sure he was an enforcer. Think he was a defenseman who just fought a lot.
Anyways, seems to be the unanimous opinion in Pitt that the best enforcer to ever come through here was Godard. As others have said, a lot of the other guys were either crap fighters (Steve McKenna), didn't do the job properly (Francois Leroux, Georges Laraque) or were complete liabilities on the ice (Steve MacIntyre).
Godard was an awesome fighter, who could play enough that he didn't hurt you when he got a shift and understood/executed the job perfectly.
I was super young during his first tour, but I'm not even sure he was an enforcer. Think he was a defenseman who just fought a lot.
I was too young to watch Marty's first stint either. FWIW in 83-84 season he had 19 fights and his opponents included Al Secord, Clark Gillies, Dave Brown, Chris Nilan (x2), Mark Messier (x2) and Paul Holmgren among others.
But I actually agree with others that Godard is THE Penguins enforcer. Marty's time was too short and he's so much more associated with other teams. Eric always looked after his teammates and wasn't a complete liability hockeywise either. Happy retirement to him.
I too will never forget him racing off the bench to protect Brent Johnson during that Pens/Isles debacle. Best of all, in addition to being a tough-as-nails badass mother****er he was a great guy off the ice as well. I remember reading that he did a whole bunch of extra charity work while with the Pens.
great post, agreed. i loved him on the Pens.
Beat me to it.
