With 1,126 penalty minutes in 695 games and a whole lot of fights, Georges Laraque is one of the most feared enforcers in NHL history.
Laraque played for the Edmonton Oilers, Arizona Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Montreal Canadiens and had the exact same role in every team. Laraque was a nightmare to play against, but his teammates loved him.
Laraque was a fighting champion, and even the toughest guys in the league feared dropping the gloves with him. But one time, he actually fought his own athletic trainer in a boxing fight.
”When I was in Edmonton I had Glenn Sather as general manager,” former Oilers goalie Tommy Salo said in a Swedish magazine.
”One day, he made a bet that our athletic trainer would beat our best fighter, Georges Laraque. So Sather arranged a fight with a boxing ring in the locker room, in front of all the players. Our athletic trainer was an old kickboxer, so everyone agreed it would be a great fight.”
Sather was so confident in his athletic coach that he bet $1000 on him winning against Laraque.
”In the beginning of the fight, it was just fun and games. But the longer it went, the more serious it got. In the end, they fought each other real bad. They were going at each other and suddenly, they both got a big hit,” Salo said.
”They were both knocked out at the same time. They fell and just couldn’t get up.”
Everyone was happy, even though Laraque had to be sidelined for some time.
”Laraque picked up an injury in the fight and missed a couple of games, and it all had to be covered up. What happened to the bet? I don’t know. But Sather was happy with the fight.”
