Nov 24 NHL Suspends Montreal's Laraque for Five Games

Georges Laraque was supposed to meet Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell in a face to face meeting yesterday but opted for a conference call, knowing full well that a face to face most likely meant a lengthy suspension. And in fact, 5 games was the fine for his knee on knee hit to Detroit Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall.

Laraque, post game lamented that his intent was never to injure Kronwall, but just instinctively, wanted to stop his man, practised with the Canadiens yesterday but soon thereafter went on to learn of his fate.

Again, as is usually the case in Montreal, a debate arose as to whether Laraque’s knee extension was blatant or not, however, in the end the suspension (estimated at a $38,000 loss to Laraque) was an indication that intent or not, the end result was another injury to a player for an illegal contact.

Please read on for the official NHL press release.

TORONTO (November 23, 2009) – The National Hockey League announced today that Montreal Canadiens forward Georges Laraque has been suspended for five games, without pay and will forfeit $38,860.10 in salary for an incident that took place during NHL game #315 against the Detroit Red Wings on November 21.

At 8:52 of the first period, Laraque was involved in an incident where he deliberately extended his knee and, through his actions, caused an injury to Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall.  Laraque was assessed a minor penalty for tripping on the play.  

“Mr. Laraque's actions were dangerous and caused a significant injury to his opponent," said NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell.

Laraque will miss Montreal’s next five games – Nov. 24 against Columbus; Nov. 25 at Pittsburgh; Nov. 28 against Washington, Dec. 1 against Toronto and Dec. 3 at Buffalo.  He will be eligible to return Dec. 4 against Boston.

Tags: defenseman \ Detroit Red Wings \ Georges Laraque \ hit \ knee \ Montreal Canadiens \ NHL \ Niklas Kronwall \ Suspends