Think you know NHL tough guy
Georges Laraque? Think again.
Sure, Laraque knows all
about the rough side of the game of hockey. Ottawa Senators
pugilist Chris Neil called him "probably the toughest in the
league." Phoenix Coyotes brawler Paul Bisonette said "I'm not
really afraid of anyone, but if I were to fight him, I'd probably
be shaking going in." Ask Laraque, though, and he'd say that's not
who he is.
Known as a player who was
unfailingly respectful and gentlemanly even when he was going
toe-to-toe with the toughest guys in the toughest league in the
world, today Laraque takes that courageous sense of what is fair
into fights that are much more important than the outcome of a
hockey game.
The son of Haitian
immigrants, Laraque campaigns for World Vision to help with Haitian
relief.
A committed believer in
animal rights (and probably the toughest vegan in the world),
Laraque is a spokesperson for PETA.
A conscientious
environmentalist, Laraque stepped up to be the deputy leader of the
Green Party.
In this intimate, often
surprising, biography, Laraque tells the story of a hockey player's
life that is unlike any other, from a childhood facing racism in
Quebec's minor hockey system, to the thrill of the Stanley Cup
Finals as an Edmonton Oiler, and sharing a dressing room with
Sidney Crosby-and from dropping the gloves on the ice to refusing
to back back down from much more serious fights off the
ice.
Honest, startling, and
brave, this is a portrait of a hockey player unlike any you've seen
before.
