Laine brings out the best in Caufield | Georges Laraque 'sold' for $75,000 (or less)

Caufield finally has some real challenge in his role as a Montreal scorer. He no longer automatically has access to the best conditions de facto.

It’s no longer him, the best shooter on the team; it’s Patrik Hatrik Laine.

The young American forward will have to prove over the next few weeks that he deserves every privilege the coach gives him (or not). He now has to operate in a more meritocratic system where internal competition will be finally present for him.

And he will have to continue developing into a more complete player.

Since Laine’s return, Caufield has 1 goal and 6 assists. That’s a point per game, you know…

The internal competition clearly isn’t stifling him. So much the better!

And Patrik Laine’s perfect attitude – I can always do better, I am not satisfied – will force Caufield to aim even higher in my opinion.

$40,000 or $75,000 to “buy Georges Laraque”
JT and I recorded yesterday (and published this morning) our 10th and final episode of season 2 of Stanley25.

We set out to find the amount for which Georges Laraque was sold/traded in 1996. Reminder: Laraque went from the Laval Titan to the St-Hyacinthe Laser, then to the Granby Predators, with whom he won the Memorial Cup.

Jean spoke with the group of owners who bought, then sold Georges Laraque during the same season. According to their version of events, Georges was bought for $60,000, then sold for $40,000 a few weeks later.

But Georges heard at that time that he had been sold for $75,000.

Who has the exact figure? Who has the best memory?

It doesn’t matter…we can agree that it’s a lot of cash back then (and for a QMJHL player). We’re talking about $100,000 to $135,000 in today’s value.

I invite you to watch the full episode to learn more about the Mathias Brunet/Martin Lemay story (which is settled, thank God), about Juraj Slafkovsky’s lifestyle, about the parallels between Patrik Laine and Alex Kovalev, about the hotels booked by our sports journalists, and much more.

Lane Hutson played less (and that’s okay)
The CH crushed the Sabres yesterday and Lane Hutson played 18:30 on the ice. These are two facts.

Third fact: Mike Matheson (24:40), Arber Xhakej (20:18), and Kaiden Guhle (20:15) all played more than Hutson. And that’s just fine!

Hutson is a rookie and even though he is excellent, playing 25 minutes per game doesn’t make sense at his age. You can’t have everything handed to you on a platter…

And seeing Arber Xhekaj find his rhythm is a blessing for the Montreal club.

Christmas replacements
The regular programming of our TV and radio shows will end this week. Replacement teams will take over.

At BPM Sports, Greg Lanctôt will host a show from 7:00 to 11:00 on weekdays for the next two weeks (and his weekend show will be paused). Martin Leclerc, Renaud Lavoie, Anthony Marcotte, Patrick Friolet, and many others will collaborate with Greg.

From what I understand, the show will then be replayed throughout the rest of the day.

At 98.5 FM, Mario Langlois will be going on vacation in a few days. Some evenings, he will be replaced by Louis Jean while on others, it will be Meeker Guerrier.

Let’s remember that Meeker was the one who replaced Jeremy Filosa in the show following Philippe Cantin. By the way, we are still waiting for news about Filosa’s “rehabilitation”…

Did he take the journalism course that was imposed on him?

It’s worth noting that Filo is currently doing the research and booking for Mario Langlois’s show and according to the people I spoke to, he is excellent and behaves like a true professional.

I can’t wait to see if we will find him on air in January.