The time Georges Laraque and the Oilers lost their last game on purpose

This lunchtime, to kick off his show on BPM Sports alongside Stéphane Gonzalez, Georges Laraque told a juicy anecdote.

What was it?

It’s simple: when he played in Edmonton, the Oilers purposely lost their last regular-season game of the year. The club already had its ticket to the playoffs, but didn’t yet know who it would face in the first round… And by losing, the Oilers had the opportunity to “pick their opponent” – the Dallas Stars.

Georges didn’t say what year it was… But when you look at the Oilers’ playoff history, the answer is pretty obvious.

The Oilers faced the Stars in the first round in the 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001 seasons… But they won their last regular-season game in those years.

That said, the Oilers also played the Stars in the first round in the 2002-2003 season… And they lost their last (season) game to the Flames:

To decide who we were going to play in the playoffs, we lost on purpose. It was never made public… But we’ve done it before. – Georges Laraque

Georges goes on to say that the coach didn’t have a game plan for the game and didn’t say much in the room before the game, so the players got the message.

His comments can be found at the beginning of the program:

So the Oilers purposely lost their game to Calgary so they’d have a chance to play the Stars in the playoffs.

The result? Georges Laraque’s team was eliminated by Dallas in the very first round of the playoffs.

It’s ironic in a way, because the strategy simply didn’t work.

And what’s a little disturbing is that the Oilers played their last game of the season against the Flames at home.

So they deliberately lost in front of their own fans, which shows a lack of respect for the fans.

In the end, karma caught up with the Oilers, and that’s just as well, because the Edmonton outfit played with fire.

In gusto

– Will they show up?