PHOENIX - Georges Laraque got the best of the Phoenix Coyotes.

Laraque won a one-punch fight in the opening minutes and scored two goals as the Edmonton Oilers routed Phoenix 7-1 last night, dropping the Coyotes to 1-3-1 on their five-game homestand.

Laraque, playing just his third game of the season, flattened Phoenix's Steve Leach with a left hook 2:59 into the game and beat goalie Jimmy Waite for two goals in the final 1:45.

"I'm very happy," Laraque said. "I got my first two goals, and I got in a good fight. It's a dream come true. I'm on cloud nine."

They brought it to a dull roar as he worked the puck along the end boards in an almost comical scene, fending off Anaheim defenders like a kid playing keepaway with his little brother's toque. 

And when he battled his way to a clear-cut decision over Duck enforcer Stu Grimson, they brought the house down. 
Heaven knows Edmonton Oiler fans haven't had many reasons to roar this season, but they've been shouting out loud for big Georges Laraque. 

And why not? It's hard not to cheer for the enthusiastic 240-pound rookie, who calls it music to his ears when the Skyreach faithful show their approval. 

"There's nothing I could describe in the world that's as great as the fans cheering,'' said the 22-year-old tough guy, who grew up more accustomed to racial taunts and ugly insults in Quebec's amateur hockey system. 

"When the fans here cheer like that, the adrenalin goes right through my body and gives me shivers. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. 

"Last game they were cheering for us when we skated to the bench! That was unbelievable! It's kind of funny. We don't play much, but every time we get a shift we seem to get an ovation. I guess they like hard work.'' 

That's what he's been giving them. Laraque's had opportunities to crack the NHL before, but each time he's been back in the minors before his Oiler stall could even get warm. 

This time he seems to be sticking. Twenty one games and counting. You won't find him crossing his fingers, though.

DO YOUR JOB 

"I'm not hoping for anything,'' he said in his thick French accent. "You can't hope in hockey. Hoping doesn't get you anything. You have to go out and work hard, do your job and try to force them to keep you here.'' 

So far, so good. He's done everything the coaches have asked of him. His skating has improved immensely in the past year, he's taking on all comers and he's incredibly strong on the puck. He'd have 10 assists by now if his linemates knew enough to head for the slot when Furious George has control behind the net. 

"This year I have more confidence with the puck. Last year, every time I had it it was like a hot potato. I just got rid of it. Ice it. Dump it. 

'`This year I want to control it behind the net, make plays. I was doing that in the American Hockey League, but to tell you the truth I never thought I could control the puck like that up here. But I can. The toughness is the same, it's only hockey-wise that's been different since last year.'' 

Laraque has always been tough, but it wasn't until five years ago he decided to major in enforcement. 

"I used to be the top scorer on my team, then in midget AAA I slowed to a point a game,'' he said. "Then when I went to the Quebec League I became a fighter. It just happened. I was big, I was hitting guys. I was 17 and I was standing up for myself.'' 

Some guys don't have the stomach for that kind of work. Louie DeBrusk comes to mind. Others, like Laraque, don't mind bending the odd nose. 

"You can never tell somebody he's going to be a tough guy, especially at 17. It has to come from himself. I saw it in Junior all the time. Scouts and coaches going up to big guys and telling them they had to fight. That's the worst thing you can do. You can burn a kid like that. How many of those kids could have ended up like Eric Daze? You never know. 

"Me? I like fighting. People who see me off the ice can't believe I'm that kind of guy. Off the ice I don't like trouble, I'll be the nicest guy around, talk to everybody. But on the ice ... it just gets in my blood. It's very hard to explain.'' 

His resume is growing longer by the week. Grimson. Donald Brashear. Heavyweight champ Tony Twist. He hasn't won them all, but he's shown up for every one and he hasn't looked bad yet. Yesterday, Buffalo tough guy Rob Ray even dropped by Oiler practice, stared across the ice at Laraque for a few moments, and left. 

He's hasn't even been around the block once yet, but Laraque's reputation is growing. And while he secretly looks up to the heavies of today, he leaves his admiration in the dressing room. 

"I have to put it in my head that these guys are nobody,'' he says. "That's the way I have to think. Before I used to look at a guy and be too impressed by his name. Now I don't give a (hoot). I'll never win the fight if I say, 'Oh man, that's Tony Twist, he's killed this guy and that guy and that guy.'' I can't think about who he is. I just try to pound him as much as I can.'' 

Ask him where he developed his hunger and determination and he points back to his early teens in a town outside Quebec City. 

"We were the only black family in the city,'' he said, adding racial taunts became so cruel, and so frequent, that his dad, an engineer, and his mother, a nurse, wanted to pull him out of hockey. 

PARENTS WERE YELLING 

"They wanted me to quit. The racism was pretty bad. Every day. They were yelling 'nigger, you can't play hockey.' Even the parents were yelling stuff.'' 

Some of his own teammates even turned their back on him. 

"I was young, but I had to grow up pretty fast. I think my character grew stronger. I had to fight for myself and earn respect for myself because when I was young, people never gave me any.

"That's probably why I stayed in hockey, for the challenge. To show everybody that they were wrong.'' 

And that's why these Edmonton cheers sound so sweet. 

"Yeah. The first thought that I had is this isn't for me or my parents or my friends -- it's for all those people who laughed at me and called me names and told me I was never going to make it.'' 

Rob Ray of the Buffalo Sabres has a date with Georges Laraque at Marine Midland Arena tonight -- whether he wants one or not. 

The Edmonton Oilers tough guy says he won't bother asking Ray to answer the bell tonight -- not after Ray declined several invitations to do so at Skyreach Centre last Friday, then got tossed for trying to engage Bill Guerin in a second-period fight. 

He'll be telling him. 

"If he's brave enough to mess with the stars, then he's going to have to face the music after it," Laraque said Tuesday.  "That's what he has to do now.”

"I can't let that kind of thing happen. I couldn't do anything about it then because he found a way to avoid me. He won't avoid me this time."  Laraque figures Ray, who's as tough as they come, violated the unwritten tough guy code of ethics in Edmonton. 

Ray, who has seldom needed a written invitation to throw the leather, told Laraque he'd take a pass on fisticuffs Friday because he "wanted to play." 

Then, he got into it with Guerin and got the heave-ho. 

"I asked him and asked him to go," Laraque said. "Once something like that happens, you don't ask anymore. You have to respect every tough guy for the job they do. It's a hard job. I like to fight, but I still asked.” 

"As a tough guy, if you say, 'No, I just want to go out and play the game,' you respect that, as long as he doesn't do anything stupid. But, how can you respect a tough guy who says that, then tries to fight Bill Guerin or Doug Weight?" 

Laraque, who's six-foot-three and 245 pounds, says Ray got himself tossed so he wouldn't have to tangle with him. 

"It was obvious," Laraque said. "The referee told him to settle down or he was going to get a game misconduct. He said he didn't care.” 

"I think he wanted to get kicked out because he knew I was going do something after that. This time I don't ask. I'm just going to go get him." 

Don't, in the words of Dave Brown, go for a coffee when Ray and Laraque are on the ice tonight. 

"What's he going to do, beat me up?'' 

Rob Ray of the Buffalo Sabres wasn't impressed when he read what Georges Laraque of the Edmonton Oilers had to say in The Journal Wednesday. 
But at least he didn't have to wait very long to get the answer to his question -- it was a resounding yes. 

Laraque said he'd go after Ray for tangling with Bill Guerin in Edmonton Friday, and he did, giving Ray a beating he won't soon forget. 

"That's my job," said Laraque, who clubbed Ray to the ice with punishing left hands in a one-sided dismantling at 10:42 of the first period. 

"It had to happen. You can't do what he did with Billy and then expect to get away with it." 
Ray, who had to be helped from the ice and was clutching his left leg (Laraque apparently hit him there, too) when he left the game after the bout, knew exactly what was coming. 

"A guy like Georges, we want him on the ice," said Ray, when asked why he'd turned down Laraque's invitations to fight in Edmonton, then tried to get something going with Guerin. 

"If you're going to take a stand, take it against a line like we did. That's more effective." 

So it was a calculated move, then? 

"How old is the guy? He's young and he's trying to do his job," Ray said. "It's his job to prevent what happened (in Edmonton) from happening. If he really wanted to take a stand, he should have done it when he wanted to instead of asking. Just go do it." 

That's what Laraque said he would do and exactly what he did -- levelling his retribution on his second shift. 

The last Oiler to provide such a juicy advance billing was Dave Brown, who told wags a few years ago, "Don't go for a coffee,'' before laying a beating on Stu Grimson, then with Calgary. 

"Sometimes you know something is going to happen,'' winked Brown, now scouting for the New York Rangers and in the press box last night. 

Yes. Sometimes you do.

There was no swagger to Georges Laraque Thursday morning. No bragging or beating his chest. 

People who expected as much from the Edmonton Oilers tough guy after watching him club Rob Ray of the Buffalo Sabres into a beaten heap Wednesday don't know him, and don't understand the NHL's tough-guy code. 

Laraque, 22, a laugh-out-loud, precocious goofball of a kid when he isn't playing hockey, lives by it. 

If some of Laraque's teammates didn't before, they understand now. Likewise, anyone who saw his savaging of Ray, and every player in the NHL who makes his living the same way 

Laraque does. 

Word travels fast. 

Ray broke the code and Laraque said he would make him pay for doing so. 
Nothing personal. 

"If you are going to do certain things, you are going to have to answer to me," said Laraque, who has played just 36 NHL games since the Oilers drafted him 31st overall in 1995. 

"It is not about me not liking you or anything like that. It is just the way it has to be. It's my job with this team." 

Not since Dave Semenko, who buckled men's knees with a scowl, and Dave Brown, who uttered the "don't go for a coffee'' line before caving in Stu Grimson's face, have the Oilers possessed a fistic force like Laraque. 

When Ray declined Laraque's invitations to fight in Edmonton Friday, then engaged Bill Guerin and Doug Weight in fisticuffs, the code was broken.

Ray knew what was coming Wednesday even before Laraque spelled it out in The Journal before the game.

"If you want to do something, then you go with the other tough guy," said Laraque, who has Tony Twist, Matt Johnson and Grimson on his resume. 

"I don't have anything personal against anybody, certainly not against Ray. I don't know him." 

Laraque, who stands six-foot-three and weighs in at 245 pounds, didn't just deliver a message to Ray, he sent one to every would-be Ray in the NHL. 
"When Georges did what he did, he gave a comfort zone to everybody on this hockey team," said Marty McSorley, who knows the job description. 

"It's a simple game. The players play and there's no messing around as long as you go by the rules. 

"If you don't, Georges has shown he will put his foot down." 
Laraque didn't warn Ray of the price he'd have to pay for the sake of tough-guy talk or bravado. 

"What Georges did out there was for the team," Guerin said. "Rob Ray did nothing to Georges.

"He did something Georges felt a guy in his position shouldn't have done and Georges took offence to it. 

"I think a lot of people on this team look up to Georges for that. 

"I do," said Guerin. 

Brown, who was at the game scouting for the New York Rangers, nodded a knowing smile as Laraque punished Ray at 10:42 of the first period. 

"As much as your teammates admire it, I don't think they fully understand it," McSorley said. 

"You rarely fight when you want to, you fight when it's needed. You don't see much ice time. You go out there cold and you can't make a mistake. 

"I think it's up to the skilled guys to let Georges know how important what he does is to them. I know I always appreciated it. You don't always win, but you always have to show up. 

"It can be a really thankless job if people don't understand what you're putting on the line." 
Ray faced reporters after facing the chin music. He had no qualms with it. 

"He has a job to do," said Ray, who didn't land a punch. "It doesn't take a genius to understand it.'' 

No, it doesn't. 

"If word does get around, people will know how it is," Laraque said. "I try not to think about it ... 

"There is always the next game. If I get some respect from this, it's OK, but it doesn't matter. I will do what I do." 

Agree with it or not, the tough- guy code does exist. Georges Laraque has served notice it is to be obeyed. 

Or else.

PITTSBURGH -- Beat someone up in school and you're usually punished, sent home or even expelled.

Pull off the same trick in a National Hockey League hockey rink and suddenly you're a hero, a saviour of the superstars.

That's the way it's always been in the NHL and you can bet the other 26 teams will pay attention when one Georges Laraque comes to town.

His thorough thrashing of Rob Ray Wednesday certainly spread around the league, likely as early as the second period that night in Buffalo.

That type of respect and intimidation will create room for skilled players such as Doug Weight and Bill Guerin, whom Laraque was protecting in the first place.

"He's got tremendous confidence and he's a man playing with boys out there," said Weight, who hasn't had the same protection that Wayne Gretzky had with Dave Semenko.

"He's the heavyweight of the future and he's the heavyweight of the now. He's the man of the league that should be No. 1."

Ray wasn't disputing that Wednesday night in a gross mismatch, where you almost came away feeling sorry for the Sabre. Hey, I said almost!

Anyone who's watched the NHL for any period of time realizes the role a Laraque - or in his case La Rock - plays. He is a protector, an enforcer who opens up room and makes darn certain the more talented players aren't taken advantage of.

Ray took advantage of Guerin and Weight last week and Laraque put a halt to it Wednesday.

"He felt that after what happened in Edmonton (last Friday) that Rob Ray was his guy," said Marty McSorley, who knows the role all too well. "Georges was disappointed in Rob Ray, that he went out and fought other guys.

"Georges felt that if Rob Ray was going to fight somebody that he would be the guy."

So he took it upon himself to pay Ray back. He gave him full warning and the Sabre veteran knew he would be targeted.

"Georges wanted to let Buffalo know that we were there and we weren't going to go anywhere," explained McSorley. "He stood up for the guys on the hockey team."

And that's the message that got across the league quickly and will provide a tremendous advantage from here on in.

"I think the tough guys had heard about Georges long before (Wednesday), but now he's reinforcing it," said McSorley.

"It does an awful lot for our team. Our club does not get intimidated anyway, but at the same time we want to have the upper hand in the intimidation factor. Not only that, but we've got a great skating team and if they think they can go out there and whack and hack, hey, they're going to have to pay the price."

Ray certainly did.

"Big Georges is the guy who wants to lower the boom," said McSorley, who has played that role. "It's nice for me and for guys like Sean Brown, so that we can go out there and play hard against their goal scorers now."

But there is more to Laraque, who most fans forget is not just a 22-year-old rookie in the NHL but a human being.

"I don't want to put it only as a fighting thing either," said Weight.

"He's doing a great job, learning how to cover his point, backchecking in the right lanes and thinking the game of hockey at a young age.

"I think he's got a great future ahead of him. He can pass the puck, he can play.

''You see what he does down below the goal line, he tires your defencemen out, makes plays and is amazing at protecting the puck."

Almost as well as he protects his teammates.

His stints in the corners and bone-crushing hits, like the one that left Boston defenceman Darren Van Impe in a heap in Edmonton, leave Oilers fans clapping in appreciation.

"He's thinking the game," said Weight. "He's not just thinking fight, he's learning when to fight. No one likes to get fought for, it's a pride thing.

"But when Rob Ray hit me (the week previous), he made a statement in the paper and he took care of it.

"The job goes so deep that people don't understand it. When he goes out there he may intimidate six guys on the bench on the other team, not everybody, because certain guys aren't intimidated at all.

"Maybe five or six guys won't be running around like they used to or they'll see Billy (Guerin) going wide and they won't run him from behind where they usually would because they don't want Georges running around getting ticked off.

"That little 10 or 12 per cent goes a long way in a seven-game series or a big game." 

Georges Laraque handled Rob Ray with relative ease Wednesday. As news spreads about the Oilers' tough guy, his presence should open up space for skill players such as Doug Weight and Bill Guerin. "He's got tremendous confidence, and he's a man playing with boys out there," Weight told the Ottawa Sun. "He's the heavyweight of the future, and he's the heavyweight of the now." ... 

DALLAS (CP) -- Buffalo Sabres tough guy Rob Ray took offence at a question from a Buffalo News reporter about his lopsided fight with Edmonton Oilers enforcer last week. 

"What are you, the fight doctor now or something? You've never been in a fight in your life, so what are you talking about?" Ray responded when Bucky Gleason asked if he was surprised by Laraque's left hand following the game. 

"You don't have any idea because you've never seen these people. That's why it's better when you can square off, back off and see what to expect." 

……..(excerpt from the above article)

Georges Laraque hasn't been able to find a dance partner since he beat the daylights out of Rob Ray in Buffalo. 

Laraque, 22, thrashed Ray so badly seven games ago, all the heavyweights he has faced since -- Tony Twist in St. Louis, Patrick Cote in Nashville, New Jersey's Krzysztof Oliwa and Donald Brashear of the Vancouver Canucks -- have turned into wallflowers whenever he has tried to fill his dance card. 

"If our team gets respect, I won't have to fight as much,'' Laraque said. 

"If that respect is because of what happened (in Buffalo), then I'm glad. As long as our best players can play their game, I don't mind.'' 

Brashear turned down several invitations to fight Saturday. Oliwa wanted no part of Laraque and Twist didn't go near him in St. Louis. 

"Georges has proven himself, he's made his point,'' Doug Weight said. 

"If somebody screws around or does something, he'll do his job, but he doesn't have to run after anybody ... we're getting room and he's getting respect.'' 

Laraque didn't think his well-publicized dismantling of Ray would have the effect it has. 

"I never thought it was going to be this way,'' smiled Laraque. 

"You look at the way Brashear used to play us. 

"He was hitting all our guys, being arrogant, that kind of stuff. Look at him Saturday. You could tell . . . 

"The crowd might be disappointed he wouldn't go with me, but from our point of view, it was good for us. He didn't do anything cheap, so we just played the game.'' 

Hulking Georges Laraque is healthy and ready to rumble when the Toronto Maple Leafs come calling tonight. 

The decision about whether he does rests with coach Ron Low, who, you'd think, would want the wide load wearing No. 27 in the lineup after Tuesday's timid 7-4 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes. 

"I would like to have played in that game,'' Laraque said Wednesday. 

"It seemed as if we needed something to get the team and the crowd going.'' 

Laraque, 22, has missed three games since twisting his right ankle in a 2-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. 

Laraque was healthy enough to play against the Coyotes, but Low opted not to tinker with a lineup that had looked good in winning two straight games. 

But after watching the Oilers lose far too many physical battles with the Coyotes, Laraque would seem an obvious call -- there isn't anybody who has shown they can handle the big man, all six-foot-three and 245 pounds of him, with the gloves on or off. 

"I'm absolutely 100 per cent healthy now,'' Laraque said. 

"There are no worries about it. 

"I can go hit and be as physical as I want to be and not have to think about it. 

"I'd like to get a chance, maybe make some big hits. 

"Whatever it takes, I will do if it can help get us going.'' 

Aside from the potential of a showdown between Laraque and Toronto's Tie Domi, in itself worth the price of a ticket, Laraque has played some pretty good hockey with limited ice time. 

He has been stubborn and effective working the corners. 

More important, given the Oilers' awful physical effort vs. Phoenix, Laraque has been reliable defensively and he hits a ton. 

"Maybe I could do something to provide a little spark,'' smiled Laraque, who won't have to worry about Domi turning cute on him like some tough guys have in recent weeks. 

"I know I can contribute in some way to help turn things around.'' 

As of practice Wednesday, Low hadn't committed to putting Laraque back in the lineup.

"I know how hard you have to work and how important every shift is," said enforcer Georges Laraque, who won the '96 Memorial Cup with the Granby Bisons before joining the Bulldogs the following year. 

"The fact that I've won already and that I want to win all the time has helped me perform at my best and give my best all the time. When you win and play in the playoffs so long you feel the confidence in yourself and you feel you can help and you want to go far."

Laraque, who took the pre-game skates during last year's Oil playoff appearances, quickly gained a reputation as one of the league's premier pugilists this season, but he's also made great strides in both his skating and puck-handling skills. It'll be Laraque's hard-nosed work in the corners and thunderous bodychecks that will keep him occupied during the series against the Dallas Stars, more so than his talents when the gloves are dropped. 

"In the playoffs there's no fights and you have be very careful about taking stupid penalties. One bad penalty could be the game because the scores are all 1-0 or 2-1," said Laraque, who may have wanted to hook and jab with suspended Stars captain Derian Hatcher. 

"It's a long series and with bodychecking you wear the defencemen out, so the first couple of lines could use that to their advantage." 

The playoffs are a whole new set of circumstances. There's so much more at stake, the intensity is that much greater and the hostile crowds are that much more vocal. It's critical that a newcomer to the scene doesn't get fazed by all the commotion going on around him.

DALLAS -- Georges Laraque might not have a very good faceoff percentage - seeing as how he's never taken an NHL draw - but his slugging percentage sends cold chills down opposition benches. 

And if the Dallas Stars aren't careful, they might discover it first-hand. 

Edmonton Oiler coach Ron Low launched the first verbal volley in the playoff war of words yesterday, calling it a "BS move'' to send tough guy Grant Marshall after Todd Marchant in the final seconds of Game 1. 

The Stars were fuming after Doug Weight and Todd Marchant roughed up Guy Carbonneau late in the game, cutting him across the cheek for a handful of stitches, so they sent Marshall out to take a meaningless faceoff with four seconds to play. 

He ignored the puck and went right after Marchant. Nothing serious happened, but the intent was clear. 

"I thought that was kind of BS, much the same as Jeff Odgers lining up with Mats Lindgren last year,'' said Low, who gave Colorado coach Marc Crawford a much-

publicized one-finger salute for sending out his tough guys for the final shift. 

If it's hardball they want to play, Low says the Oilers are more than ready. 

"If Dallas wanted to do that I could have thrown Georges out there for the faceoff and we could have had a real (dust-up). 

"If that's the way they want to go I have no problem with that. Because I know there's nobody over there who matches up with Georges. 

'`So if you want to get into it, we can definitely go there. I have no problem with that. At all.'' 

The Stars might. 

Nobody has so much as looked at Laraque funny since he dismantled and demolished Buffalo's Rob Ray a few weeks ago for a similar offence - being a tough guy and messing with Edmonton's skill players. 

Laraque called Ray a "cheap-shot guy'' and swore revenge. Ray chuckled and said,"What's he going to do, beat me up?'' 

A SIMILAR FATE?

Laraque beat him silly. 

A similar fate might be in store for Marshall, who turned Kelly Buchberger's eye into a bloody swollen mess in last year's playoff with a butt end. 

"In fact, I'm sure Georges might invite (Marshall) sometime before the series is over,'' said Low. 

"I'd like to see (Marshall) oblige him. That would be really nice.'' 

The bad blood boiled over when Weight cross-checked Carbonneau from behind and drew a major and a game misconduct. 

The Stars claim Marchant opened a cut on Carbonneau's cheek with a spear while he was down. 

So Marshall came out for the draw against Marchant for one reason and one reason only. The Stars - who lost captain Derian Hatcher for a jaw-breaking hit on Phoenix's Jeremy Roenick - are big on vengeance. 

"I didn't see him take too many draws last night,'' said Marchant. 

"If that's what he was out there to do, so be it. He was sticking up for his teammates. He thought that something happened with me or Doug Weight. So the puck was dropped and he came after me. 

"If that's what he was out there to do, he did his job. He came after me. That's fine. 

IT WON'T BOTHER THEM

'`It's not going to intimidate us or bother us. It's not like it hasn't happened before.'' 

Weight regrets his own involvement in the whole blow-up.

He says he didn't try to cheap-shot anybody. 

"We were battling for the puck and I pushed him from behind but he wasn't facing the boards. I'm not the type of player to do that, send a guy into the boards head-first.'' 

Weight says Carbonneau got cut in a mad scramble for the puck while he was lying on the ice. 

"He went down and he covered the puck and guys had their sticks in there and that's when he got cut. It's one of those things that happens. I can't believe anybody would think that warrants anything more than five minutes. 

"I want to play as tough as anybody, but I don't want to see anybody get hurt or cut. We all still remember what happened in this building with Bryan Marchment.'' 

Marchment suffered a serious head injury when he caught a rut and slammed head-first into an open door on the penalty box. 

Nobody who saw that sickening scene wants to see another one, but playoff hockey is playoff hockey. 

"Dallas played very physical from top to bottom,'' said Marchant. "That's what you have to do in the playoffs to be successful.'' 

Especially if you're an Oiler team that just doesn't match up in the skill department. 

"We'd like to take (the physical game) as far as it can go.'' said Marchant. 

"We had 64 hits in the last game. We'd like even more than that. Just try and wear them down. 

'`The longer the series goes the better our chances are.''

We interrupt this playoff series for the customary between-games pot-stirring. 

Making his third annual Day Two appearance with the spoon is Oilers general manager Glen Sather. His target, not surprisingly, is Dallas Stars coach Ken Hitchcock, who sent thug Grant Marshall off the bench for the final faceoff of Game 1 at Reunion Arena on Wednesday night. Oilers coach Ron Low, with the first change, put Todd Marchant out for the draw. Stars plugger Dave Reid actually went to the faceoff dot, but Marshall shooed him away and cross-checked Marchant as soon as the puck hit the ice. 

"It's typical Hitchcock b.s.," said Sather. "He goes after Ronnie two years ago about being a goon coach. He's the goon coach. He wins the Presidents' Trophy, he's supposed to be the best coach in the league and he does that kind of crap. That's ridiculous. Marshall hasn't won a faceoff since peewee. 

"I already talked to (series supervisor) Denis Morel. He said the league is going to look at it and make sure it doesn't happen again. Marshall goes after Todd Marchant, tries to hurt him and the referees didn't do anything. If that continues, we'll see Georges Laraque take a lot of faceoffs against (Joe) Nieuwendyk and (Mike) Modano." 

And so it begins. 

Pot-stirring is as much a rite of spring in the NHL as erroneous injury reports and deceptive line combinations at off-day practices. Without it, playoff games wouldn't be nearly as much fun to cover or watch. Pot-stirring is part fact, part fiction, all spin. Sather is pretty good at it, having refined the act over 20 years, all but four of them with playoff runs in which to perform. Low doesn't take it to the same level of hyperbole as does his general manager. 

"I thought that was kind of b.s., the same as Jeff Odgers lining up with Mats Lindgren last year," said Low. "I could have thrown Georges out for the faceoff. If that's the way they want to go I have no problem with that because I know they have nobody over there who matches up with Georges." 

He's right. And there is a confidence level that accompanies the fact your tough guy is better than theirs. Laraque could handle whomever Dallas throws at him. Brent Severyn lost a couple of fights to Laraque during a game in March. And there is a belief throughout the league that the only way to beat Dallas is to challenge them physically, especially since behemoth defenceman Derian Hatcher is out of the lineup. Edmonton obviously wasn't satisfied with out-hitting Dallas 64-47 and losing 2-1. They want to hit 100 in Game 2 and hope the beat goes on long enough for them to win a couple here and there. 

"We're just trying to wear them down because the longer the series goes, the better off we are," said Marchant. 

But if Marshall is going to jump Marchant as an answer to the Oilers' physical initiation, he only reinforces the belief that the Stars are afraid to come too near Laraque. And that's a pretty risky message to put out there. Marchant figures it was something else, coming as it did just moments after Guy Carbonneau suffered a cut on his cheek in a melee along the boards. Doug Weight was issued a boarding major and game misconduct after the play. 

"He was sticking up for his teammate," Marchant said of Marshall. "He thought something had happened with me or with Dougie or whatever. The puck got dropped and he came right after me. That's fine. If that's what he was out there to do, he did his job. It's not going to intimidate us. It's not going to bother us. It's not like it hasn't happened before." 

It happens all the time. Colorado coach Marc Crawford sent Odgers and Warren Rychel out for the final faceoff of Game 6 in last year's first-round playoff series with Edmonton, prompting Low to fire off the one finger Mile High salute and a wad of gum in Crawford's direction. 

This time it's Marshall, a guy who butt-ended Kelly Buchberger in the face last year and got away without a suspension. Chances are, if he tries to take any more liberties with the smaller Oilers, he can expect a face-to-face confrontation with Laraque. 

"I think you'll see Georges invite him," said Low. "I'd like to see him oblige. That would be really nice." 

On Wednesday, Sean Brown tried to jump into the middle of the Marchant/Marshall set-to but didn't have any luck. 

"I guess they were trying to send a message. I don't think it's going to affect our team. We're tough enough. That was kind of stupid but I guess they want to go after our (smaller) guys. Todd is a tough enough kid. He's not going to back down from anything."