How many times did you utter those words when St. Patrick was given the night off for some well-deserved rest, and this soup-can lumbered towards the goal at the start of a game.

Andre "Red Light" Racicot. Not shown in the image is the sunburned skin on the back of his neck.

I’ll give Andre Racicot credit – he didn’t play too badly against some of the hapless teams of the era (Hartford, Quebec, etc) but if you put him up against a team that had some decent firepower… wow. I mean, I’ve never seen such a lop-sided tandem in a long time. You have a Vezina and Stanley Cup winning goalie as your workhorse and star, and he’s backed up by a junior hockey bust.

There’s been some debate as to who coined the term “Red-Light” for our rubber-phobic friend, but most sources point to Don Cherry who used the phrase during an episode of Coach’s Corner years ago after an embarrassing shellacking at the hands of an inferior team. With some incredible displays of athleticism like this:

its little wonder why the nickname stuck. For a number of years, Andre Racicot served as the backup to Patrick Roy. The two of them had a good rapport, but many viewed Roy’s friendliness towards his less-skilled partner as a sign of known safety – that Roy was smart enough to realize that he could never be supplanted by a guy like Red Light.

It wasn’t until the cup run in 93 that Roy took notice, after the media slammed his performance leading up to the playoffs and in the first two losses of the Montreal-Quebec series. When the media and fans are serious about starting Racicot over Roy, you know that there is a serious problem. I think St. Pat was astute enough to pull his socks up and play better than expected. The rest is history. And apparently, so was Racicot’s chance of ever taking over the number one role.

He did however, achieve some moderate success in the minors – winning a championship in 2001 with the Bakersfield Condors, posting a respectable GAA and playing some of his best hockey. But he will forever be remembered for the moniker that brings back some funny, and often disastrous memories in the late 80s and early 90s.

As a Habs fan in the late 80s/ early 90s, you'll never look at one of these the same.