Maurice Richard

Joseph-Henri-Maurice "Rocket" Richard PC, CC, OQ (born August 4, 1921 in Laval, Quebec, Canada, died May 27, 2000 in Montreal, Quebec) was a professional ice hockey player, and played for the Montreal Canadiens from 1942 to 1960. He was also the first coach of the Quebec Nordiques, but resigned after losing his first game.

Playing career

Maurice Richard (pronounced ree-SHARD) was the first to score 50 goals in one season (the 1944-45 NHL season), doing so in 50 games, and the first to score 500 goals in a career. He finished his career with 544 goals in the regular season, with 82 in the playoffs. "50 goals in 50 games" continues to be a marker of scoring excellence to this day, and few players have surpassed that mark. Richard also played on eight Stanley Cup teams in Montreal, was captain of 5 straight from 1956-1960, and was elected eight times to the first all-star team and six times to the second all-star team, and played in every National Hockey League All-Star Game from 1947 to 1959. In his career, he scored 544 goals, amassed 421 assists for a total of 965 points in 978 games. Teamed with Elmer Lach as centre and Hector 'Toe' Blake playing left-wing, they formed the "Punch Line".

Richard was the quintessential Québécois hero. He pulled off a five-goal game after a day spent moving house - including the piano - in 1944, and scored the series-winning goal of the 1952 Stanley Cup semifinals as blood dripped down his face from an earlier injury. Richard's role as a Québécois icon was epitomized in the short story Le chandail de hockey ("The Hockey Sweater") by Roch Carrier.

Richard was turned down a total of three times by the military, twice for combat and once as a machinist. The first time was in 1939 at the beginning of World War II when he was 18 and the second time the following year. X-rays showed that his ankle and femur as well as his wrists had broken and had not healed properly during Junior hockey and he was therefore unfit for military action.

In 1940, Richard inquired about a position as a machinist in the military, but was again refused citing his lack of a high school diploma or technical trade certificate. Richard tried to explain that he had dropped out of school to help his family and had been working as a machinist at a local factory since he was 16. They still refused, and he was told he needed a machinist certificate. Upon hearing this he decided to train as a machinist at the Montreal Technical School the following year and therefore fulfill his desire to help in the war effort.

The war was over before Richard received his certificate, which took four years. He was disappointed that the Canadian military had not given him the opportunity to participate in some capacity.

Although Richard was often perceived as a pre-Quiet Revolution hero excelling in an anglophone world, he always insisted that he was an apolitical man playing hockey for the love of the sport.

Richard's career began and ended before the beginning of huge salaries. The largest yearly salary he ever made was $25,000. His jersey #9 was retired on October 6, 1960 by the Canadiens, less than a month after he announced his retirement. His brother Henri "The Pocket Rocket" Richard joined him with the Canadiens in 1955 and would go on to win 11 Stanley Cups with the team, an NHL record.

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961, the customary three-year waiting period being waived in his honour.

The Richard Riot

See article: Richard Riot

On March 13, 1955, Richard was given a match penalty for deliberately injuring Hal Laycoe, in a game against the Boston Bruins. Public outrage from Montreal soon poured in. For his part, NHL President Clarence Campbell did not budge, and announced that he would be attending the Habs' next home game against the Detroit Red Wings in four days.

Midway into the first period, Campbell arrived with his fiancee. Outraged Habs fans immediately began pelting them with eggs, vegetables, and various debris, with more being thrown at him each time the Red Wings scored, who built up a 4-1 lead. The continuous pelting of various objects stopped when a tear gas bomb was set off inside the Forum not far from where Campbell was sitting. The Forum was ordered evacuated and Campbell ruled the game forfeited to the Red Wings. A riot ensued outside the Forum, causing $500,000 in damage to the neighborhood and the Forum itself. Hundreds of stores were looted and vandalized within a 15-block radius of the Forum. Twelve policemen and 25 civilians were injured. The riot continued well into the night, with police arresting people by the truckload. Local radio stations, which carried live coverage of the riot for over seven hours, had to be forced off the air. The riot was eventually over at 3 am, and left Montreal's Rue Ste-Catherine in a big mess.

The Habs would lose the Cup final to Detroit in seven games, but would win the Cup in the year after - and the four years after that. Richard retired in 1960 after the Canadiens' fifth straight Stanley Cup, a record that still stands.

Honours

In 1999, the Maurice 'Rocket' Richard Trophy was donated by the Montreal Canadiens hockey club to the NHL to be awarded annually to the goal-scoring leader during the regular season.

In 1996 at the closing of the Montreal Forum, a tearful "Rocket" received the longest standing ovation in the city's history. Over 16 minutes of adulation poured over him, chanting his name over and over again. Richard, always the reluctant hero, looked around in surprise for the first few minutes. When he realized the crowd was not letting up and their love for him real, he gave in to his popularity, and broke down in tears all the while waving and mouthing "thank you". He rarely showed this side of himself, as he always tried to remain humble. The last few minutes of adulation saw Richard closing his eyes, while the crowd chanted, "GO HABS GO!" over and over again. Richard later stated that when he closed his eyes and heard the crowd, it brought him back to his younger days. He thought it was a very loving gesture by the fans.

Although long retired by the time of his death in 2000, an estimated 115,000 people of all ages paid their respects while his body lay in state at the Montreal Canadiens' Molson Centre. Flags were lowered to half mast as Quebec's National Assembly was suspended for the day. He was given a state funeral broadcast live across Canada, the first time such an honour was accorded an athlete. Among those who attended were Gordie Howe and Jean Beliveau, various politicians (including Prime Minister of CanadaJean Chrétien, Premier of QuebecLucien Bouchard and Governor General of Canada Adrienne Clarkson), and current team captain Saku Koivu. He was buried in the Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges in Montreal.

A junior hockey team was also named after him, the Rocket de Montreal, playing out of the Maurice Richard Arena (in 2003-04 this team moved to Prince Edward Island and is now the P.E.I. Rocket). On June 27, 2001, the Canadian government unveiled a monument in Jacques-Cartier Park, in Hull, Quebec honouring Maurice Richard. He has been inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.

In 1967 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada (one of the first distributions of the Order) and was promoted to Companion in 1998.

In 1992, he was made a member of the Privy Council of Canada. This allowed him for the rest of his life to be known as The Honourable or L`Honourable Maurice Richard. His appointment, and those of 20 other that year by Mulroney remains somewhat controversial as traditionally being made a Privy Councilor is reserved for members of the cabinet, the chief justice of canada and certain others who need to access classified documents.

Richard was married to Lucille Norchet from September 17, 1942 until her death on July 18, 1994. They had 7 children.

Depiction in popular media

Richard's hockey career, and in particular the folk legend of his NHL game played after having moved, was featured in Heritage Minutes (1997). Richard was played by Roy Dupuis.
Richard's life story was featured in a two-part, two-hour French-Canadian miniseries televised as part of the program Les Beaux Dimanches: Histoire d'un Canadien (Beautiful Sundays: Maurice Rocket Richard Story English title), in 1999, starring Roy Dupuis as Richard.
The French version of a feature film, Maurice Richard was released in November 2005; the English-subtitled version entitled The Rocket: The Maurice Richard Story was released in April 2006. The film stars Roy Dupuis in the title role and is directed by Charles Binamé.

Career achievements and records

Won the Hart Memorial Trophy in 1947
Named to the First All-Star Team from 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1955, and 1956.
Named to the Second All-Star Team in 1944, 1951 to 1954, and in 1957.
Played in NHL All-Star Game in 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, and 1959.
First player to score 50 goals in a season.
First player to score 50 goals in 50 games.
First player to score 500 goals in a career.
Led the NHL in goal scoring in 1945, 1947, 1950, 1954, and 1955.
Played for Stanley Cup winning teams in 1944, 1946, 1953, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, and 1960 (the fourth most of any NHL player).
Eclipsed record for career NHL goals scored with 544 (previously held by Nels Stewart).
Ranks 1st all-time in consecutive Stanley Cups as team captain (5).
Ranks 24th all-time in career goals (544).
Ranks 2nd all-time in career playoff overtime goals (6).
Ranks 75th all-time in career points.

Career statistics

			Regular Season					Playoffs
Season	Team	League	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1942-43	Montreal	NHL	16	5	6	11	4	--	--	--	--	--
1943-44	Montreal	NHL	46	32	22	54	45	9	12	5	17	10
1944-45	Montreal	NHL	50	50	23	73	46	6	6	2	8	10
1945-46	Montreal	NHL	50	27	21	48	50	9	7	4	11	15
1946-47	Montreal	NHL	60	45	26	71	69	10	6	5	11	44
1947-48	Montreal	NHL	53	28	25	53	89	--	--	--	--	--
1948-49	Montreal	NHL	59	20	18	38	110	7	2	1	3	14
1949-50	Montreal	NHL	70	43	22	65	114	5	1	1	2	6
1950-51	Montreal	NHL	65	42	24	66	97	11	9	4	13	13
1951-52	Montreal	NHL	48	27	17	44	44	11	4	2	6	6
1952-53	Montreal	NHL	70	28	33	61	112	12	7	1	8	2
1953-54	Montreal	NHL	70	37	30	67	112	11	3	0	3	22
1954-55	Montreal	NHL	67	38	36	74	125	--	--	--	--	--
1955-56	Montreal	NHL	70	38	33	71	89	10	5	9	14	24
1956-57	Montreal	NHL	63	33	29	62	74	10	8	3	11	8
1957-58	Montreal	NHL	28	15	19	34	28	10	11	4	15	10
1958-59	Montreal	NHL	42	17	21	38	27	4	0	0	0	2
1959-60	Montreal	NHL	51	19	16	35	50	8	1	3	4	2
NHL Totals			978	544	421	965	1285	133	82	44	126	188

External links

Preceded by:
Emile Bouchard

Montreal Canadiens Captains
1956 - 60

Followed by:
Doug Harvey

Maurice Richard | Maurice Richard (hockey) | モーリス・リシャール

Reference

Ramos, H., & Gosine, K. (2001). “The Rocket”: Newspaper coverage of the death of a Quebec cultural icon, a Canadian hockey player. Journal of Canadian Studies, 36(4), 9-31; 2002, JCS, 37(1), p. 250 (published erratum).

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