Remembering The Rocket's Glare

Hockey Digest, Nov, 2000 by Chuck O'Donnell

We look back at the remarkable life of Montreal Canadiens legend Maurice Richard

SOBS FILLED A SOMBER SPRING morning in Montreal as Maurice "Rocket" Richard was laid to rest after battling stomach cancer and other ailments like he battled opposing defensemen.

There were sobs in other places, too, as people mourned the man who made "50 goals in 50 games" part of the hockey lexicon, the man with the legendary stare, the man whose rare combination of speed, desire, and power embodied everything great about hockey.

* From his home in British Columbia, Hall of Fame goalie Chuck Rayner called Richard "a fiery hockey player."

* Thousands of miles away, in Georgia, former Canadiens star "Boom Boom" Geoffrion, still shaken, says that "as soon as he would touch the puck, you could feel the electricity in the crowd."

* In Dallas, Stars general manager and former Canadiens great Bob Gainey hung his head and simply whispered, "He was an icon."

* Canadiens legend Jean Beliveau, from his home in Quebec, says Richard "preferred to express himself on the ice. I would tell younger players to watch the fire emanating from his eyes."

With Richard, the eyes were a window into his soul. When you peered into them, you saw his immense will to win. They were dark and as big as saucers. They got darker and bigger and scarier with the puck on his stick and the game on the line. With a glance, they could turn a tough man into a shrinking violet.

"When he came flying toward you," says Hall of Fame goalie Glenn Hall. "His eyes were all lit up, flashing and gleaming like a pinball machine."

"Rocket had that mean look on his face in every game we played," says longtime rival Gordie Howe.

"Those eyes were wild," says Wally Stanowski, a former forward for the Maple Leafs and Rangers. "He had that fiery look all the time. I once heard it described as having the look of an escaped mental patient. I thought that was a good description."

Richard arrived with the Canadiens during the 1942-43 season, posting an unimpressive five goals in 16 games. The son of a railroad machinist and raised in some tough Quebec streets in the shadow of a prison, Richard was still fighting the tag as being a brittle player after breaking an ankle and fracturing a wrist while playing amateur hockey. Reportedly, Canadiens GM Tommy Gorman tried to trade Richard to the Rangers for veteran role player Phil Watson. When the Rangers showed no interest in the winger, it has been rumored that Gorman even considered releasing him.

"We didn't know Richard was going to become The Rocket," says longtime Canadiens announcer Dick Irvin. "When he was 21, he had a broken leg. The Canadiens decided to give him a second look. He was the last guy to make his junior team. He wasn't a phenom by any stretch of the imagination. He had no track record.

"What Richard did was out of the blue. He wasn't like Mario Lemieux or a Mike Bossy, scoring 200 points as a junior. No one thought he would be a star. After the broken leg, they invited him back to camp and he was lucky enough to be put on a line with Toe Blake and Elmer Lach, two old pros. They threw Maurice on the wing and it clicked."

In his third year, Richard achieved what many thought was unachievable: He scored 50 goals in 50 games. Over the years, the goals mounted, the Stanley Cup victories mounted, and the Canadiens faithful grew to love him more than any of their other stars.

Almost every day at the height of his career, a mother in Quebec named her newborn son Maurice in his honor. When Richard would be slapped with a fine for one of his many infractions on the ice, he would get checks for three times the amount from fans to cover the cost. Howe once said Richard was so loved, he was surprised The Rocket didn't get standing ovations while walking through department stores.

The greatest outpouring of support for Richard came during his suspension for punching linesman Cliff Thompson near the end of the 1954-55 season. The suspension touched off the Richard Riot, in which rabid fans wanted to do more than just hang in effigy the man who had suspended the Rocket, Clarence Campbell. The fans rained tomatoes, eggs, bottles, and programs on Campbell. One man extended his hand as if to shake Campbell's hand, only to make a fist and punch him with it. Finally, the old Forum was evacuated by a smoke bomb, but the mayhem continued outside, where a path of destruction included overturned cars and smashed storefront windows and small fires.

Even a superstar of Geoffrion's stature wasn't held in the same esteem as the Rocket. When he was about to pass the suspended Richard in the scoring race, people phoned in death threats on Geoffrion's life.

As the 1940s became the 1950s, the 1950s the 1960s, and so on, that visceral connection between Richard and the people never waned. If anything, it grew stronger--even though Richard was never one for the limelight. He rarely did commercial endorsements, and lasted just a few weeks as the GM of the fledgling Quebec Nordiques of the World Hockey Association. Even though Richard's name was always in the headlines--most recently because the NHL named the award for the leading goal scorer in his honor--he withdrew further into seclusion in recent years because of his failing health.