Maurice Richard stood in this
hockey cathedral, tears streaming down his face as the noise grew and
grew…minute after minute for 10…11 minutes …until there was no longer
just noise in the Forum, but thunder engulfing it. Now and then, he
would raise an arm… often both arms… pleading to the people…his people:
“Enough,” he seemed to be saying
to them on this March 11, 1996, night, the night the building's lights
would go dark forever. “Enough. I was only a hockey player.”
Richard, who died Saturday 27th of
May, 2000 in his 79th year after a battle of more than two years with
cancer, was much more than a hockey player. He was the first National
Hockey League player to score 50 goals in a 50-game season among his 544
in 1978 regular-season games. He was the most intense athlete this game,
this city, this province, this country ever has seen. He was everything
that personified greatness. It was in this place—the Montreal Forum—he
was to become an icon, a legend. He was, in every way, one of a kind.
His best years already were behind
him when I started covering the Canadiens at the start of the 1955-56
season. By then, after 13 NHL seasons, he had lost a step. He carried
weight he found increasingly difficult to lose. But now and then in his
last five seasons, he was once again “The Rocket.” On those nights,
there was no finer sight anywhere this game was played.
Richard's eye-snapping career
numbers don't begin to describe what he meant to hockey in general and
the Canadiens in particular. Winning at any cost was what he was all
about. He was prepared to pay the price for every goal he scored, and no
price was too high. He scored important goals, lifting spectators out of
their seats everywhere in the six-team NHL, because he was as much The
Rocket on the road as he was in Montreal. At any moment, anywhere, he
could erupt with another big goal.
There was the night of March 23,
1944, when the Canadiens played host to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the
second game of their best-of-seven Stanley Cup semi-final. Richard, who
was to explode into full flower the following season when he became the
first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in 50 games, had shown
what he was all about that year. He had scored 23 of his 32
regular-season goals in his last 22 games. (A dislocated shoulder
sidelined Richard for four games of the Canadiens' stunning 38-5-7
season, including a 22-0-3 home record.)
He would be getting special
attention from the Toronto Maple Leafs on this March night, particularly
since the Leafs had upset the Canadiens 3-1 in Game One two nights
earlier. The Leafs' best defensive forward, Bob Davidson, drew the
assignment. His instructions: go everywhere Richard goes. Don't let him
out of your sight.
Richard couldn't shake loose from
Davidson's clutch-and-grab tactics in the first period. Everywhere The
Rocket went, Davidson followed, but Richard left the Leafs reeling with
three goals in the second period. He added two in the third in what was
to become the greatest individual performance in NHL playoff history.
Maurice Richard 5, Toronto 1.
Until that night, no other NHL
player had scored five goals in a playoff game. The Canadiens eliminated
the Leafs with victories in the next three games and then swept the
Chicago Blackhawks in four. He was to score 12 goals in nine playoff
games that season. The Canadiens won their first Stanley Cup in 13
seasons, and the marvelous legend of Maurice Richard was born.
“He was a war-time hockey player,”
one-time Canadiens general manager Frank Selke once told a reporter.
“When the boys come back, they said, they'll look after Maurice. Nobody
looked after Maurice. He looked after himself. When the boys come back,
they said, they'll catch up with him. The only thing that caught up with
Maurice is time.”
“When he's worked up,” said Selke,
“his eyes gleam like headlights. Not a glow, but a piercing intensity.
Goalies have said he's like a motorcar coming on you at night. He is
terrifying. He is the greatest hockey player that ever lived. I can
contradict myself by saying that 10 or 15 do the mechanics of play
better. But it's results that count. Others play well, build up,
eventually get a goal. He is like a flash of lightning. It's a fine
summer day, suddenly…”
The Richard legend wasn't supposed
to develop as quickly as it did. The fact is, some hockey people felt it
would never happen. His bones were as brittle as peppermint sticks, some
people said. Injury-prone, they muttered. The problems started when he
was invited to the Canadiens Seniors' training camp in 1940. He made the
team, scored two goals in the first 20 games, suffered a broken wrist in
his 21st, missed the rest of the regular season, but returned to score
six goals in four playoff games.
The next season, 1942-43, was his
first with the NHL Canadiens: this time he fractured his right ankle.
Three major injuries in three years. Maybe, just maybe, his critics were
right. Maybe, he was indeed too brittle to play in the NHL.
The Stanley Cup year erased those
fears, followed by his stunning 50-in-50 season, a feat hockey fans and
officials had thought impossible, a season that was remarkable in many
ways. He failed to score in only 16 games. At no time did he go more
than two games without scoring.
His best streak was during a
nine-game stretch between Jan. 20 and Feb. 10 when he scored 14 goals.
His worst came in the last 13 games of the season when he scored only
seven. He didn't stop with his 50-goal regular season, adding six while
the Canadiens were being upset in six games by the Maple Leafs in the
Stanley Cup semi-final. Fifty-six goals in 56 games! His place in
Canadiens history and in the hearts and minds of his people was now
assured.
It has been suggested, and there's
a valid argument for it, that Richard's passion for winning was the
start of the French-English “thing” in Quebec. If he had been “only a
hockey player,” his suspension for the final weeks of the 1954-55
regular season and the playoffs after getting involved in a savage,
stick-swinging duel with Boston defenceman Hal Laycoe, would have been
little more than a hiccup in NHL history and, by extension, Quebec's.
Instead, it fanned the flames of a cultural revolution which went far,
far beyond Richard, the player.
He meant everything to his people,
on and off the ice. When he and the Canadiens won, they won. When the
Canadiens lost, they lost. When the perception was that he was treated
harshly by constituted authority, it was they, his people, who felt the
pain and the anger.
Has it really been more than 45
years since that St. Patrick's Day morning in 1955? There was a hint of
snow in the air, but nobody in Montreal was thinking about the weather
on this day. The Detroit Red Wings were in the city, but the Canadiens
would be playing without Richard. His people were in a foul mood. There
was trouble ahead. You could sense it … breathe in the sour smell of it.
“Go to the Forum,” I was told by
my sports editor at The Montreal Star. “Just hang around. See what's
happening. See if Richard is there. Talk to Howe. Find out what he
thinks about this business.”
'This business' was a city poised
to explode because hockey's most electrifying player had been suspended
for the last three games of the regular season and the entire playoffs.
Richard had been in trouble with NHL president Clarence Campbell earlier
that season, once for referring to the president as a “dictator” in an
article ghost-written for him in a French-language newspaper, another
time for butt-ending Toronto rookie Bob Bailey in the face. Worse, he
repeatedly tried to renew his attack on Bailey and refused to leave the
ice when ordered by the referee. Now, there had been an ugly,
stick-swinging incident in Boston with Laycoe. There was also the matter
of Richard striking linesman Cliff Thompson in his attempt to get at
Laycoe.
Three days later and the day
before the Canadiens-Red Wings game in Montreal, Campbell brought down
the decision which shook the hockey establishment in general and
Canadiens fans in particular. Richard, poised to win his first-ever
scoring title, was suspended for the remaining three games of the
regular season. He was also suspended for the playoffs. Gone was his
opportunity to win his first scoring title. Also gone were the Canadiens'
hopes in the playoffs.
President Campbell, who had been
urged not to attend the game by mayor Jean Drapeau, had arrived at his
Forum seat several rows above ice level roughly halfway through the
first period. By that time, the Wings led 2-0. The moment Campbell was
spotted settling into his seat, there were angry cries and threats from
groups of fans. Now and then, eggs and tomatoes were thrown at the
president, who sat in his seat staring straight ahead trying hard not to
pay attention to the fires of anger and ugliness stoked by his
appearance.
At period's end, a fan walked up
several steps toward Campbell, offering to shake hands with the
president. When Campbell reached for his hand, he was slapped in the
face. Seconds later, a tear gas bomb exploded. The thick, yellow mass of
smoke sent fans screaming toward the main lobby. People were choking,
coughing and retching, their eyes streaming. Many yelled fire. The
building was ordered cleared, and with the Canadiens trailing the Red
Wings 4-1, the decision was made to forfeit the game to the visitors.
Even today, people remain bitter
over the suspension which quickly developed into hockey's worst case of
violence off the ice. In a matter of minutes, there was an outpouring of
looting and burning. Cars were overturned. A mob of thousands shattered
windows along St. Catherine Street. Thirty-seven adults and four
juveniles were arrested. The wonder of it, though, was that nobody was
killed on that black night which was to become known as the Richard
Riot. The next day, a visibly shaken Richard, who had attended the game,
sat behind a forest of microphones, pleading with the people, his
people, to exercise calm.
Others could skate faster than
Richard. Some could shoot harder and pass better. Nobody, however,
approached his intensity from the blueline in. Nobody wanted to win
more. Not Gordie Howe. Not Gretzky. Not Mario Lemieux. Not anybody.
He brought the entire package to
the arena. He inflamed his people on and off the ice. He stirred their
souls like no other player before him or since.
He was, after all, the Rocket.
http://www.oldtimershockey.com/players/richard.html
~:~
Maurice Richard biopic hits the ice
Filming starts Monday. Roy Dupuis plays Rocket
alongside NHL notables
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BRENDAN KELLY |
|
The Gazette |
Friday, May 27, 2005
Roy Dupuis stars in the
forthcoming biopic of Quebec hockey icon Maurice (the Rocket) Richard,
but the Quebecois flick will also feature a number of National Hockey
League stars, including former Canadiens defenceman Stephane Quintal
and hotshot Tampa Bay Lightning centre Vincent Lecavalier.
At a news conference yesterday, Lecavalier said
he was thrilled to be lacing up to play his idol, Canadiens legend
Jean Beliveau.
"It's a great honour," said Lecavalier, who
hails from Ile Bizard.
But he said it will be a challenge to play in
the equipment that Richard and his teammates wore in the 1940s and
'50s.
"Because of the skates, the players skated
differently," Lecavalier said. "There's no support in the ankle. I
think I'll ask them to give me the skates ahead of time and I'll
practise with them."
Shooting begins Monday in Montreal on Maurice
Richard, with Charles Biname (Seraphin: Un homme et son peche)
directing based on a screenplay by Ken Scott (La Grande seduction),
and Denise Robert and Daniel Louis (Les Invasions barbares) producing.
Dupuis has the title role, his second turn as
the Rocket, following the 2000 Radio-Canada miniseries Maurice
Richard: Histoire d'un Canadien. The film will chronicle Richard's
life on and off the ice.
The late Canadiens right-winger played with
the Montreal team from 1942 to 1960, becoming a hero in his home
province thanks to his aggressive, emotional play and his scoring
heroics. He was the first NHL player to score 50 goals in a season and
the first to score 500 goals in a career.
The main hockey sequences will be shot in
July at the Colisee in Quebec City. Biname said the Colisee is almost
identical to the old Forum, and that the Bell Centre was out of the
question as a shooting site because it has little in common with the
Forum.
Other pro hockey players in the film include
Ian Laperriere as Habs sniper "Boom Boom" Geoffrion and Mike Ricci
from the San Jose Sharks as Richard's Punch Line colleague Elmer Lach.
Biname feels Maurice Richard is not a hockey
movie but a portrait of a key person in Quebec's social history.
Still, he wants to get the hockey scenes right.
"The hardest thing is going to be shooting
the hockey games," Biname said. "I really want to make the hockey come
alive. I want to make the audience feel what it was like for the
players, to show that it was a real brutal sport."
Oddly enough, the film will be shot during
the spring and summer months, with no winter shooting. That's because
the producers are racing to have it ready for release on Nov. 25, in
time for the Christmas box office rush. Robert acknowledged it is less
than ideal timing, and said the movie is shooting now, and not last
winter, because producers were waiting for the $8 million in financing
to come together.
"We'll work with special effects for the
outdoor scenes," Robert said.
Scott said he had to pick and choose what to
use and what to leave out of the life of Rocket Richard, and he
admitted some people may be surprised by some of the omissions,
including the absence of Richard's brother (and fellow Canadiens
great) Henri Richard.
Thank you Susan W :O)
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=615fd982-ce98-410b-ba97-fdaa8fee267b&rfp=dta
___________________________________________________________________________
translation by Gayla
Front Page: I'm
paraphrasing
With Roy Dupuis
The production of a movie about the “Rocket”
continues
A film anxiously awaited by all of Québec is
currently filming: one about the life of Maurice Richard, the
celebrated hockey player of the Montréal Canadiens.
The producer is Charles Binamé and the film has
so far completed 23 days of filming.
Roy Dupuis, plays Maurice Richard, it’s the 3rd
time he has put on the skates of the Rocket.
One of the last big scenes in the filming will
be July 30th. Almost 30,000 people (extras) will fill the
arena to recreate the huge crowds that gathered for Hockey in that
era.
http://lcn.canoe.com/lcn/artsetspectacles/cinema/archives/2005/07/20050704-203446.html
Thank you Susan W!!
http://www.radiocanada.ca/Medianet/CBFT/TelejournalMontreal200507041730_1.asx
The
fiery temper that often inspired Richard to greatness caused him to spend
a fair bit of time in the penalty box. This trait also caused one of the
most notorious incidents in league history. On March 13, 1955, Richard was
given a match penalty for deliberately injuring Hal Laycoe and punching
linesman Cliff Thompson. A formal inquiry took place after which NHL
president Clarence Campbell suspended Richard for the remainder of the
season. This decision came when the Rocket was leading the NHL in scoring
and the Habs were battling for first place in the standings. Needless to
say, Montreal supporters were outraged. A memorable scene saw Campbell
being pelted with eggs when he tried to take his seat at the Forum for a
game against Detroit the following St. Patrick's Day. The crowd became so
unruly that the game was forfeited to the Red Wings and the building
evacuated. A riot ensued outside, causing $500,000 in damage and leaving
some deep wounds, particularly among the francophone community.
