Habs History from a Meaningful Perspective
As a young boy I was given a great gift. It was a book. Ironically gifted from two very die-hard Maple Leaf fans, my brother and I were the very happy recipients of a fabulous encapsulation of the Habs "Glory Years" between 1940 and 1980, penned by none other than the voice I most associate with the Montreal Canadiens while growin up, Dick Irvin.
The book, entitled
"The Habs: An Oral History of the Montreal Canadiens, 1940-1980" was published in 1991 and holds within it some of the most exciting and interesting interviews and stories in the team's 100+ years of existence. Inside the novel-sized tome, Irvin regales readers with amazing insight from his position atop the Forum, inside the dressing room and, perhaps the most interesting of all, his view from inside one of the most influential families in Habs history.
As the Habs current season is winding down, I felt it would be appropriate to occasionally sprinkle in some passages from this incredible take on Canadiens history, a must-read and must-buy for any Montreal fan - past or present.
Today's excerpt comes a few chapters into the book, when Irvin poetically describes what became known as the loudest cheer to that point in Montreal Forum history:
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Chapter 8: The Rocket's Goal
From Dick Irvin's "The Habs: 1940-1980"
On April 8th, 1952, Maurice Richard scored the greatest goal of his career. That's what Richard fans will tell you because it's the one they remember best out of the 626 their hero scored, regular season and playoffs. As for Richard himself, he isn't sure because he doesn't remember too much about it.
If even Maurice Richard had a season of highs and lows, it was the 1951-52 campaign. It began well enough for and at the halfway point the Rocket had nineteen goals. A week or two later he began to struggle because of a persistent groin injury. On January 12 he scored three times against Chicago but right after the game the Canadiens announced that Richard would be given some time off because of his injury. The rest of his season turned out be main that - time off.
Early in February Richard tired to play but couldn't. The team sent him to Florida, hoping some sunshine would provide a cure. He didn't against until March 19, in the final week of the regular season.
Richard may have been an early victim of an injury now fairly common in hockey. In the mid-1980s Al Secord missed most of a season of the same kind of injury. A few years ago Richard told me he now feels his problem began when he tried out a new pair of skates that weren't right for him. Whatever, in 1951-52 he missed twenty-two games. Even so, he finished with twenty-seven goals. Only four players scored more, including Gordie Howe, who led the league with forty-seven.
Dickie Moore, a future star, made his debut with the Canadiens on December 15 that season. He played thirty-three games and had thirty-three points. Another newcomer who would be a regular for many years was defenceman Dollard St. Laurent, who replaced the retired Glen Harmon.
Those were the days when popular players were given "nights." On March 8, Elmer Lach was honoured before a game at the Forum. Among the gifts wheeled out to center ice were a car, a rowboat, a dining-room suite, and something not too many people had in 1952, a television set.
The Detroit Red Wings again ran away with the league championship. The Wings total of 100 points left them twenty-two ahead of the second-place Canadiens. Detroit played Toronto in the opening playoff series and swept the Maple Leafs four straight. The other seimfinal, between Montreal and Boston, was a different story.
The Canadiens were favoured but needed a come-from-behind overtime win in Boston in the sixth game to stay alive. A journeyman forward, Paul Masnick, jammed the winning goal past Boston goalie Sugar Jim Henry off a Doug Harvey rebound.
Game seven was played at the Forum on April 8. Early in the second period Richard was knocked out in a collision with Boston forward Leo Labine. He was helped to his feet and steered to the Forum clinic. He was in bad shape and needed stitches to close an ugly cut over his left eye. The medical men felt he was finished for the night.
On the play, Richard had tried to jump between the two Bostn defencemen and was off his feet when Labine hit him. One of the defencemen the Rocket was trying to beat on the play was former teammate, Hal Laycoe.
Hal Laycoe
"I had a bird's eye view of that one. I could have touched the two of them when that collision took place. Rocket twas cutting around me and Leo came across and went right behind me. Rocket didn't see him and it was a vicious unending and he hit his head on the ice. I don't think he had ever been upended that violently and it was amazing that he could come back after something like that and score the kind of goal he did. He was gone after that for most of the game but came back and scored the damn goal that beat us.
I didn't even see the goal because I had got into a scrap with Billy Reay. It was right near the end of the game and Billy hit over the head, so I hit him over the head. Just clips, you know. So we both had to go to be stitched up, and the dirty buggers, they fixed him first, of course. So he went out , and then I heard the roar, and that was it."
The roar that Hal Laycoe heard as he was being slowly stitched up by the Canadiens' medics came from the collective throats of 15,100 fans in the Forum, fans who would remember the moment for years to come.
Richard, still groggy, had returned to the Canadiens' bench late in the third period when the game was tied 1-1. But when my father asked him, perhaps tentatively, if he was able to play the Rocked nodded that he was okay.
Four minutes remained in the third period when Richard returned to the ice alongside Elmer Lach and Bert Olmstead. He took a pass from Butch Bouchard deep in his own zone, skated the lenght of the ice, wheeled around defenceman Bill Quackenbush, chard to the goaltender Sugar Jim Henry. It was at that precise moment that Hal Laycoe heard what was surely the loudest cheer in the then twenty-eight year history of the Montreal Forum.
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The Richard goal is always an amazing story, though I have to say I quite enjoy the way Mr. Irvin spins that yarn.
Hope you enjoyed that trip down memory lane. I'll be sure to throw a few more out there before the end of the season.
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