|
Buffalo, New York Hockey has always been a niche sport, considered a superb game by those of us who love it, but largely ignored by hordes of other sports fans who reside south of the Canadian border. The niche has never been smaller than the ‘50s, when the National Hockey League consisted of a mere six teams – the Chicago Black Hawks, New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins in the U.S. plus the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leads in Canada. Occasionally a few of the American owners might urge that the league be expanded, but most of the moguls were satisfied with what they considered a cozy setup. Their feeder system, which supplied all but a tiny percentage of talent to the NHL six, consisted of junior teams spread coast to coast across Canada, all of which were controlled – and sometimes wholly owned – by the major league clubs. The major league's control often reached down into the pee-wee leagues, so if a talented young player began serious competitive play for an affiliate of the Bruins, Maple Leafs or one of the others, he would remain the property of that organization until they traded or released him. With so much talent stockpiled in so few farm systems, the pay scales could be easily controlled, too.  "Rocket" Richard: His only goal was to score goals. It wasn't quite cradle-to-grave ownership, but it was close. Nowhere was the stamp of the parent team more traditional than in the Province of Quebec, where boys of French-Canadian heritage yearned to be happy serfs of the Canadiens. By 1955, the Montreal team, referred to as "the Flying Frenchmen" in newspaper sports sections all over North America, was established as the model of the NHL system. Montreal had a few outstanding Anglo players such as Doug Harvey, the all-star defenseman, and Dickie Moore, the reliable winger. But the core of the team was Gallic: Bernie "Boom-Boom" Geoffrion, the first to perfect the slap shot; Jacques Plante, the first goalkeeper to wear a mask; the regal center-man, Jean Belliveau; prize rookie Henri Richard and, most prominently, right wing Maurice Richard, the face and symbol not only of a hockey team, but of an entire province, Le Belle Quebec, in all its pride. Eventually Maurice Richard was christened "the Rocket," (and later his kid brother Henri "the Pocket Rocket") yet the elder Richard did not barge into the NHL in the manner of Wayne Gretzky, and more recently, Sidney Crosby. As a junior he was considered injury prone, and when he finally reported to the Canadiens as a rookie, he was rehabilitating from a broken leg. At first management feared that he would never be fast enough to fly with the other French stars, and the Montreal front office considered releasing him. Instead, they gave him a second chance, placing him on a line with two experienced veterans, left wing Hector "Toe" Blake and center Elmer Lach. The youngster, who had been the last man to make his junior team, flourished. The media nicknamed the trio "the Lamplighter Line," for the frequency for which the right goal light flashed for them. When Richard scored an unprecedented 50 goals in 50 games during the 1945-46 season, the name "Rocket" was attached to him forever. The names his opponents called him were far less printable. His will to win knew few bounds, literally. There is a life-size sculpture of Richard in full skate outside a museum in Montreal's Olympic Park, but no sculptor, no matter how skilled, could capture his physical hallmark, his eyes. As Belliveau used to say, "He prefers to express himself on the ice. I would tell our younger players to watch the fire emanating from his eyes."
|
Newswire 
