Richard's Hall of Fame legacy sealed after comeback from Achilles injury

MONTREAL -- Maurice Richard was one of the most electrifying players in NHL history, the most fearsome offensive talent of his generation.

But on Nov. 13, 1957, sprawled on the ice of Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto with a severely cut Achilles tendon, the only thing feared was the health, even the career of the Montreal Canadiens’ mighty "Rocket."

In the Toronto Star the following morning, columnist Red Burnett wondered in print what was being pondered by everyone during the game:

“Today the question on hockey fans’ lips is: ‘Will Rocket Richard be able to bounce back from the serious injury he suffered against Maple Leafs last night, so he can resume his fabulous career?’ ”

Richard had been tangled in a scramble with Toronto defenseman Marc Reaume in front of Maple Leafs goalie Ed Chadwick, Reaume’s skate blade slashing, almost severing the right Achilles tendon of the Canadiens forward 3:37 into the second period.

Maurice Richard clutches his right ankle, his Achilles tendon severely cut, in front of Toronto goalie Ed Chadwick and defenseman Marc Reaume, referee Red Storey calling for help at Maple Leaf Gardens on Nov. 13, 1957.

The Rocket went down in a heap, quickly swarmed by teammates and a Maple Leafs doctor. Helped off the ice, Richard’s leg was sewn with 15 stitches in the Garden clinic, the Canadiens' 4-2 win almost an afterthought.

Lying on a training table, his ankle wrapped tightly by Montreal trainer Hec Dubois, Richard was visited by retired Maple Leafs goalie Turk Broda, then coach of the major-junior Toronto Marlboros. No matter how poisonous Rocket had been to the Maple Leafs over many years, he commanded the respect of his fiercest rival and was admired, if grudgingly, by their fans.

Richard would leave the arena on crutches, holding no grudge against Reaume for something he called an accident.

“I didn’t know the Rocket was behind me,” Reaume said. “I was trying to get clear to go after the puck and when I stepped back, I felt my skate blade dig into his leg.”

Maple Leafs’ Marc Reaume during the mid-1950s and Canadiens’ Maurice Richard in 1950, on-ice portraits taken at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens and Varsity Arena.

Richard was swept off balance into the goal crease during his powerful drive toward Chadwick, having cut across from his right wing in a bid to make a play on the left side of the Toronto net. Reaume was almost an accidental bystander, his skate cutting Richard in the sudden traffic.

It was a crushing blow for the Rocket and his team, Richard in his second of four seasons as captain of a team that had won the Stanley Cup twice consecutively with three more to come in their historic run.

A month earlier, Richard had become the first player in NHL history to score 500 career goals. He arrived in Toronto for the Nov. 13 game with 841 points (504 goals, 337 assists), having piled up 107 points (70 goals, 37 assists) in playoff action.

Richard was off to a flying start in the 1957-58 season, his 23 points (11 goals, 12 assists) through 13 games leading the League. There was legitimate thought it might finally be the season he would win the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading point-scorer, the award having eluded the Rocket through 15 seasons.

Maurice Richard lies on a medical table, observed by Canadiens trainer Hec Dubois, on Nov. 13, 1957 at Maple Leaf Gardens. Richard would miss a career-long 42 games with a severe cut to his right Achilles tendon.

But that possibility disappeared when Richard went down heavily, clutching his right ankle until trainer Dubois could wrap a pressure bandage over his wool stocking. Maple Leafs doctor Jim Murray recommended that Richard’s leg be put in a cast, certainly a consideration as he left the Gardens on crutches.

It’s almost miraculous Richard was healthy enough to play as much as he did, constantly targeted by opponents in a bid to light his famously short fuse.

The start to his career was inauspicious; he broke an ankle and a wrist in consecutive seasons before joining the NHL, then fractured his other ankle the next season, his 1942-43 rookie year with the Canadiens. He was tagged with the label of fragile, thought by some to be too brittle to survive the NHL's trenches.

Richard would go on to play 978 rugged NHL games, all with the Canadiens, from 1942 through his retirement in 1960, scoring 544 goals -- still atop Montreal's all-time list -- with 422 assists. His 966 points rank fourth in Canadiens history, and he leads the team in 20-goal seasons (14), 30-goal seasons (nine) and hat tricks (26).

Alternate captain Doug Harvey (l.) and captain Maurice Richard pose for an on-ice Montreal Forum portrait at training camp prior to the 1956-57 season. It would be Richard’s first of four seasons as team captain, replacing the retired Emile Bouchard.

The Rocket’s 82 career playoff goals, eighth all-time in the NHL, lead that Canadiens list, too, three better than Jean Beliveau, while his seven playoff hat tricks are second in the League, trailing only the 10 of Wayne Gretzky. Richard won the Stanley Cup eight times -- in 1944, 1946, 1953 and 1956 and then, as captain, four times consecutively from 1957-60 -- and won the Hart Trophy in 1946-47, voted the NHL's most valuable player.

Richard was the first to score 50 goals in a single season, doing it within the constraints of a 50-game schedule in 1944-45. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961, the customary three-year waiting period waived to induct him immediately following the end of his 18-year career.

Since 1999, the Rocket Richard Trophy has been awarded annually to the NHL’s leading goal-scorer during the regular season.

The 1957 Achilles injury was, for a time, a dagger in the heart of the Canadiens and their fans, the team’s 36-year-old leader laid up with the most serious injury of his career, Montreal's bid to win a third straight Cup seemingly in grave danger.

Retired Maple Leafs goalie Turk Broda, injured Canadiens star Maurice Richard and Dr. Hugh Smythe on Nov. 13, 1957 in the medical clinic of Maple Leaf Gardens.

Richard returned to Montreal and was in such pain at home that the Canadiens checked him into the hospital. With no infection having set in, the Rocket’s lower leg was placed in a cast, the team saying he’d wear it for three or so weeks with another couple of weeks needed before he’d return to action.

“Just a shade more and the tendon would have snapped,” Maple Leafs doctor Murray said, adding that Richard was “very lucky. He would have been off his feet until March and at his age, it’s unlikely he’d have been able to make a comeback.”

The Rocket would miss 42 games with the injury, anticipation high and nerves on edge when he prepared for his first game back on Feb. 20, 1958 at the Forum against the Boston Bruins.

His Achilles healing, Richard had almost timidly stepped onto the ice for the first time six weeks earlier to referee an outdoor kids’ game. Encouraged, he ramped up his practice and declared himself as ready as he could be for the Bruins.

A newspaper photograph shows Maurice Richard scoring his first of two goals in his comeback game at the Montreal Forum on Feb. 20, 1958.

Montreal Star sports editor Baz O’Meara wrote of Richard’s 325th goal to become the NHL’s scoring king, then his milestone 400th and 500th.

“Each new record welded him more closely to the fans’ admiration,” O’Meara wrote the morning of Richard’s comeback. “Great as those occasions were, we doubt if they will exceed the wild enthusiasm that will be on tap tonight, when he steps out either on power-plays, or in his accustomed position to resume the career that was interrupted for three months, the longest time he has been inactive as a player since he joined the Canadiens.”

Richard had been defying the odds his entire career, and this night would be no different. He nearly lifted the roof off the Forum with goals No. 505 and 506 in the Canadiens’ 4-0 win against the Bruins, narrowly missing two more.

“Superman is back,” a Boston writer reasonably suggested.

The 1957-58 Stanley Cup-champion Montreal Canadiens. Bottom row, from left: Gerry McNeil, Dickie Moore, assistant GM Ken Reardon, president Hartland de Montarville Molson, captain Maurice Richard, GM Frank Selke, coach Toe Blake, Henri Richard, Jacques Plante. Middle row, from left: PR director Camil Desroches, Floyd Curry, Doug Harvey, Dollard St. Laurent, Jean Beliveau, Tom Johnson, Jean-Guy Talbot, Bernie Geoffrion, PR assistant Frank Selke Jr. Top row, from left: Trainer Larry Aubut, Donnie Marshall, Claude Provost, Bob Turner, Phil Goyette, Andre Pronovost, Connie Broden, trainer Hec Dubois.

The Rocket would wind up scoring 15 goals with 19 assists (34 points) in 28 games that season, then 36 goals with 37 assists (73 points) over his final two seasons.

“There’s still some stiffness and soreness in the foot,” he said after the game. “I’ll be like that until the end of the season. I have to force it to get rid of the soreness. But after I get warmed up it doesn’t pull as much. After it gets stretched, it seems better.”

It was the greatest comeback in a shopping list of many for the brilliant skater, whose longest layoff previously was 22 games in 1951-52 when he was plagued by a groin injury, the Canadiens sending him to Florida for rest.

Teammates gave Rocket a bouquet of flowers in the dressing room before the game, brightening the mood.

General manager Frank Selke Sr. said he’d seen many players in his time, “but never one like Rocket.”

Said coach Blake: “I’m never surprised by anything the Rocket does. There’s a man who will never need a scriptwriter. Everything he does on the ice is drama.”

Defenseman Doug Harvey said, “I bet a buck he’d score at least one goal. I collected.”

Canadiens captain Maurice Richard hugs the Stanley Cup during the victory celebration following Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on April 14, 1960 at Maple Leaf Gardens. The Canadiens’ 4-0 clinching victory would be the final game in Richard’s career.

Rocket’s younger brother, future Hall of Famer Henri Richard, remembered seeing Maurice “walking with difficulty even with crutches in the hospital. What amazed me was the accuracy of his shots. He played as if he’d missed only one or two games.”

Star forward Bernie Geoffrion, sidelined following surgery, “saw a remarkable exhibition I won’t forget. I was at the game in the Forum’s standing-room section. I couldn’t get a seat.”

Richard’s 505th career goal puck would be a gift for his young son, Andre, No. 506 going to an orphanage in Sherbrooke, Quebec. He promised No. 507 “to a little boy whose parents I know. He has the likable name of Maurice Richard Stuart.”

As Richard dressed following his dazzling comeback, he reflected on a pushing match with Bruins defenseman Larry Hillman, the latter dropping his gloves, spoiling for a scrap that was declined.

“At my age,” Rocket said with a grin, “you stay out of fights.”

Top photo: Maurice Richard shovels a backhand in the direction of Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Ed Chadwick on Oct. 30, 1957, two weeks before Richard’s Achilles tendon injury.