The great Henri Richard has died.
- Thread starter Staniowski
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Staniowski
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BenchBrawl
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- Jul 26, 2010
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RIP
A true Montreal Canadiens legend. Underrated from his first game all the way up to this day.
I read a few months ago that he didn't remember his career at all due to Alzheimer (or some form of dementia), so I take this as a relief that he's not suffering anymore.
A true Montreal Canadiens legend. Underrated from his first game all the way up to this day.
I read a few months ago that he didn't remember his career at all due to Alzheimer (or some form of dementia), so I take this as a relief that he's not suffering anymore.
tony d
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vikash1987
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Condolences to the Richard family. Sad news for Montreal and for the entire hockey world. He was one of the game’s great legends and ambassadors. The most Cups of any player, ever. A legacy which will never be forgotten.
Staniowski
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ImporterExporter
"You're a boring old man"
An absolute legend. Glad he got more and more respect around here over the years. Learned a lot about him from our late friend C1958.
I'm sure he and Canadiens1958 are talking hockey history right now. At least I like to believe that!
I'm sure he and Canadiens1958 are talking hockey history right now. At least I like to believe that!
Richard was the central part of a team mutiny against English speaking coach Al MacNeil in 1971 after Game 5 of the SCF in Chicago and the Habs would win the next 2 games to win the Cup but MacNeil was banished back to AHL Nova Scotia.
The Roy Of Ottawa
HOCKEY HALL OF FAME
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Henri Richard dies at 84, won NHL-record 11 Cup titles for Canadiens
'Pocket Rocket' played 20 seasons in Hall of Fame career
Henri Richard dies at 84, won NHL-record 11 Cup titles for Canadiens
Hall of Fame - News
'Pocket Rocket' played 20 seasons in Hall of Fame career
Henri Richard dies at 84, won NHL-record 11 Cup titles for Canadiens
Hall of Fame - News
Be a Hab
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JackSlater
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Henri Richard is one of my favourite players to learn about. Very interesting player and seems pretty misunderstood among the general hockey fandom. I doubt that any player is ever going to win 11 Stanley Cups again. I also enjoyed that he was still very fast when he played in old timers games.
Laphroaig
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BadgerBruce
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double5son10
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There was no "mutiny", merely Richard spouting off to the French press about his coach being "incompetent", which the French press ran with. Richard was a hothead, like his brother. Beliveau almost immediately took Richard aside and told him to cool his jets for the team's sake and he did, responding with a monster of a Game 7.
The decision to demote MacNeil was mutually agreed to by the coach and Sam Pollock. He had already been the coach of the Voyageurs the previous year and returned to his old position, where he absolutely thrived and became one of the greatest AHL coaches ever.
Big Phil
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There was a great documentary "Forever Rivals" back in the 1990s. The most I remember Henri talking about Al MacNeil's situation was this one and I've always felt Henri - normally a consummate team guy - was just letting off some steam that the media turned into a French/English thing. Henri himself says he had never thought about it that way.
Excellent documentary by the way, everyone here should watch it but here is where the Richard/MacNeil thing starts - 1:05:00. Yvan Cournoyer says himself that language is never an issue because "we speak both we have no problem with that"
By the way, 11 Stanley Cups, can we all agree that we can take this to the bank that this record will outlive all of us? 5 Super Bowls was once the record and it might be safe to say no one surpasses Brady's 6 wins but I think 11 Cups is even harder.
Chili
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Think he's somewhat underappreciated because of playing centre on the same team as Jean Béliveau. Somewhat like Malkin with Crosby where there are two great centres. Remember most how tough he was and two great playoff runs late in his career.
Reposez en paix
Reposez en paix
vikash1987
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Also being the kid brother to hockey royalty and playing under his shadow during those dynasty years
Black Gold Extractor
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At the very least, I'm sure that his career brought him great joy before Alzheimer's. Henri placed great importance on being able to play with his brother, and Maurice apparently said that he would have retired much earlier if not for Henri's presence on the team (source). And that was just the beginning...
Henri Richard said:
I immediately thought of Canadiens1958 as well.
I'll leave one final quote from Henri himself and let everyone decide:
Henri Richard said:
Staniowski
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Henri was the first hockey player who really amazed me watching them in person. It must've been 2 or 3 years after he retired, the Canadiens oldtimers, Henri was by-far the best player on the ice. What a skater. I was young, but I remember the adults saying that he could still be playing in the NHL. He looked a bit like Guy Lafleur to my young eyes.
After the game, I gathered some autographs from as many players as possible - Phil Goyette, Bobby Rousseau, Ken Mosdell, Dickie Moore, and several others - and also from the 2 famous refs, Red Storey and Rocket Richard, but I was disappointed to be missing the star of the game, Henri Richard. Anyway, we left the arena and the players were slowly boarding their shuttle bus outside. We could see some of the players on the bus so we walked over and we could see Henri on the bus, so we motioned to him to sign our program, and we passed it up to him through the bus window, and he signed it and we talked a bit. So that was a great night.
---------------------------
Henri was an easy player to like - an outstanding skater, hard worker, talented with the puck, great stickhandler, tenacious, very good defensively, a big-game player, extremely intelligent.
One of my all-time favourites.
Henri could never match his brother as an icon - nobody could - but in some regards, the younger brother became the better player. A very valuable player, he was.
After the game, I gathered some autographs from as many players as possible - Phil Goyette, Bobby Rousseau, Ken Mosdell, Dickie Moore, and several others - and also from the 2 famous refs, Red Storey and Rocket Richard, but I was disappointed to be missing the star of the game, Henri Richard. Anyway, we left the arena and the players were slowly boarding their shuttle bus outside. We could see some of the players on the bus so we walked over and we could see Henri on the bus, so we motioned to him to sign our program, and we passed it up to him through the bus window, and he signed it and we talked a bit. So that was a great night.
---------------------------
Henri was an easy player to like - an outstanding skater, hard worker, talented with the puck, great stickhandler, tenacious, very good defensively, a big-game player, extremely intelligent.
One of my all-time favourites.
Henri could never match his brother as an icon - nobody could - but in some regards, the younger brother became the better player. A very valuable player, he was.
Staniowski
Registered User
I don't really consider the 11 Stanley Cups to be that important of a record. Henri was right when he said it was mostly being in the right place at the right time. One of the other guys - Beliveau, Cournoyer, etc. - could just as easily have the record. They all were lucky to play for those great teams.
But Henri was certainly a very important part of all those successful teams.
Staniowski
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I think Henri has always been very highly respected and appreciated by Habs fans and others who watched him play and know his game. I don't think it's possible to watch him play a lot and not appreciate his game, and not love his game.
I think it's just people who don't know his game who don't appreciate him.
The Panther
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Wow, just seeing this news now. Another legend gone.
Everybody knows Henri won 11 Cups, knows who his brother was, knows he was a two-way player, and knows he could skate. But one thing about him that's easy to overlook is how good he was offensively in his younger days. He was the ninth player to reach the 1000-point plateau, and that's with most of his career in the lower-scoring, 70-game season era. He twice led the NHL in assists, and led the playoffs in scoring in 1960 when the Habs won their fifth-straight. He missed a scoring title by only 4 points to his teammates, Dickie Moore in 1958 (he outscored Gordie Howe that season). Four times a 1st/2nd-team All Star, and that at center.
For some reason, I had always thought that he retired after the 1973 Cup, but I just now see that in fact he played on to the spring of 1975!
In that video Phil posted, above, Guy Lafleur talks about what it was like to sit in the Habs' dressing room in the 70s and see the words and images at the very top of this photo...
... and, I think, it's so sad that that legacy is ended now, more or less. If you were a young Hab in the 70s/80s, you not only felt that legacy and level of expectation, but you also knew that Joliat, the Richards, Beliveau, and all the others were watching you play every night.
Sobering news.
Everybody knows Henri won 11 Cups, knows who his brother was, knows he was a two-way player, and knows he could skate. But one thing about him that's easy to overlook is how good he was offensively in his younger days. He was the ninth player to reach the 1000-point plateau, and that's with most of his career in the lower-scoring, 70-game season era. He twice led the NHL in assists, and led the playoffs in scoring in 1960 when the Habs won their fifth-straight. He missed a scoring title by only 4 points to his teammates, Dickie Moore in 1958 (he outscored Gordie Howe that season). Four times a 1st/2nd-team All Star, and that at center.
For some reason, I had always thought that he retired after the 1973 Cup, but I just now see that in fact he played on to the spring of 1975!
In that video Phil posted, above, Guy Lafleur talks about what it was like to sit in the Habs' dressing room in the 70s and see the words and images at the very top of this photo...
... and, I think, it's so sad that that legacy is ended now, more or less. If you were a young Hab in the 70s/80s, you not only felt that legacy and level of expectation, but you also knew that Joliat, the Richards, Beliveau, and all the others were watching you play every night.
Sobering news.
The media coverage between Game 5 on Thursday and Game 6 on Sunday afternoon certainly treated it as a mutiny with Richard at the center of it and that was in the anglo media and the US papers.
MacNeil didn't mutually agree to go back to Halifax but Pollock did compensate him financially. Pollock knew Scotty Bowman was the right fit for the team and he was bilingual. MacNeil did express bitterness with some Boston writers the following season as the Bruins had an AHL team in Boston and Nova Scotia was a major rival along with Providence.
MacNeil ( but more likely Pollock ) rolled the dice starting Dryden in the playoffs in 71 and it didn't start well. However, in Game 2 Henri scored a goal late in the second period to make it 5-2 Boston and Dryden played the third.
Given what happened a month later against Chicago I can make a case that Henri should have won the Conn Smythe over Dryden.
