The great Henri Richard has died.

[DingDongCharlie]

RIP. An absolute legend of the game. 11 Cups is a tremendous accomplishment. Many players today are happy with 1.

 

[DJ Man]

The guy you'd want on your all-time team ... if you really wanted to win.

 

[Big Phil]

Here is an interesting thing and I myself am trying to dissect the reasons behind it. He gets inducted into the HHOF in 1979. No brainer right? Here is the thing though, he waited a year after being a 1st ballot. I am trying to figure out why, because there are players that get inducted and you wonder why it wasn't done right away (Dale Hawerchuk strangely had to wait a year despite there being more room for eligible players).

My theory on this revolves around a couple of questions. For starters, someone like Mike Bossy got in by 1991 but retired by 1987. If I remember correctly the rules stipulate that a player had to announce his retirement to start his eligibility process and he announced it in 1988. That has been scrapped since and it is just three years regardless but did Henri have some injuries and not announce it until 1976?

The other theory I have is that in looking at the inductions there was a gap where it looks like only a maximum of three guys got in. In 1975 5 players got in and in years previous there were those numbers too (probably dealing with backlog). But then no year has more than three up until 1988 when 4 got in again and that remains the maximum amount today.

In 1978 the year you figure Henri is eligible is the year Plante, Pronovost and Bathgate got in. No issues with any of them of course. Pronovost's career ended in 1970 so he was more of a backlog pick. Plante and Bathgate finished their pro careers in 1975. So while there is no issue with putting Plante ahead of Richard I am guessing they may have thought Bathgate was slightly better than Henri and this is the reason for it. Just guessing.

 

[ICM1970]

Agreed with some peoples' comments here about the story involving Richard and Al MacNeil. Bertrand Raymond should not have printed those comments and I wonder if MacNeil had honestly thought about suing Raymond and the Journal de Montreal over the death threats he got over how the French press ran with the story.

 

[Fenway]

 

[The Panther]

Yes, the same video tribute and a short moment of silence in Edmonton tonight, too. Classy.

I love this aspect of hockey!

 

[EpochLink]

Amazing career, was part of 2 great dynasties if you think about it.

The 50's Canadiens when they won 5 straight cups.
The 60's Canadiens when they won 4 cups in 5 years.
Captured 2 cups in the early 1970's Canadiens BEFORE the dynasty 70's.

Great two way player to boot, rest in peace legend.

 

[The Panther]

When Henri made the playoffs (which was every year but 1970), he won the Stanley Cup 61% of the time.

 

[Boxscore]

Yes, the same video tribute and a short moment of silence in Edmonton tonight, too. Classy.

I love this aspect of hockey!

Saw that in Edmonton--nice touch!

 

[Merya]

Goodbye Maestro!

 

[Staniowski]

Here is an interesting thing and I myself am trying to dissect the reasons behind it. He gets inducted into the HHOF in 1979. No brainer right? Here is the thing though, he waited a year after being a 1st ballot. I am trying to figure out why, because there are players that get inducted and you wonder why it wasn't done right away (Dale Hawerchuk strangely had to wait a year despite there being more room for eligible players).

My theory on this revolves around a couple of questions. For starters, someone like Mike Bossy got in by 1991 but retired by 1987. If I remember correctly the rules stipulate that a player had to announce his retirement to start his eligibility process and he announced it in 1988. That has been scrapped since and it is just three years regardless but did Henri have some injuries and not announce it until 1976?

The other theory I have is that in looking at the inductions there was a gap where it looks like only a maximum of three guys got in. In 1975 5 players got in and in years previous there were those numbers too (probably dealing with backlog). But then no year has more than three up until 1988 when 4 got in again and that remains the maximum amount today.

In 1978 the year you figure Henri is eligible is the year Plante, Pronovost and Bathgate got in. No issues with any of them of course. Pronovost's career ended in 1970 so he was more of a backlog pick. Plante and Bathgate finished their pro careers in 1975. So while there is no issue with putting Plante ahead of Richard I am guessing they may have thought Bathgate was slightly better than Henri and this is the reason for it. Just guessing.

I don't know if the induction process was any different in the '70s than it is now. But we have to remember that the HHOF induction process doesn't operate on a "pecking order" as the baseball process does (for the most part).

In hockey, there is the added step of nominations.

So, in baseball, the voters are basically looking at a list of all eligible players, together, on one ballot. But in hockey, players have to first be nominated before they can be voted upon. And it's likely that there isn't a huge number of nominations in a typical year.

There is, of course, somewhat of a pecking order. So, the big stars are not going to be not nominated in their first year of eligibility. At least it's not likely to happen.

But, there is no reason to think that, for example, the majority of the Selection Committee believes that, say, Guy Carbonneau deserves induction more than, say, Daniel Alfredsson or Boris Mikhailov. It's just likely that somebody nominated Carbonneau and nobody did the other two.

None of this necessarily explains why Henri Richard wasn't inducted in 1978, but we do have to keep the nominating and induction process in mind for all inductees.

 

[DannyGallivan]

Also being the kid brother to hockey royalty and playing under his shadow during those dynasty years

The Rocket himself called Henri a much more "complete" hockey player than himself.

 

[Fenway]

 

[Staniowski]

He says in the interview that somebody in the Toronto media named him Pocket Rocket when he played junior.

Started his career on a line with Beliveau and Olmstead (just for a few games); finished his career on a line with Lafleur and Shutt.

 

[Fenway]

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