Joseph Henri Maurice "Rocket" Richard (August 4, 1921 – May 27, 2000) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Montreal Canadiens. He was the first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in one season, accomplishing the feat in 50 games in 1944–45, and the first to reach 500 career goals.
Richard retired in 1960 as the National Hockey League's all-time leader in goals with 544. He won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player in 1947, played in 13 All-Star Games and was named to 14 post-season NHL All-Star teams, eight on the first team. Richard was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history in 2017. His younger brother Henri also played his entire career with the Canadiens, the two as teammates for Maurice's last five years. A centre nicknamed the "Pocket Rocket", Henri is enshrined alongside Maurice in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Richard, Elmer Lach and Toe Blake formed the "Punch line", a high-scoring forward line of the 1940s. Richard was a member of eight Stanley Cup championship teams, including a league record five straight between 1956 and 1960; he was the team's captain for the last four. The Hall of Fame waived its five-year waiting period for eligibility and inducted Richard in 1961. In 1975 he was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. The Canadiens retired his number, 9, in 1960, and in 1999 donated the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy to the NHL, awarded annually to the league's regular season leading goal-scorer.
The oldest of eight children, Richard emerged from a poverty-stricken family during the Great Depression and was initially viewed as a fragile player. A string of injuries prevented him from joining the Canadian military during the Second World War. Intense, he was renowned for his physical and occasionally violent style of play. Richard was involved in a vicious on-ice incident late in the 1954–55 season during which he struck a linesman. NHL President Clarence Campbell suspended him for the remainder of the season and playoffs, which precipitated the Richard Riot in Montreal. The riot has taken on a mythical quality in the decades since and is often viewed as a precursor to Quebec's Quiet Revolution. Richard was a cultural icon among Quebec's francophone population; his legend is a primary motif in Roch Carrier's short story The Hockey Sweater, an emblematic work of Canadian culture.
In 1998, Richard was diagnosed with abdominal cancer and died from the disease two years later. He was the first non-politician to be honoured by the province of Quebec with a state funeral.
Joseph Henri Maurice Richard was born August 4, 1921, in Montreal, Quebec. His father, Onésime Richard, was originally from the Gaspé region of Quebec, before moving to Montreal, where he married Maurice's mother, Alice Laramée. The couple settled in the neighbourhood of Nouveau-Bordeaux. Maurice was the oldest of eight children; he had three sisters: Georgette, Rollande and Marguerite; and four brothers: René, Jacques, Henri and Claude. Onésime was a carpenter by trade, and took a job with the Canadian Pacific Railway shortly after Maurice was born. The Richards struggled during the Great Depression; Onésime lost his job in 1930 and the family relied on government aid until he was re-hired by the railway around 1936.
Richard received his first pair of ice skates when he was four, and grew up skating on local rivers and a small backyard ice surface his father created. He did not play organized hockey until he was 14. Instead, Richard developed his skills playing shinny and "hog" – a game that required the puck carrier to keep the puck away from others for as long as possible. While he also played baseball and was a boxer, hockey was his passion. After he began playing in organized leagues, Richard joined several teams and used pseudonyms such as "Maurice Rochon" to circumvent rules that restricted players to one team. In one league, he led his team to three consecutive championships and scored 133 of his team's 144 goals in the 1938–39 season.
At 16, Richard dropped out of school to work with his father as a machinist. He enrolled in a technical school, intent on earning a trade certificate. At 18, Richard joined the Verdun Juniors, though as a rookie he saw little ice time in the regular season. He scored four goals in ten regular season games, and added six goals in four playoff games as Verdun won the provincial championship. He was promoted to the Montreal Canadiens' affiliate in the Quebec Senior Hockey League in 1940, but suffered a broken ankle in his first game after crashing into the boards and missed the remainder of the season. The injury also aborted his hopes of joining the Canadian military: he was called to a recruitment centre in mid-1941, but was deemed unfit for combat.
Off the ice, Richard was a quiet, unassuming youth who spoke little. He met his future wife Lucille Norchet when he was seventeen, and she was thirteen. She was the younger sister of one of his teammates at Bordeaux, and her bright, outgoing personality complemented Richard's reserved nature. Lucille proved adept at guiding him through trials and disappointments he experienced in both hockey and life. They were engaged when he was 20, and though her parents felt she was too young, married on September 12, 1942, when she was seventeen.
Having recovered from his broken ankle in time for the 1941–42 season, Richard returned to the QSHL Canadiens, with whom he played 31 games and recorded 17 points before he was again injured. He suffered a broken wrist after becoming entangled with a defenceman and crashed into the net. Richard rejoined the team for the playoffs. The skills he demonstrated in the QSHL, combined with the NHL parent club's loss of players to the war and struggles to draw fans due to its poor record and a lack of francophone players, earned Richard a tryout with the Canadiens for the 1942–43 season. He signed a contract worth $3,500 for the year and, wearing sweater number 15, made his NHL debut with the team. Richard's first goal was against the New York Rangers on November 8, 1942.
Injury again sidelined Richard as his rookie season ended after only 16 games when he suffered a broken leg. The string of broken bones so early in his career left observers wondering if Richard was too fragile to play at the highest levels. He made a second attempt to enlist with the military but was again turned down after x-rays revealed that his bones had not healed properly; Richard's ankle was left permanently deformed, forcing him to alter his skating style. Humiliated by the rejection, he intensified his training and reported to Montreal's training camp for the 1943–44 season fully healthy. The arrival of his daughter Huguette prompted Richard to change his uniform to number 9 to match her birth weight of nine pounds.
Remaining healthy throughout the season, Richard appeared in 46 of Montreal's 50 games. He led the Canadiens with 32 goals and tallied 54 points, third-best in his team. His first full NHL season not only ended the criticism about his ability to play in the league, but established him as one of the best young players in the league. Coach Dick Irvin shifted him from left wing to right and put him on a forward line with Toe Blake and Elmer Lach. The trio, known as the "Punch line", formed a dominant scoring unit throughout the 1940s. The Canadiens lost only six games after October, and went on to win the franchise's first Stanley Cup championship in 13 years. Richard led the league with 12 playoff goals, including a five-goal effort against the Toronto Maple Leafs in a semi-final game. He tied Newsy Lalonde's NHL record for goals in one playoff game (equalled by three players since), which resulted in his being named first, second and third star of the game, as chosen by journalist Charles Mayer. Richard was named a second team All-Star following the season. It was the first of 14 consecutive years he was named a league all-star.