The fiery Maurice "Rocket" Richard would not be denied an unprecedented milestone on this date in 1957
Sometimes players on the threshold of a big milestone will get hung up on the achievement and take longer than necessary to actually reach it.
Not Maurice “Rocket” Richard.
Having entered the 1957-58 NHL season with 493 career goals, needing only seven to become the first player to get to the unprecedented 500 plateau, the Montreal Canadiens’ captain buckled down and got there as quickly as he could. He scored his seventh goal of the campaign in only his sixth game, completing the mission on this date in 1957.
Richard scored his first goal in the season opener on Oct. 10 against the Chicago Black Hawks. Shut out in his second game, he put up a hat trick against Detroit in his third game and scored twice more against Toronto in his fifth game.
Facing Chicago again on Oct. 19 at the Montreal Forum, the Habs were on a power play in the first period when Richard accepted a pass from Jean Beliveau and beat Hawks’ goalie Glenn Hall for the historic tally. Montreal went on to win the game 3-1.
The Rocket made a habit of scoring milestone goals against Chicago netminders. He got his 100th career goal against Mike Karakas in December 1945 and his 200th goal against Jim Henry in January 1949. He victimized Al Rollins for two big ones – his 325th goal, which broke Nels Stewart’s NHL record in November 1952 and put Richard atop the career scoring list, and his 400th goal, in December 1954.
By the time Richard reached 500, no other player in NHL history had even managed to get 400. Gordie Howe was in second place with 354, the only other person to that point who had surpassed Stewart’s total.
And Richard still didn’t rest on his laurels. He scored No. 501 in his very next game.
He retired in 1960, still atop the scoring mountain with 544 career regular season goals. Howe would not surpass his total until November 1963.