referred to Carey Price as Jesus Price.

"The fans, they pray for two things. The first is that the Canadiens will win. The second thing is that they pray for the Canadiens to crush the Maple Leafs, but I think you don't need any God for that," he said with a laugh.

"We really want to see what everyone wants to say.… When you have a lot of people passionate about hockey, and not about religion, it's interesting to see people's reactions to the question," she said. "If they can make connections between religion and sport, it helps get people involved; there will be a lot of diversity."

His rare defeats were their defeats.And no defeat was as personal, as galling, as the suspensionthat NHL president Clarence Campbell had handed Richard the daybefore all hell broke loose.

Smoke from a tear-gas canister haddriven thousands of hockey fans into the streets, sparking afour-hour rampage that yielded the requisite fires, shatteredwindows, looted stores, overturned cars and 137 arrests.

“Because I always try so hard to win and had my troubles in Boston, I was suspended. At playoff time, it hurts not to be in the game with the boys. However, I want to do what is good for the people of Montreal and the team. So that no further harm will be done, I would like to ask everyone to get behind the team and to help the boys win from the Rangers and Detroit. I will take my punishment and come back next year to help the club and younger players to win the Cup.” His words had a palliative effect. The next night nobody threw galoshes, nobody broke any more windows, nobody stopped streetcars.

In an era when the game was more violent than today’s version, when players did not wear helmets or mouth guards and when they jousted more frequently with their sticks, Richard still exceeded the acceptable standards. On one occasion he knocked out New York Rangers’ tough guy Bob “Killer” Dill twice in the same game. In 1947, he broke his stick over the head of another Ranger, Bill Juzda. A month later, he clubbed the Maple Leafs’ Bill Ezinicki in the Stanley Cup finals. Opponents frequently antagonized Richard because they could count on him retaliating and they would rather see him in the penalty box than on the ice. By 1955, he had become one of the game’s most penalized players. During 18 seasons total, he was assessed 1,285 minutes in penalties.

“RICHARD GOES INSANE”

Incensed, Richard swings his stick with two-fisted fury at Laycoe. He hits him with such force across the shoulders that his stick splinters. Laycoe sheds his gloves and rushes at Richard, who drops his gloves. The two thrash at one another with their fists.

the world’s greatest hockey player to that time

Richard's story had linesman Cliff Thompson holding him back, arms pinned, while Laycoe was allowed to smack away. Rocket said he warned the linesman three times to let him go before he finally clocked the official.  Laycoe's story had Thompson trying to wrestle both of them and, in order to get at the Bruins player, Richard smacked the official.

How Richard himself, the Rocket, was so much a part of Quebec society that he transcended even organized religion.

The power of the English seigneurs 

Maurice Richard said many times that, in order to understand the events leading up to the riot of March 17, 1955 that forever bears his name, it was crucial to know how violent the National Hockey League was in those days.

The women of the Chapdelaine household had no part in the work of the fields.

"The wind is backing to the sou'east. Bad luck! Beyond question it will rain again,"

The morrow was a day of blue sky, a day when from the heavens some of the sparkle and brightness descends to earth. The green of tender grass and young wheat was of a ravishing delicacy, even the dun woods borrowed something from the azure of the sky.

All at once Chien set up a low growl; the sound was heard of approaching footsteps. "Another visitor!" Madame Chapdelaine announced in a tone mingling pleasure and astonishment.

It was the everlasting conflict between the types: pioneer and farmer, the peasant from France who brought to new lands his ideals of ordered life and contented immobility, and that other in whom the vast wilderness awakened distant atavistic instincts for wandering and adventure.

"It is raining!" he exclaimed. His hosts made toward the door to see for themselves; the rain had in truth begun, a spring rain with great drops that fell heavily, under which the snow was already softening and melting. "The sou'east has taken hold," announced the elder Chapdelaine. "Now we can say that the winter is practically over."

Five times since boyhood had he taken up wild land, built a house, a stable and a barn, wrested from the unbroken forest a comfortable farm; and five times he had sold out to begin it all again farther north,

There are even special ceremonies [191] for little children who die less than a month or two old; they do not put them like the others into bark tombs set up on posts, but inter them on the road,—in order that, they say, if some woman passes that way, they may secretly enter her womb, and that she may give them life again, and bring them forth.

They have a faith in dreams which surpasses all belief; and if Christians were to put into execution all their divine inspirations with as much care as our Savages carry out their dreams, no doubt they would very soon become great Saints

] the discomfort of the Canoe is very easy to bear, to him who considers the crucified one

by means of four little towers at the four corners, four Frenchmen might easily with their arquebuses or muskets defend a whole village. They are greatly delighted with this advice, and have already begun to practice it at la Rochelle,

They seek Baptism almost entirely as an aid to health. We try to purify this intention, and to lead them to receive from the hand of Cod alike sickness and health, death and life; and teach them that the life-giving waters of Holy [6] Baptism principally impart life to the soul, and not to the body. However, they have the opinion so deeply rooted that the baptized, especially the children, are no longer sickly, that soon they will have spread it abroad and published it everywhere. The result is that they are now bringing us children to baptize from two, three, yes, even seven leagues away.

URING the present year, eighty-six have been baptized, and, adding to these the fourteen of last year, there are a hundred souls in all who, we believe, have been rescued from the service of the devil in this country since our return. Of this. number God has called ten to Heaven,—six while they were young, and four more advanced in age.

His chastity was proof; and in that matter his eyes [page 191] were so faithful to his heart, that they had no sight for the objects which might have soiled purity. His body was not rebellious to the spirit; and in the midst of impurity itself,—which reigns, it seems, in this country,—he lived in an innocence as great as if he had sojourned in the midst of a desert inaccessible to that sin. A woman presented herself one day to him, in a place somewhat isolated, uttering to him unseemly language, and breathing a fire which could come only from a firebrand of hell. The Father, seeing himself thus attacked, made upon himself the sign of the cross, without answering any word; and this spectre, disguised beneath a woman's dress, disappeared at the same moment.

As for the other captives who were left to them, destined to die on the spot, they attached them to stakes fastened in the earth, which they had arranged in various cabins. To these, on leaving the village, they set fire on all sides,—taking pleasure, at their departure, in feasting upon the frightful cries which these poor victims uttered in the midst of those flames, where children were broiling beside their mothers; where a husband saw his wife roasting near him; where cruelty itself would have had compassion at a spectacle which had nothing human about it, except the innocence of those who were in torture, most of whom were Christians.

Everywhere, the progress of the Faith has surpassed our hopes,—most minds, even those formerly most fierce, becoming so docile, and so submissive to the preaching of the Gospel, that it was sufficiently apparent that [page 101] the Angels were laboring there much more than we.

This place, although well fortified, is taken " almost without a blow, " the people being asleep; and nearly all of them are slain or captured. Not stopping here, the enemy immediately proceed to the attack of St. Louis, the next village on the road to Ste. Marie. This, although bravely defended by its few warriors, is soon captured and burned;

Daniel soon sees that all is lost; and he hastens through the cabins, baptizing all whom he can reach, that at least their souls may be saved. Finally, as the enemy approach the church, Daniel goes forth alone to meet them, that he may engage [page 12] their attention, and give his disciples a better opportunity to escape. They overwhelm him with arrow and gun shots, and throw his naked corpse into the flames which are consuming the church,—truly a noble funeral pyre.