"Sport is part of culture and a good way to learn about another country… To discover why people are so passionate about it, it's like, 'Tell me what your sport is and I'll tell you who you are,' " he said.

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."

The arena is their temple, the players are their saviours, and those who worship them pray that the sacrifices made on the ice — of blood, sweat and tears — will lead them to glory.

In a match the previous Sunday, Richard had twice viciouslyslashed his nemesis, Hal Laycoe of the Boston Bruins, and thenassaulted a linesman.

There are moments when life gets in the way, when sports and thereal world collide at some intersection--which, almost 45 yearsago, happened to be the corner of Atwater and Ste. Catherinestreets in Montreal. This was the site of the Forum, hockey'stemple, which now lives only in the soft-focus haze of fondmemory. On the night of Thursday, March 17, 1955, the haze was aghostly yellowish white. 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

It is one of those moments when you realize you are part of something special, that this spontaneous moment is taking on a life of its own, and one of those moments that remind you sports can mean so much more than a game. He is giving them one final memory here in the Forum. The crowd begins to chant, “Ree-char, Ree-char!”

That statement laid bare the sentiment many suspected behind Campbell’s decision. Campbell, the imperialist dictator headquartered in their city, came to embody the Anglo elite, every Anglo boss who had wronged a Franco worker, every Anglo landlord who had ousted a Franco tenant and every Anglo employer who had not given them a fair shake. Not surprising, then, that a French paper published a cartoon of Campbell’s bloody head on a platter with the caption, “This is how we would like to see him.” With the mood of the city so stirred against the league president, that evening’s game against the Red Wings portended trouble.

At first, they vented their frustration over the phone lines. So many called the newspapers’ sports departments to express outrage that some reporters could not concentrate in the din.

Yet Richard had a dark side. His intensity sometimes provoked violence. His tantrums had become as legendary as his goals.

At times, he appeared superhuman

The Garden crowd is angry. Boston police come to the locker room. They want to arrest Richard for assault, to throw him in jail for the night. Montreal coach Dick Irvin blocks the entry to the Canadiens’ dressing room

Once the officials finally subdue Richard and Laycoe, the referee, Frank Udvari, sends Laycoe to the penalty box with a five-minute major for drawing blood. When Laycoe throws a bloody towel at him, he adds 10 minutes

Thompson manages to grab hold of Richard — the side of his face smeared with blood from Laycoe’s original strike — but cannot restrain his anger. Richard thinks Thompson, who once played for the Bruins himself, holds him so Laycoe can hit him

Laycoe lunges at Richard. His stick blade clips the Rocket above the left ear and opens a gash. The blood stains his scalp.

he tension between the two rivals in the six-team NHL has been building inside the Boston Garden all night. This is their 14th and final meeting of the regular season, plenty of games to enflame the animosity between the two teams, but what’s about to happen is even more personal. Laycoe, the Bruins forward had nailed Richard in the first period. He served two minutes for charging. But the hit lit the fuse of Richard’s infamous temper.

After the riot, the NHL began to crack down on all-out brawls (especially carrying your stick into one), though it would take another 25 years for the changes to take effect with the institution of the third-man-in rule.

st

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.

Sticks were high, fists flew, blood often smeared the ice, and the owners thought this was all manly and a great way to sell tickets.

but I believe it is God and no one else who puts to flight this very enemy in the most severe encounters, before those who, fearing nothing so much as his approaches, go with bowed heads, and [77] hearts full of confidence in his Goodness, where his glory calls them.

we are among Peoples who are astonished when you speak to them of God, and who often have only horrible blasphemies in their mouths

It is true that fortis ut mors dilectio, the love of God has power to do what death does,—that is to say, to detach us entirely from creatures and from ourselves; nevertheless, these desires that we feel of working for the safety of Infidels are not always sure signs of that pure love

On the thirteenth of the same month, we had news of a troop of Hurons who had gone to war, and who were encamped at the distance of a musket-shot from the last village, a day's journey from us; after having passed two nights in singing and eating, they were overtaken with so profound a sleep, that the enemy, coming suddenly upon them, cleft open the heads of a dozen without resistance, the rest escaping by flight.

During the year, the missionaries in that far-away field have baptized eighty-six savages,—an encouraging gain over the fourteen who were " rescued from the service of the devil " during the first year of their labors. Their great hope is in the conversion of the children, who, they report, show surprising aptitude and willingness to learn the doctrines of the Christian faith; and, through them, many parents have been reached.