"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.

"Are the Montreal Canadiens a religion?"

When we learned about the 100th anniversary, we thought it was a good time to talk about the relationship between sport and religion, especially between the Habs and the religious context in Montreal and in Quebec,"

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.

Fans of the Montreal Canadiens pray that the sacrifices made on the ice of blood, sweat and tears will lead them to glory

The gray weather on that St. Patrick's Day mirrored Montreal'smood

Richard had led the Canadiens tothree Stanley Cups and had scored 50 goals in 50 games

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.

Three days later Campbell suspendedRichard for the Canadiens' three remaining regular-season gamesand the entire playoffs.

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. Sportsriots have become commonplace, but the one in '55 was like noother because one of its central figures, Maurice Richard, waslike no other hockey player.

“When I’m hit, I get mad and I don’t know what I do,” he confided in one writer. “Before each game, I think about my temper and how I should control it, but as soon as I get on the ice I forget all that.”

The next day, when Richard spotted McLean in the hotel lobby, he grabbed the referee by the throat

By 1955, Richard had scored more goals, 422, than anyone in the history of the NHL

n 1939, when war broke out in Europe, the 18-year-old Richard tried to enlist for active duty, but military doctors determined his wrists and ankle — already broken during hockey games­ — had not healed properly.

his skills were in such high demand he played as often as he could, sometimes four games in a weekend, using aliases to play for multiple teams, often against grown men.

Boston police come to the locker room. They want to arrest Richard for assault, to throw him in jail for the night.

This is their 14th and final meeting

The Rocket Richard Riot

So far, pretty normal for those days.

homemade tear gas bomb went off.

137 arrests

Ted Lindsay had been dispatched for four games after punching a Toronto fan.

"But I cannot bear it, I tell you-the thirst and the pain all through my body, and my head that bums like fire ... My God! It is certain that I am to die."

For the first hour the horse could not go beyond a walk, sinking knee-deep in snow

programme

to-night

You see he often went trapping in winter when he was not in the shanties, and one season when he was at the head of the Riviere aux Foins, quite alone, a tree that he was cutting for firewood slipped in falling, and it was the Indians who found him by chance next day, crushed and half-frozen though the weather was mild. He was in their game preserve, and they might very well have pretended not to see him and have left him to die there; but they put him on their toboggan, brought him to their camp, and looked after him. You knew my father: a rough man who often took a glass, but just in his dealings, and with a good name for doing that sort of thing himself. So when he parted with these Indians he told them to stop and see him in the spring when they would be coming down to Pointe Bleue with their furs-François Paradis of Mistassini,' said he to them, will not forget what you have done ... François Paradis.' And when they came in spring while running the river he looked after them well and every one carried away a new ax, a fine woollen blanket and tobacco for six months. Always after that they used to pay us a visit in the spring, and father had the pick of their best skins for less than the companies' buyers had to pay. When he died they treated me in the same way be cause I was his son and bore the same name, François Paradis. With more capital I could have made a good bit of money in this trade-a good bit of money."

"You should be safe enough for crossing this evening," said Nazaire Larouche, "but it will be touch-and-go, and I think you will be about the last. The current is strong below the fall and already we have had three days of rain.'"

neighbour

bartering with the Indians of Lake Mistassini and the Riviere aux Foins

He continued:—"Two men are up here with money to buy furs. If you have any bear, mink, muskrat or fox you will find these men at the store until Wednesday, or you can apply to François Paradis of Mistassini who is with them. They have plenty of money and will pay cash for first-class pelts." His news finished, he descended the steps. A sharp-faced little fellow took his place.

Fathers

about sixty leagues distant from us

defenders

price of a hundred écus

We lost thereby the value of 4000 livres.

The Ursulines and Hospital nuns made no mistake, in truth, by ringing after us on Thursday, or before us on Saturday; but they were at fault in this, that they did not ring with us. For they ought to do so, either on Thursday or on Saturday, but especially on Saturday,—whether they have or have not said the prophecies. They may ring the Elevation bell during the Gloria, if they have finished before us, but not the great bell outside,—this they should do only when the parish bell has begun, and should ring with it.

after having burned to death many captives, most of these being Christians.

As to thieves, although the Country is full of them, they are not, however, tolerated. If you find any one possessed of anything that belongs to you, you can in good conscience play the despoiled King and take what is yours, and besides leave him as naked as your hand. If he is fishing, you can take from him his Canoe, his nets, his fish, his robe, all he has; it is true that on such an occasion the strongest gains the day,—still, such is the custom of the Country, and it certainly holds some to their duty.

Five or six days will sometimes pass in assuaging their wrath, and in burning them at a slow [158] fire; and they are not satisfied with seeing their skins entirely roasted,—they open the legs, the thighs, the arms, and the most fleshy parts, and thrust therein glowing brands, or red-hot hatchets. Sometimes in the midst of these torments they compel them to sing; and those who have the courage do it, and hurl forth a thousand imprecations against those who torment them; on the day of their death they must even outdo this, if they have strength; and sometimes the kettle in which they are to be boiled will be on the fire, while these poor wretches are still singing as loudly as they can. This inhumanity is altogether intolerable; and so many do not go willingly to these baleful feasts. After having at last brained a victim, if he was a brave man, they tear out his heart, roast it on the coals, and distribute it in pieces to the young men; they think that this renders them courageous.

Since I am speaking on this subject, I will say that they recognize a sort of war God; they imagine him as a little Dwarf. By what they say, he appears to many when they are on the [127] point of going to war. He caresses some, and that is a sign, they say, that they will return victorious; others he strikes upon the forehead, and these can truly say that they will not go to war without losing their lives.

They throw some Tobacco into the fire; and if it is, for example, to the Sky that they address themselves, they say, Aronkiaté onné aonstaniwas taitenr, "O Sky, here is what I offer thee in sacrifice; have pity on me, assist me." If it is to implore health, taenguiaens, "Heal me. They have recourse to the Sky in almost all their [page 159] necessities, and respect the great bodies in it above all creatures, and remark in it in particular something divine.

On the ninth, a Savage who lay dead under the ice was cast ashore here. The whole village hastened out and paid to his relations the accustomed devoirs, with so good a grace that the management of the ceremonies was given over to the villagers on this occasion, among mutual presents, although the dead man had been found to be not one of their people.

Island Savages