The crisis began on March 13, 1955, during a Canadiens–Boston Bruins game in Boston. Bruins defenseman Hal Laycoe high-sticked Maurice Richard in the head during a Montreal power play, opening a cut that required five stitches. When play stopped, Richard attacked Laycoe with his stick, repeatedly breaking away from linesmen who tried to restrain him. He eventually broke a stick over Laycoe’s body and then punched linesman Cliff Thompson twice in the face, knocking him unconscious. Richard later claimed he was dazed and mistook Thompson for a Boston player, but he did not deny the assault. Boston police attempted to arrest him in the Canadiens’ dressing room, only to be blocked by Montreal players; the league instead handled the matter through an official hearing on March 16.
NHL president Clarence Campbell, already regarded with suspicion by many French-speaking Quebecers after earlier disciplinary disputes involving Richard and teammate Bernie Geoffrion, suspended Richard for the rest of the 1954–55 regular season and the entire playoffs. It was the longest suspension of Campbell’s 31-year presidency, and Richard had no union or formal appeal route. In Montreal, the punishment was interpreted not merely as discipline for violence but as another humiliation imposed by an English-speaking establishment on its French-Canadian hero. On March 17, Campbell attended the Canadiens’ game against Detroit at the Montreal Forum despite death threats and warnings not to appear. A crowd of roughly 6,000 had already gathered outside, and 15,000 spectators booed him, pelted him with eggs and debris, and watched as a disguised attacker slapped and punched him. Minutes later, a tear-gas bomb was detonated near Campbell’s seat, forcing the game to be abandoned and the arena evacuated. The departing spectators joined demonstrators in smashing windows, looting stores, attacking bystanders, overturning cars, and setting newsstands alight along Saint Catherine Street. The violence lasted until approximately 3 a.m.; estimates recorded about $100,000 in damage, dozens of injuries, and roughly 100 arrests, with twelve police officers and twenty-five civilians among those injured in some accounts. Richard then appealed to the public in French and English to accept his punishment and support the Canadiens, helping calm the city. The suspension cost him the 1954–55 scoring title by one point and deprived Montreal of his services in the playoffs. Beyond hockey, the riot became a symbol of French-English tensions in Quebec and has been interpreted by historians as a precursor to, or early expression of, the social upheaval that led to the Quiet Revolution.
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