Forgotten Retired Numbers

[Oleg Petrov]

Hey Gang,

I remember hearing a while ago that when they retired number 4 and number 16, it was at a time when they still didn't put names on the back of jerseys, and that the retirements were supposed to be not just for Beliveau and H. Richard but Aurèle Joliat (4) and Elmer Lach (16) as well. There's not much footage of these guys, of course, so they're a tough sell to modern audiences, but I think it's important that if their jerseys were retired more than 30 years ago, they not be omitted from the rafters just because most people don't know who they were. Isn't that the whole point of retiring numbers anyway? So that the players are remembered?

This isn't an argument that these guys should have their jerseys retired - it's just calling attention to the fact that they already have had their jerseys retired.

I'm pretty sure the Canadiens organization knows about this - apparently it turned up in their press guide a couple of years ago - but the jerseys in the rafters now do have names, and they're Beliveau and H. Richard for those two numbers, and nobody else's. I'd like to get a bit of a groundswell going of people talking about this so that maybe the Habs will get embarrassed and rectify this.

Aurèle Joliat:

Aurel Emile 'Little Giant' Joliat (Ottawa, August 29, 1901 – June 2, 1986 in Ottawa)

When discussions about the greatest left wing during the 1926-46 era are done, the name of Aurel Joliat is invariably mentioned. At 5' 07'and 136 lbs, Joliat played for the Montreal Canadiens from 1922-38. He was the recipient of the Hart Memorial Trophy in 1934.

Joliat was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1947. In 1998, though he had been retired from hockey for 60 years, he was ranked number 65 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players.

His brother Robert also played professional hockey.

Joliat died at the age of 84 in 1986, after seeing his beloved Canadiens win their 23rd Stanley Cup earlier that year and was buried in Notre Dame Cemetery in Ottawa, Ontario.

NHL Totals 654 270 190 460 757 54 14 19 33 89

Elmer Lach:

Elmer James Lach (born January 22, 1918 in Nokomis, Saskatchewan)

Lach was the recipient of the Art Ross Trophy in 1948 and the Hart Trophy in 1945. He did lead the NHL in scoring during the 1944-45 season with 80 points, but this was before the creation of the Art Ross Trophy. Elmer was the centre of the great "Punch Line" with Toe Blake and Maurice Richard. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966.

Elmer won the Stanley Cup three times in the years 1944, 1946, and 1953.

In 1998, he was ranked number 68 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players.

NHL Totals 664 215 408 623 478 76 19 45 64 36

[Mont Royale]

Joliat was OK, I guess, but he wasn't too reliable in his own end. He also had a bad habit of springing his teammates for breakaways, forgetting that the forward pass wasn't invented yet.

Sorry - carry on with the campaign.