Howe hailed, heckled on milestone night 58 years ago

MONTREAL -- "They're honest people here," Gordie Howe was saying in the Detroit Red Wings' dressing room inside the Montreal Forum. "They like the big plays, but they boo your pants off when they think you deserve it."

On Nov. 27, 1965, Mr. Hockey was hailed and heckled in equal measure. Cheered for his milestone 600th regular-season NHL goal at 16:10 of the third period, Howe was jeered two minutes and 26 seconds later -- his next shift -- after a scuffle along the boards with J.C. Tremblay left the veteran defenseman crumpled with a fractured cheekbone.

With Howe's historic goal, Forum ice was littered with rubber galoshes and game programs in celebration for a man Montreal Canadiens fans respected as one of hockey's greatest talents. A similar shower of debris that would follow from the crowd of 14,956, Tremblay headed off for surgery, wasn't quite as friendly.

"Did you ever see a guy turn from a hero to a bum so fast?" Canadiens goalie Gump Worsley mentioned following his team's 3-2 victory.

Gordie Howe at the Montreal Forum in 1958, in the dressing room and on the ice.

The 1965 game was the second of three Nov. 27 games played over a span of nine seasons that would see Howe establish NHL standards.

In 1960, Mr. Hockey became the first player in NHL history to reach 1,000 regular-season points, assisting twice in a 2-0 victory against the Maple Leafs in Toronto.

In 1965, Howe's glory-to-goat milestone 600th goal night.

And in 1969, he was the first to reach 1,700 regular-season points. He had two assists in a 5-1 win against the visiting Los Angeles Kings at Olympia Stadium.

The assists in 1960 and 1969 were in the long shadow of goal No. 600, Howe on his way to the 801 he'd score in his legendary career. Today, nearly 7 1/2 years after his death, he's third in NHL history, behind Wayne Gretzky (894) and Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin (827 and counting).

Gordie Howe in a Robert Maniscalco painting, and in a portrait taken outside the Detroit Red Wings' Montreal Forum dressing room.

Howe's 26-season NHL career would see him finish with 1,049 assists, 10th all-time. Gretzky (1,963) is exactly 1,000 ahead of Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby, ranked 15th and the Great One's closest active pursuer.

Howe's NHL career would span five decades, from his teens into his early 50s, skating at the end as a grandfather. He won the Stanley Cup four times with the Red Wings; appeared in 23 All-Star Games; won the Hart Trophy and Art Ross Trophy six times each as the most valuable player and top point-scorer in the NHL, respectively; and scored at least 23 goals in 22 consecutive seasons.

Of all of Howe's milestones, his 600th is remarkable for a night's outpouring of love then loathing.

A bit of context is in order.

Howe was feeling feisty, not having scored in five games for his cellar-dwelling Red Wings and hearing at every turn that he was in a drought. And he usually took his game to another level in Montreal, the Forum an energetic building jammed with passionate fans.

Montreal Gazette story published Nov. 27, 1965, the day that Gordie Howe would score his historic 600th regular-season goal.

"Yes, I suppose he's saving it for us," Canadiens coach Toe Blake said before the game. "But I'll tell you one thing, I'm not going to assign a special player to check Howe. There's something wrong with our team if we have to take such measures to stop a 37-year-old opponent. …

"Gordie Howe is still a great player and our fellows on the ice against him will certainly have to check a little closer. But he's bound to get his 600th sooner or later and good luck to him."

Worsley already had been beaten for two of Howe's milestone goals -- No. 500 on March 14, 1962, "The Gumper" then playing for the New York Rangers; and No. 544 on Oct. 27, 1963, which tied retired Canadiens legend Maurice Richard's League-leading total. Two years and a month after No. 544, Worsley surrendered No. 600 for his own Gordie Howe hat trick.

The Forum was still buzzing about Howe's goal when Mr. Hockey and Tremblay got together. Howe was assessed a five-minute major for high-sticking by referee Frank Udvari, though some reports suggested that Tremblay was injured by one of the Red Wings forward's iconic elbows.

Tremblay would later say that it wasn't that hard a blow, more glancing than anything. And he already had a badly bruised cheekbone, having collided with Boston Bruins defenseman Ted Green three weeks earlier.

In fact, Tremblay had just shed a special protective helmet one game earlier.

Canadiens goalie Gump Worsley, who was victimized for three of Gordie Howe's historic goals, in action at the Montreal Forum.

None of that turned down the heat in the Canadiens dressing room after the game. The "good luck to him" Blake was singing a different tune with one of his best defensemen headed to the hospital.

"Howe may be a great player but he must also be the dirtiest player in the game," the coach seethed. "Now all the papers will talk about the great ovation he got for his 600th goal."

If Worsley was happy in victory, having given the milestone puck to Howe along with a congratulatory stick tap on the backside, the Canadiens were in a less sporting mood.

There was no presentation to Howe from the team, like there was when Mr. Hockey passed Richard with No. 545 scored against Montreal's Charlie Hodge in Detroit on Nov. 10, 1963.

"What was so great about that goal?" Canadiens forward Claude Larose muttered about No. 600. "And why did he have to get it against us after going five games without one?"

"It was one of those big Howe elbows," forward Gilles Tremblay added.

"What do you think of the great Mr. Howe now?" chimed in forward Bobby Rousseau. "That was an awful attack on J.C."

Howe was stopped by fans for autographs as he left the Forum, signing programs that hadn't been thrown at him in awe or anger.

"Deliberate high-sticking?" he had asked reporters. "Heck, J.C. swung around, and I caught him in the face with the thumb of my glove.

Canadiens defenseman J.C. Tremblay (left) in Montreal Forum action against the Detroit Red Wings. He's joined by goalie Charlie Hodge and defenseman Jacques Laperriere, and Detroit's Alex Delvecchio and, in close, Parker MacDonald.

"I missed enough chances in the last five games," Howe said of his milestone pursuit. "Sure, it takes the pressure off of me and maybe a little off the whole team, but there wasn't any pressure until you newspaper guys started talking about it."

The Red Wings would crawl out of the NHL basement and take on the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Final, Montreal winning its second straight championship with a six-game victory. Tremblay had six points (one goal, five assists) in the series to Howe's three (one goal, two assists).

"If I gave J.C. one in November," Howe joked during his final visit to Montreal in 2012, remembering his milestone night, "we took a harder one on the chin in the playoffs."

As for the Gumper? His brilliant splits skate save late in regulation time on Howe, "the greatest player I've ever faced," pushed Game 6 into overtime and the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup.

Top photo: Gordie Howe in the Detroit Red Wings dressing room on Nov. 27, 1965, with his historic 600th goal puck and stick, and with coach Sid Abel.