1956–57 Toronto Maple Leafs season

1956–57 Toronto Maple Leafs
Division	5th NHL
1956–57 record	21–34–15
Goals for	174
Goals against	192
Team information
General manager	Conn Smythe
Coach	Howie Meeker
Captain	Jimmy Thomson Ted Kennedy
Arena	Maple Leaf Gardens
Team leaders
Goals	Dick Duff (26)
Assists	George Armstrong (26)
Points	George Armstrong (44)
Penalty minutes	Gerry James (90)
Wins	Ed Chadwick (21)
Goals against average	Ed Chadwick (2.66)

The 1956–57 Toronto Maple Leafs season was Toronto's 40th season in the NHL. The Maple Leafs finished 5th in the league and missed the playoffs.

Regular Season

The Montreal Canadiens beat the Maple Leafs 2-1 at the Forum in Montreal on January 10 and moved into first place. The game was hard-fought and referee Frank Udvari found it necessary to rule with an iron hand that angered the fans. Fans thought he was being filthy, calling chippy penalties against the Habs and deliberately failing to call hooking and holding penalties by the Maple Leafs. The blow-up came in the last two minutes of the game. Maurice Richard received a high-sticking penalty. At 18:14, knowing his Maple Leafs were in danger, Toronto coach Howie Meeker pulled goaltender Ed Chadwick for six attackers. Dick Duff scored the tying goal, causing Richard, arguably the most popular and maybe the most outstanding player in Canadiens history, to go berserk and commence a heated argument with Udvari, and Richard banged his stick on the ice. He might have attacked Udvari if his teammates hadn't restrained him. Fans threw programmes, paper cups, hats and other debris and the game was held up. When it did resume, Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion set up Don Marshall for the winning goal with a mere 6 seconds left to play. Although the fans were pleased with the outcome, an angry hum commenced as the players and officials left the ice. Udvari had to be escorted to his dressing room by police and ushers. A large part of the crowd now directed its attention to NHL President Clarence Campbell seated in his box seat and he became the target of jeers and threats. The situation began to show some of the aspects of the Richard Riot of two years previous when Richard had been suspended for an attack on an official. It was at least 30 minutes before Campbell was able to leave under police protection.

Final Standings

National Hockey League

	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA
Detroit Red Wings	70	38	20	12	88	198	157
Montreal Canadiens	70	35	23	12	82	210	155
Boston Bruins	70	34	24	12	80	195	174
New York Rangers	70	26	30	14	66	184	227
Toronto Maple Leafs	70	21	34	15	57	174	192
Chicago Black Hawks	70	16	39	15	47	169	225

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against
Teams that qualify for the playoffs are indicated in bold.

Game Log

Regular Season Results
No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	T	October 11, 1956	4–4	@ Boston Bruins (1956–57)	0–0–1
2	L	October 13	1–4	Detroit Red Wings (1956–57)	0–1–1
3	W	October 14	1–0	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1956–57)	1–1–1
4	T	October 18	3–3	@ Detroit Red Wings (1956–57)	1–1–2
5	T	October 20	2–2	Boston Bruins (1956–57)	1–1–3
6	W	October 25	3–2	@ Montreal Canadiens (1956–57)	2–1–3
7	W	October 27	5–2	Chicago Black Hawks (1956–57)	3–1–3
8	T	October 28	1–1	@ New York Rangers (1956–57)	3–1–4
9	W	October 31	7–2	New York Rangers (1956–57)	4–1–4
10	L	November 3	1–2	Detroit Red Wings (1956–57)	4–2–4
11	L	November 7	3–4	Montreal Canadiens (1956–57)	4–3–4
12	L	November 8	2–5	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1956–57)	4–4–4
13	W	November 10	4–1	Chicago Black Hawks (1956–57)	5–4–4
14	L	November 15	2–4	@ Detroit Red Wings (1956–57)	5–5–4
15	L	November 17	3–6	Chicago Black Hawks (1956–57)	5–6–4
16	L	November 18	3–4	@ Boston Bruins (1956–57)	5–7–4
17	T	November 21	3–3	@ New York Rangers (1956–57)	5–7–5
18	T	November 22	2–2	@ Detroit Red Wings (1956–57)	5–7–6
19	L	November 24	2–3	Boston Bruins (1956–57)	5–8–6
20	L	November 25	1–3	@ Boston Bruins (1956–57)	5–9–6
21	L	November 29	2–4	@ Montreal Canadiens (1956–57)	5–10–6
22	W	December 1	4–0	Detroit Red Wings (1956–57)	6–10–6
23	L	December 2	2–4	@ New York Rangers (1956–57)	6–11–6
24	L	December 5	1–3	Montreal Canadiens (1956–57)	6–12–6
25	T	December 8	0–0	New York Rangers (1956–57)	6–12–7
26	W	December 9	2–1	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1956–57)	7–12–7
27	L	December 13	2–6	@ Montreal Canadiens (1956–57)	7–13–7
28	W	December 15	2–1	New York Rangers (1956–57)	8–13–7
29	L	December 16	2–4	@ Boston Bruins (1956–57)	8–14–7
30	L	December 20	2–4	@ Montreal Canadiens (1956–57)	8–15–7
31	L	December 22	2–3	Boston Bruins (1956–57)	8–16–7
32	W	December 23	3–1	@ New York Rangers (1956–57)	9–16–7
33	W	December 26	1–0	Montreal Canadiens (1956–57)	10–16–7
34	W	December 29	6–3	Chicago Black Hawks (1956–57)	11–16–7
35	L	December 30	0–2	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1956–57)	11–17–7
36	L	January 2, 1957	0–2	Detroit Red Wings (1956–57)	11–18–7
37	W	January 5	3–2	Boston Bruins (1956–57)	12–18–7
38	L	January 6	1–2	@ Detroit Red Wings (1956–57)	12–19–7
39	W	January 9	4–3	@ New York Rangers (1956–57)	13–19–7
40	L	January 10	1–2	@ Montreal Canadiens (1956–57)	13–20–7
41	W	January 12	4–3	Chicago Black Hawks (1956–57)	14–20–7
42	T	January 13	1–1	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1956–57)	14–20–8
43	L	January 16	2–3	Montreal Canadiens (1956–57)	14–21–8
44	W	January 19	4–1	Boston Bruins (1956–57)	15–21–8
45	W	January 20	3–2	@ Boston Bruins (1956–57)	16–21–8
46	T	January 23	4–4	New York Rangers (1956–57)	16–21–9
47	L	January 26	1–4	Detroit Red Wings (1956–57)	16–22–9
48	L	January 27	1–3	@ Detroit Red Wings (1956–57)	16–23–9
49	T	February 2	3–3	Chicago Black Hawks (1956–57)	16–23–10
50	L	February 3	3–6	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1956–57)	16–24–10
51	T	February 6	1–1	Montreal Canadiens (1956–57)	16–24–11
52	T	February 9	4–4	New York Rangers (1956–57)	16–24–12
53	L	February 10	1–5	@ Boston Bruins (1956–57)	16–25–12
54	T	February 13	2–2	Boston Bruins (1956–57)	16–25–13
55	W	February 14	2–1	@ Montreal Canadiens (1956–57)	17–25–13
56	L	February 16	1–3	Detroit Red Wings (1956–57)	17–26–13
57	L	February 17	2–3	@ New York Rangers (1956–57)	17–27–13
58	L	February 23	2–5	Boston Bruins (1956–57)	17–28–13
59	W	February 24	2–1	@ Detroit Red Wings (1956–57)	18–28–13
60	L	March 2	3–4	Chicago Black Hawks (1956–57)	18–29–13
61	T	March 3	0–0	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1956–57)	18–29–14
62	W	March 6	3–1	Montreal Canadiens (1956–57)	19–29–14
63	L	March 9	1–2	New York Rangers (1956–57)	19–30–14
64	T	March 10	3–3	@ Boston Bruins (1956–57)	19–30–15
65	L	March 14	4–8	@ Montreal Canadiens (1956–57)	19–31–15
66	W	March 16	14–1	New York Rangers (1956–57)	20–31–15
67	W	March 17	5–3	@ New York Rangers (1956–57)	21–31–15
68	L	March 20	1–2	Montreal Canadiens (1956–57)	21–32–15
69	L	March 23	3–5	Detroit Red Wings (1956–57)	21–33–15
70	L	March 24	1–4	@ Detroit Red Wings (1956–57)	21–34–15

Playoffs

The Maple Leafs did not qualify for the post season.

Player Stats

Regular Season

Scoring

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Armstrong, GeorgeGeorge Armstrong	54	18	26	44	37
Smith, SidSid Smith	70	17	24	41	4
Duff, DickDick Duff	70	26	14	40	50
Migay, RudyRudy Migay	66	15	20	35	51
Stewart, RonRon Stewart	65	15	20	35	28
Sloan, TodTod Sloan	52	14	21	35	33
Horton, TimTim Horton	66	6	19	25	72
Pulford, BobBob Pulford	65	11	11	22	32
Kennedy, TedTed Kennedy	30	6	16	22	35
Cullen, BrianBrian Cullen	46	8	12	20	27
Reaume, MarcMarc Reaume	63	6	14	20	81
Morrison, JimJim Morrison	63	3	17	20	44
Cullen, BarryBarry Cullen	51	6	10	16	30
James, GerryGerry James	53	4	12	16	90
Macneil, AlAl MacNeil	53	4	8	12	84
Thomson, JimmyJimmy Thomson	62	0	12	12	50
Harris, HinkyHinky Harris	23	4	6	10	6
Aldcorn, GaryGary Aldcorn	22	5	1	6	4
Baun, BobbyBobby Baun	20	0	5	5	37
Nykoluk, MikeMike Nykoluk	32	3	1	4	20
Hurst, RonRon Hurst	14	2	2	4	8
Mahovlich, FrankFrank Mahovlich	3	1	0	1	2
Girard, KennyKenny Girard	3	0	1	1	2
Bolton, HughHugh Bolton	6	0	0	0	2
Chadwick, EdEd Chadwick	70	0	0	0	0

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	T	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
Ed Chadwick	4200	70	21	34	15	186	2.66				5
Team:	4200	70	21	34	15	186	2.66				5

Awards and Records

• The Maple Leafs did not win any awards this season.

Trivia

• Boston's Jack Caffery became the first player to use the "reverse-grip" (both hands on the same side of the stick) while taking a face-off against the Toronto Maple Leafs on November 18, 1956.

Game Ads

Home Opener

See Also

• 1956–57 NHL season

References

• 1956–57 Toronto Maple Leafs Games. Hockey-reference.com. Retrieved on 2009-05-06.