AS COMFORTABLE FEEDING HIS TEAMMATES AS HE WAS MAKING A BIG PLAY, BOBBY ROUSSEAU WAS ONE OF THE KEY COMPONENTS OF THE CANADIENS’ STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONSHIP IN 1965.

At 15, Bobby Rousseau won the Quebec Junior Hockey League’s scoring title. At 17, guided by Scotty Bowman, he was a Memorial Cup champion with the Hull-Ottawa Canadiens. At the tender age of 19, he returned home from the 1960 Olympic Winter Games in Squaw Valley, California with a silver medal.

Rousseau broke in with the Habs during the 1960-61 season, playing in 15 games. Both of his older brothers had suited up briefly for the team in past years, but the youngest of the three would eclipse his siblings, appearing in over 700 games in addition to winning four Stanley Cups.

A quick and talented player with a nose for the net, Rousseau scored 21 goals in 1961-62, a feat that helped earn him the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.

Always a sniper, if Rousseau got one goal, others often followed. Such was the case on February 1, 1964, when he slipped five pucks past Detroit’s netminder. Breaking the 20-goal plateau five times in his nine years with Montreal, Rousseau picked up 200 regular season goals as a Hab. Twice, he finished the year with 30 goals to his credit.

Rousseau’s offensive game was not limited to burying the puck behind the opposing goaltender. He was also an effective playmaker, feeding teammates for 322 assists.

A strong skater and solid puck handler, Rousseau could more than hold his own in a defensive capacity, shadowing the opposition when playing against top scoring lines and often leading shorthanded rushes up the ice.

The first of Rousseau’s Stanley Cup Championships came in the spring of 1965. After a disappointing 12-goal regular season, the right-winger caught fire in the playoffs. Second on the score sheet only to team captain Jean Beliveau, he averaged a point per night over the 13 games leading up to the parade along Ste. Catherine Street.

Rousseau continued his torrid pace the following year, which also ended with a procession through the city. He led the team in scoring and led the league in assists. He also finished second in the race for the Art Ross Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s top point-getter.

The Stanley Cup slipped from the Canadiens’ collective hands in the spring of 1967 but the team recaptured it the two seasons that followed. One of the prime contributors to four Montreal championships in five years, Rousseau left the Canadiens after the 1969-70 season. He played one year with Minnesota and four more with the New York Rangers before calling it a career.

An avid golfer, Rousseau swapped his sticks for clubs. Just as it had in hockey, his dedication and determination paid off. Once one of Quebec’s top golf professionals, he now owns and operates a course in Louiseville, an hour’s drive from Montreal.