The Big M’s second game was more memorable, for the wrong reasons. He took the stick of Red Wings forward Johnny Bucyk over the head, sending him to the clinic for 10 stitches. Bucyk apologized for the incident, the two legends later to become friends. Mahovlich would joke about the incident, saying, “I felt it was one of those accidentally-on-purpose things.”
Soon, you’re the only player left in the dressing-room. Those pros don’t lose any time about showering and dressing. That’s what comes of catching trains in a tight schedule. Now, back to St. Mikes. Tomorrow, there’s going to be a lot of kibitzing. The Leafs lost, you didn’t get a goal, so what do you say? You tell them: “Beliveau shadowed me all night.” That should hold them. It would have sounded even better if Leafs had won.
Mahovlich and Beliveau would play together for the Canadiens in 1970-71, Beliveau’s last of 10 Stanley Cup wins coming in his final season, the Big M winning his fifth.
His first NHL goal would come in the final game of his 1957 trial, on March 24 at Olympia Stadium in Detroit, scoring the game-opening goal on the power play against Red Wings goalie Glenn Hall with defenseman Marcel Pronovost serving an elbowing penalty. The Big M would also score his first career hat trick on Hall, then with the Chicago Black Hawks, in a 7-1 Toronto road win on Dec. 1, 1957.