50 goals in 50 games

The phrase "50 goals in 50 games" refers to the act of scoring 50 goals within the first 50 games of a National Hockey League (NHL) season. Scoring fifty goals in fifty (or fewer) games in the NHL is a rare achievement.

The NHL defines "50 goals in 50 games" to mean that a player scores 50 goals in the team's first 50 games of the season, not the player's first 50 (which could differ for health or disciplinary reasons). This feat has been achieved eight times by five different players.

Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens was the first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in one season. He achieved the target on March 18, 1945, in the 50th (and final) game of the 1944–45 season, the league's twenty-eighth, on goalie Harvey Bennett of the Boston Bruins.

Besides Richard's 50-in-50 feat, he also led the NHL in goals on four other occasions and was the league's first career 500-goal scorer. Richard never managed to equal his personal best of 50 goals before retiring in 1960, even though the NHL extended its schedule to 60 games in 1946–47 and 70 in 1949–50. In recognition of his achievements, the NHL created an annual award in 1999, the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy, which was donated by the Montreal Canadiens, to be presented to the top goal-scorer in the league.

It would take another sixteen years before another player, Bernie Geoffrion, managed to score 50 goals in a single season, also while playing for Montreal. When Bobby Hull finally managed to break the season record with 54 goals in 1966, fans of the then-retired Canadiens legend, noting that Hull was playing in a 70-game schedule, demanded that the NHL continue to recognize Richard's record (similar to what Major League Baseball initially did with Babe Ruth's single-season home run record after Roger Maris broke it under similar circumstances a few years previously). Hull's fans countered that Richard had achieved his record during World War II (during which many NHLers enlisted in the military — Richard, who was notoriously prone to injury throughout his career, was deemed unfit for service) and argued that Richard's failure to match the record in peacetime, with the caliber of the NHL not similarly hindered even though he played in eleven 70-game seasons, compromised any right he might have to special consideration for the record on account of the shorter wartime schedule.

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