Wondering about Rick Martin's injuries / career-end

[The Panther]

Rick Martin came up today in a thread over on the main board. He long predates my memories of the game, but I've always thought he has some of the most impressive stats of any winger with basically no hardware. Martin was easily the NHL's top left winger from 1973-74 to 1976-77 (0.65 goals per game!) and was only 11 goals behind Esposito for overall top goal scorer those four years.

According to Wiki: "Midway through the third period of the Sabres' 2-0 home win on February 9, 1978, Dave Farrish of the New York Rangers hooked Martin around the neck from behind and kicked Martin's feet out from under him, causing Martin to hit his head on the ice. He was knocked unconscious, and went into convulsions."

Martin came back to play most of 1978-79 (32 goals in 73 games), and then Scotty Bowman arrived Martin thrived for a season, scoring 45 goals in 1979-80.

Wiki picks up the injury stories: "On November 8, 1980, Martin's career was dealt a devastating blow. In a game against the Washington Capitals at the Aud, Martin was racing in on a breakaway. Capitals forward Ryan Walter managed to trip Martin and no penalty was called. Capitals goalie Mike Palmateer, already way out of his crease, knocked Martin back down by kicking his knee, causing severe cartilage damage that all but ended Martin's career. Martin underwent surgery in Toronto and on March 10, 1981, Scotty Bowman traded Martin and Don Luce to the Kings."

Over two seasons, Martin played only 4 games for the Kings (still scored 6 points!) and then he was done.

I'd never heard of these injury tales, but it sounds very nasty on the part of Dave Farrish and Mike Palmateer. Are these Wiki takes accurate?

 

[frisco]

I don't know much about Farrish's part in the Martin head injury. It was very serious. Many players who witnessed the incident from both teams soon started wearing helmets (as did Martin).

Martin definitely blamed Palmateer for ending his career. It sounds like a pretty dirty play. Also, the Sabre medical staff was questioned for misdiagnosing and/or generally screwing up the follow up care. Bowman allegedly made accusations that Martin wasn't that severely injured, to make a bad situation worse.

Los Angeles took Martin although their doctors had the ability to examine Martin before OKing the deal. Either they just didn't do the examination or did the examination and found nothing too wrong with the knee.

Martin was lethal. Great scorer and a release that may have been the best in the game. Even better than Espo's in some respects in that he could shoot deceptively in stride.

Martin was a junior teammate of Perreault's on the stacked Montreal Jrs. team (best of all-time?) but interestingly did not play much with Perreault in junior. Martin broke Perreault's rookie goalie scoring record the year after Perreault himself set it with 38. Martin scored 44 and was runnerup in the Calder to Ken Dryden.

My Best-Carey

 

[quietbruinfan]

Rick Martin came up today in a thread over on the main board. He long predates my memories of the game, but I've always thought he has some of the most impressive stats of any winger with basically no hardware. Martin was easily the NHL's top left winger from 1973-74 to 1976-77 (0.65 goals per game!) and was only 11 goals behind Esposito for overall top goal scorer those four years.

According to Wiki: "Midway through the third period of the Sabres' 2-0 home win on February 9, 1978, Dave Farrish of the New York Rangers hooked Martin around the neck from behind and kicked Martin's feet out from under him, causing Martin to hit his head on the ice. He was knocked unconscious, and went into convulsions."

Martin came back to play most of 1978-79 (32 goals in 73 games), and then Scotty Bowman arrived Martin thrived for a season, scoring 45 goals in 1979-80.

Wiki picks up the injury stories: "On November 8, 1980, Martin's career was dealt a devastating blow. In a game against the Washington Capitals at the Aud, Martin was racing in on a breakaway. Capitals forward Ryan Walter managed to trip Martin and no penalty was called. Capitals goalie Mike Palmateer, already way out of his crease, knocked Martin back down by kicking his knee, causing severe cartilage damage that all but ended Martin's career. Martin underwent surgery in Toronto and on March 10, 1981, Scotty Bowman traded Martin and Don Luce to the Kings."

Over two seasons, Martin played only 4 games for the Kings (still scored 6 points!) and then he was done.

I'd never heard of these injury tales, but it sounds very nasty on the part of Dave Farrish and Mike Palmateer. Are these Wiki takes accurate?

I knew Martin had a devastating knee injury. I believe he even sued Bowman and the Sabres for making him play on it. I was unaware of the Farrish incident.

 

[reckoning]

In the Peter Gzowski book it says there were serious discussions early in the 80-81 season about a trade that would have sent Martin and Jim Schoenfeld to Edmonton. Bowman wanted a rookie Paul Coffey and Dave Hunter in return. Sather was tempted, but decided he was going to live or die with the kids.

I wonder if Bowman knew Martin was damaged goods when he tried to swing that deal.

 

[Voight]

Its criminal that hes not in the HHOF while Shutt & Barber are. More ASTs, top 10 goal/point finishes than both of them.

 

[Crosby2010]

He is on his way to 600 career goals, I think. Or 500 for sure anyway. And he would do it the right way too, not hanging around in his late 30s as a compiler.

It is strange how Clark Gillies is in the HHOF as a LW but Martin isn't. He didn't quite have the career to get in there, but he was certainly on pace to get there. Barber has the championships and probably being better at his best (1976) than Martin, not to mention about three more years of seasons to his credit. That helped.