Maurice Richard striking linesman Cliff Thompson
E488371
Maurice Richard striking linesman Cliff Thompson refers to the infamous 1955 on-ice altercation in which Montreal Canadiens star Maurice "Rocket" Richard attacked official Cliff Thompson, leading to Richard’s suspension and sparking the subsequent Richard Riot in Montreal.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Maurice Richard striking linesman Cliff Thompson canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5039299 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Maurice Richard striking linesman Cliff Thompson Context triple: [Richard Riot, precededBy, Maurice Richard striking linesman Cliff Thompson]
-
A.
Maurice Richard
Maurice Richard was a legendary Canadian ice hockey player for the Montreal Canadiens, renowned as one of the sport’s greatest goal scorers and the first to score 50 goals in 50 games.
-
B.
Lemieux
Lemieux is a former village in eastern Ontario, Canada, known for being abandoned and relocated in the 1990s due to severe landslide risk along the South Nation River.
-
C.
Jacques Plante
Jacques Plante was a pioneering Canadian goaltender best known for revolutionizing ice hockey by popularizing the regular use of the goalie mask and starring for the Montreal Canadiens in the 1950s and 1960s.
-
D.
Guy Lafleur
Guy Lafleur was a legendary Canadian right winger for the Montreal Canadiens, renowned for his scoring prowess, speed, and flair, and regarded as one of the greatest players in NHL history.
-
E.
Leetch
Leetch is the surname of Brian Leetch, a Hall of Fame American ice hockey defenseman best known for his stellar NHL career with the New York Rangers.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Maurice Richard striking linesman Cliff Thompson Target entity description: Maurice Richard striking linesman Cliff Thompson refers to the infamous 1955 on-ice altercation in which Montreal Canadiens star Maurice "Rocket" Richard attacked official Cliff Thompson, leading to Richard’s suspension and sparking the subsequent Richard Riot in Montreal.
-
A.
Maurice Richard
Maurice Richard was a legendary Canadian ice hockey player for the Montreal Canadiens, renowned as one of the sport’s greatest goal scorers and the first to score 50 goals in 50 games.
-
B.
Lemieux
Lemieux is a former village in eastern Ontario, Canada, known for being abandoned and relocated in the 1990s due to severe landslide risk along the South Nation River.
-
C.
Jacques Plante
Jacques Plante was a pioneering Canadian goaltender best known for revolutionizing ice hockey by popularizing the regular use of the goalie mask and starring for the Montreal Canadiens in the 1950s and 1960s.
-
D.
Guy Lafleur
Guy Lafleur was a legendary Canadian right winger for the Montreal Canadiens, renowned for his scoring prowess, speed, and flair, and regarded as one of the greatest players in NHL history.
-
E.
Leetch
Leetch is the surname of Brian Leetch, a Hall of Fame American ice hockey defenseman best known for his stellar NHL career with the New York Rangers.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (37)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
ice hockey incident
ⓘ
on-ice altercation ⓘ |
| city |
Boston
ⓘ
linked to:
Boston, Massachusetts
|
| consequenceForPlayer |
1955 Stanley Cup playoffs suspension
ⓘ
remainder of 1954–55 regular season suspension ⓘ |
| context | regular-season NHL game between Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| culturalImpact | symbol of tensions between francophone fans and NHL establishment ⓘ |
| dateApproximate | March 1955 ⓘ |
| disciplinaryActionBy |
Clarence Campbell
ⓘ
linked to:
Clarence S. Campbell
|
| era |
Original Six era of the NHL
ⓘ
linked to:
Original Six era
|
| governingBodyInvolved |
NHL President Clarence Campbell
ⓘ
linked to:
Clarence S. Campbell
|
| hasParticipant |
Cliff Thompson
ⓘ
Maurice Richard ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
catalyst for Richard Riot
ⓘ
turning point in NHL disciplinary history ⓘ |
| involvesAction |
Maurice Richard punching linesman Cliff Thompson
ⓘ
Maurice Richard striking linesman Cliff Thompson with his stick ⓘ |
| league | National Hockey League ⓘ |
| ledTo |
protest at Montreal Forum
ⓘ
public outrage in Montreal ⓘ |
| location | Boston Garden ⓘ |
| mediaCoverage | extensive coverage in Canadian press ⓘ |
| officiatingRoleOfCliffThompson | linesman ⓘ |
| playerPositionOfMauriceRichard | right wing ⓘ |
| reasonForSuspension | physical assault on an official ⓘ |
| relatedEvent | Richard Riot ⓘ |
| relatedPerson |
Clarence Campbell
ⓘ
linked to:
Clarence S. Campbell
Hal Laycoe ⓘ |
| relatedTeam | Boston Bruins ⓘ |
| resultedIn |
Richard Riot
ⓘ
suspension of Maurice Richard ⓘ |
| sport | ice hockey ⓘ |
| teamInvolved | Montreal Canadiens ⓘ |
| teamOfMauriceRichard | Montreal Canadiens ⓘ |
| tookPlaceInSeason | 1954–55 NHL season ⓘ |
| triggeredBy | on-ice altercation with Hal Laycoe ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Maurice Richard striking linesman Cliff Thompson Description of subject: Maurice Richard striking linesman Cliff Thompson refers to the infamous 1955 on-ice altercation in which Montreal Canadiens star Maurice "Rocket" Richard attacked official Cliff Thompson, leading to Richard’s suspension and sparking the subsequent Richard Riot in Montreal.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
Richard Riot of 1955 in Montreal