Lambert displaying resilience on road back following hip, femur fractures
“I think I’m ready for a shave, too,” Lambert said, studying the photos of Lach while rubbing his whiskered chin.
In uniform, the native of Drummondville, Quebec was nearly bulletproof. He played 60 of the Canadiens’ 80 games in 1973-74, often a healthy scratch with the team deep at left wing, but he’d play all 80 the following season, missing only 15 games the next six seasons, scoring 32 goals in 1974-75 and 1975-76. He played 77 of 80 games with Buffalo in 1981-82, claimed by the Sabres in the October 1981 NHL waiver draft, to finish his career.
Lambert played an aggressive, rugged style, wearing bruises and suture scars as a reward. The fractured hip and femur, he said, was much more painful than anything he suffered as a player.
“I had a tough injury at age 19 in my final year of junior, taking a stick in the eye,” he recalled. “I was in the hospital for three days without being able to move. But once I came up and started playing with Mario (Tremblay) and Doug Risebrough, I was a regular for seven years.
