Prior to his joining the Montreal Canadiens, the team suffered from a lack of toughness. Claude Larose was one of those players Sam Pollock thought could add toughness without sacrificing speed and scoring and he was right. Over a 16-year career, 10 with the Canadiens, Larose scored 226 goals and added 257 assists for 483 points in 943 NHL games. He also had 887 career penalty minutes and led the Canadiens in penalties during the 1971 Stanley Cup Playoffs, when Montreal upset both the defending champion Boston Bruins and the powerful Chicago Black Hawks. "We became the toughest team in the League in 1963–64, which dismayed the opposition," Canadiens captain Jean Beliveau wrote in his autobiography.