The evening of 1er November 1959, in New York, the Canadian Hockey Club plays on the Rangers ice rink. Madison Square Garden is packed. New Yorkers came to see the Richard brothers, the great Béliveau, Boum-Boum Geoffrion, Doug Harvey and of course the Vezina Trophy winner, Jacques Plante. Sainte-Flanelle is the team of the hour in the National League, it has just won four Stanley Cups and seems determined to win a fifth.
Just four minutes into the period, Rangers right winger Andy Bathgate fired a powerful shot that hit the left side of Jacques Plante’s face. The Canadian goalie collapsed on the ice, his face bloodied. We later learned, by his own admission, that the Rangers player had intentionally directed his shot towards Jacques Plante’s head to take revenge, because the goalkeeper had speared him with his stick earlier in the match.
The injury is nasty, Jacques Plante leaves the ice rink, helped by teammates, and heads to the infirmary where he has numerous stitches in his face.
Before the mask, injuries were common for goaltenders in hockey.
UPI/Bettmann/Detroit Times
You should know that in 1959, teams only had one goalie in the lineup for their road games. When the latter was injured, it was the local team that provided one, it was often a junior caliber player.
It is in this context that coach Toe Blake asks his injured goaltender to return to the ice. Plante accepts, but on condition that he can return to the fray with a protective mask.
When he arrived on the ice, the 15,925 spectators present that evening at Madison Square Garden began to murmur. The journalists are surprised, then the supporters of the New York team make fun of him. Some will try to intimidate him by suggesting, for example, that he take off his Halloween costume (it’s the 1er November, let’s not forget). Plante did not let himself be distracted, he stopped 29 of the 30 shots aimed at him and led his team to a 3-1 victory.
The mask did not appear by chance
In his training sessions, Jacques Plante could receive up to 300 shots, while during a game, he received approximately 10 times less. Plante had already been wearing a mask for several years in training. It must be said that he had already had his jaw broken twice, his nose about three times, not to mention his fractured cheek bones and the hundreds of stitches in his face. The Fiberglass company made him a mask that protected him during training.
The goaltending position in hockey has long been the most vulnerable to injury. Jacques Plante’s first mask was molded to his face, then he worked on improving his prototype. He keeps the goals with a more ventilated fiberglass mask (the pretzel style). We had to wait for Russian goalkeeper Vladislav Tretiak (1972 century series) to see the grilled helmet appear in America.
PHOTO: PC
Jacques Plante, however, is not the first National League player to wear a mask during a game. The honor goes to a Montreal Maroons goalie, Clint Benedict. Upon his return to play, following a broken nose on February 22, 1930, Benedict kept his net with a rudimentary leather mask. His mask barely protected his forehead, nose and chin. Also, it partially obstructed his vision, he had difficulty seeing his skates. After five meetings, he abandoned his thin protection.
Pressure to abandon the mask
Following the part of 1er November against the New York Rangers, Plante continued to keep goal with his mask despite his coach’s reluctance. Toe Blake believed that if a goalie didn’t fear for his life, he wouldn’t be alert enough to defend his net well. In addition, Blake feared that the mask would block his view and that his player would be humiliated by the fans.
Plante does as he pleases and scores eight consecutive victories. In fact, the goaltender only allowed 13 goals in his first 11 games with a mask on his face. After 50 games, Plante gave in to pressure from his coach and agreed to play a game without a mask against the Detroit Red Wings. The Canadian loses the game with a score of 3-0. You can imagine, after this defeat, that no one will ask him to keep goal without his famous mask.
Jacques Plante won the Stanley Cup six times, including five consecutive years from 1955 to 1960.
B Bennett/Getty Images
Training phenomenon
A few weeks later, in December 1959, Boston Bruins goalie Don Simmons also appeared with a mask in front of his net. He clears the opponent. That was all it took for us to question the absurdity of being pelted with hockey pucks without having protection for the face, and then possibly the head.
Even though many were tempted to wear a mask during training, many owners, general managers and coaches disapproved of this new trend during matches. Some went so far as to say that this facial protection was a sign of weakness, a lack of courage or that the mask prevented spectators from appreciating the warrior faces of the guards.
In short, despite the protests, the mask will impose itself on the entire league. On April 7, 1974, Andy Brown, of the Pittsburgh Penguins, would be the last goalie to play openly in the best hockey circuit in the world.
Jacques Plante’s childhood Jacques Plante learned to play hockey in Shawinigan. He chooses the goalkeeper position somewhat by default because he is asthmatic. He comes from a modest and very resourceful family. It was his father who cut him his first stick from a tree. His leggings are made with stuffed potato sacks. He learned to knit from his mother to make toques and thus keep warm on the ice.
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