(1929–86). Face injuries were common for ice hockey goaltenders, who never wore protective face masks until Canadian goalie Jacques Plante introduced the practice in 1959. Plante changed the game in other ways, too, especially during his years with the Montreal Canadiens. Goalies used to stay in front of the cage to block shots; “Jake the Snake” was the first to chase pucks behind the cage or into corners to return them to his teammates. He achieved 82 shutouts in 837 regular-season games, with an average of only 2.38 goals made against him, and 14 shutouts in 112 play-offs. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1978.
Born in Shawinigan Falls (now Shawinigan), Quebec, on January 17, 1929, Joseph Jacques Omer Plante began playing hockey at the age of three. At 15 he played goalie for a local factory’s amateur team. The coach paid him 50 cents a game on the condition that he not tell the other players he was being paid.
After several years in the minor leagues, he joined the Canadiens in the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1952. He helped Montreal to five Stanley Cups in a row, 1956 through 1960. In each of those five years, and again in 1962 (after time out for a knee injury), Plante played in the NHL All-Star game and received the Vezina Trophy for the best NHL goalie.
By autumn 1959 he had received repeated injuries to his nose, cheekbones, and jaw. He wore a white fiberglass protective mask during practice but the coach forbade it for games, fearing it would limit his vision. In a game against the New York Rangers on November 1, 1959, Plante was knocked down by a puck in the face and was carried from the ice. He refused to return to play without his mask. Twenty minutes and seven stitches later, he was back on the ice in his mask. The Canadiens won the game.
The face-protecting innovation sparked controversy. Some complained that Plante looked like a ghost or a witch doctor and accused him of cowardice. He argued that he played better when he was not worrying about his face. The one time he yielded to pressure and played without the mask, Montreal lost; he never played without it again.
Moody and withdrawn, Plante was not altogether popular with his teammates. Some complained about the time he spent sidelined in 1961. Even though he was named NHL Most Valuable Player in 1962, Montreal traded him to the New York Rangers in June 1963. Over the next 10 years he tended goal for the New York Rangers, the St. Louis Blues, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Boston Bruins. While with St. Louis he was back in the NHL All-Star games in 1969 and 1970 and shared his seventh Vezina Trophy with Glenn Hall in 1969. Plante was head coach and general manager for the Quebec Nordiques of the World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1973–74. He played a final professional season with the WHA’s Edmonton Oilers in 1974–75.
Plante had his own business (founded in 1970) manufacturing face masks, which had become standard goalie headgear. He died of cancer in Geneva, Switzerland, in February 1986. Nine years later the Montreal Canadiens honored him by retiring his jersey number.