It was a National Hockey League game between the leading Montreal Canadiens, and the struggling New York Rangers. A few minutes into the first period, Canadiens goalie Jacques Plante was hit in face with a hard backhand from the Rangers Andy Bathgate.
The puck ripped his face from the edge of his mouth to his nose. Helped off the ice with blood streaming, he was stitched up in the arena medical station while the game took a 20 minute goalie injury break.
With several stitches, Plante said he was ready to go back, but on one condition. He would wear his mask.
Goalies were notorious for scars and broken face bones and teeth as they were on the receiving end of the very hard pucks travelling at high speeds. Imagine getting hit in the face with a large stone weighing about 160-170 grams thrown by a strong person. That’s what it was like.
Because he had suffered some nasty injuries during practice, including a broken cheekbone, Plante had been developing a protective face mask with Bill Burchmore at Fibreglass Canada.
He had been using the mask during practice but up till then the coach would not allow it in a game. But Plante was a star, and one of the best goalies in the league, and besides in 1959, teams didn’t often have back-up goalies, (hence the goalie injury time-out) so when he said he’d wear the mask, coach Toe Blake had little option.
While helmets and face masks are now the norm, it is because Jacques Plante started the movement.
With his stitches, he stepped back onto the ice and the organ began playing “for he’s a jolly good fellow” to crowd singing and applause.
But he skated across the ice over to the Canadiens dressing room causing some confusion in the stands. But when he stepped back out onto the ice a few minutes later, Jacques Plante made history and forever changed the face of hockey as he skated to his net and put on his face mask.
The crowd didn’t know what to make of it at first. Coach Blake was dead set against it, thinking that it would hinder Plante’s performance, while some fans, other players and even other goalies for awhile ridiculed him as a bit of a “sissy’.
Plante’s goaltending didn’t suffer though, winning the game, and helping the Canadiens to an 18 game winning streak and the Stanley Cup championship.
This helped to silence critics, and soon other goalies began wearing masks.
Now, with slapshot pucks travelling at over 160km/h it is inconceivable that any goalie would not wear a mask now.
Helmets and facemasks are now required for junior leagues and while almost all NHL players wear helmets with eye protection, new rules in Ontario hockey league and others will require full face protection.
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