Believe it or not, 50 years ago hockey goalies did not wear masks. These ice warriors would attempt to stop 100 mph slap shots with no protective headgear, and the results, predictably, were not always pretty.
That changed on Nov. 1, 1959, when Montreal Canadians goalie Jacques Plante stopped a shot by Andy Bathgate of the New York Rangers with his nose. (Bathgate, who had a running feud going with Plante, admits he was aiming for the goalie’s head). Plante had been experimenting with a fiberglass mask in practice, but his coach, Toe Blake, refused to let him use the mask during a game. With the blood not yet dry on his freshly stitched nose, Plante gave Blake an ultimatum: Allow Plante to wear the mask or forfeit the game (the Canadians, like most NHL teams at the time, did not have a backup goalie on the team).
Blake relented and the Canadians went on to win the game. In fact, they won the next 18 games. The winning streak was snapped when Blake convinced Plante to remove the mask against the Detroit Red Wings. The mask returned following the loss, and the Canadians went on to when the Stanley Cup.
Today the mask is mandatory for all goalies, who take pride in decorating the masks with unique designs. In the early 1970s, star goalie Gerry Cheevers of the Boston Bruins gained famed not only for his superb skills, but also for the stitches he drew on his mask every time a puck struck the protective shield. His design was voted best design of all time in 2008 by Hockey News.
Incidentally, Plante was not the first goalie to wear a protective mask in an NHL game. That honor goes to Montreal Maroon’s Clint Benedict, who wore a crude leather mask for two games in 1929 to protect his broken nose. Plante is credited with making the mask part of a goalie’s everyday equipment.
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