Jacques Plante

photo courtesy of NFL.com

My hero is Jacques Plante because he invented the goalie mask. He was born in Mont, Carmel, Quebec on January 17, 1929. He was the first person to wear a goalie mask in the National Hockey League.

The first game he tried it, was on November 1st in 1959. Plante got hit in the head with a slapshot from Andy Bathgate that was nearly fatal. He came back on the ice with a home-made metal mask on his face for protection. This game was played at Madison Square Garden between the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Rangers.

illustration by AIGER for book JACQUES PLANTE: DERRIÈRE LE MASQUE by RAYMOND PLANTE

Later when goalie masks became more common, other players decided to start wearing helmets. One of the New York Rangers, Eddie Shack got a concussion when a frozen puck hit him in the head during a game. He got a very bad cut and needed ten stitches. Another goalie, Gerry Cheevers, painted different stitches on his mask for every time he got hit in the face with a puck. It was a good thing Jacques Plante invented the goalie mask.

The Stanley Cup

The goalie mask has made the good old hockey game a lot faster and has saved a lot of goalies from injury. Jacques Plante died in February 26, 1986 at the age of 57 from stomach cancer while in Switzerland. He won 6 Stanley cups in his NHL career. In all 6 Stanley cups he wore a goalie mask.