When Jacques Plante became the first National Hockey League goalie to wear a mask in a game 50 years ago today, his lodge brothers rolled their eyes.
"We thought he was a wimp," said Hall of Famer Glenn Hall.
The Montreal Canadiens'goalie put on a mask similar to the one Hannibal Lecter had in the movie Silence of the Lambs after New York Rangers winger Andy Bathgate cut the net-minder badly from the lip through his nostril with a wrist-shot--retribution for a Plante poke-check that sent the Rangers star headfirst into the boards. When Plante was cut, there was a 21-minute delay in the game on the Nov. 1, 1959 night, before he shocked the hockey world by standing in the net with a mask.
At the time, most of the other NHL goalies scoffed at Plante.
"Plante was different...we would be talking and he used to think he was the only guy who ever got hurt," said Hall, who didn't put a mask on in a game until his late 30s, winding down his career in St. Louis just after the first NHL expansion.
"We were brave...and how do you spell stupid?"
No kidding. Their pads and other gear weren't very protective--Hall laughs at how flimsy they were-- and they regularly stuck their mugs in front of shots, like it was a badge of honour to get a stitch or 23.
While Plante came along with a full mask (Montreal Maroons' Clint Benedict used a half mask in 1930 for five games after he broke his cheekbone), it was hardly a stampede to get other NHL goalies to follow suit and cover their faces. Plante's backup Charlie Hodge got the second mask and many goalies joined the parade eventually, but Andy Brown was stubbornly resistant until his last year in 1974. He was the last goalie to show his face in the NHL, before he went to the WHA's Indianapolis Racers for three years without a mask.
"Now, they stop the game if a goalie's mask comes off during the play," said Ken Brown, who shared goaltending duties with the legendary Plante on the World Hockey Association Edmonton Oilers 25 years ago.
Plante got the idea for the mask from a trainer named Gene Long at a small school in Clinton, N.Y., who had designed a form-fitting fibreglass mask for his injured goalie, Don Spencer. Spencer sent Plante the formula, hoping to get a couple of Habs tickets. Plante started working with a fellow named Bill Burchmore, a plastics expert. He used the mask in practice, but Toe Blake refused to allow it in a game, until Bathgate struck.
"Jacques was a forerunner of all this kind of stuff ... he lived and died goaltending," said Brown, who worked as an Oilers radio colourman for Rod Phillips and now lives in Austin, Texas, and works in the newspaper business.
"Jacques knew he'd be ahead of the trend...the first mask was horrible looking and it didn't get better for a long time.
"I bought a mask for Halloween (a while back) and it cost me $1.49 and basically it was the same mask I wore when I first turned pro in 1968 with the Blackhawks. Mine was green fibreglass," said Brown, who had over 100 stitches in his face from junior hockey; his eyebrows split open on both sides, his nose splattered, before he put on a mask because Dave Dryden, Jack Norris and Denis Dejordy -- the other older Blackhawks goalies were doing so.
Brown got an insight into Plante's fascination with his mask years later when he ran into baseball legend Tommy Lasorda in a Chicago hotel. Lasorda was playing for the Montreal Royals in '59, when he shared a sandwich with Plante one day.
"They were sitting at a lunch counter and Jacques pulled the mask out of his bag and said, 'You know Tommy, some day I'm going to wear this.' Pretty cool," said Brown.
In Hall's heyday, Gump Worsley was bare-faced, until his last season in '73-74. Johnny Bower only wore one the last 17 games of his career. Hall would wear a rudimentary mask in practice sometimes (many goalies wore welder-type masks), but not a game. He didn't feel comfortable, plus, as he says, masks in games were for goalies, he jokingly says, couldn't handle a little pain. Like he said, he was courageous, but he was also stubborn.
"What you worried about (without a mask)was getting one in the eye," admitted Hall.
Hall's first mask was clear, nothing on it. No pictures, no logos, no stitches like Gerry Cheevers who used that when he played for the Bruins.
"That's Hollywood stuff (painting the mask)," said Hall, who realized he eventually had to go under cover because the game was changing, but took his time.
He's seen Cheevers's catchy mask many times in pictures, painted with souvenirs of shots that nailed him in the face-shield. "I figure I had 200 to 250 stitches," said Hall.
Only difference: They were on his face.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/Matheson+Hockey+World/2169412/story.html
