Jacques Plante

At 57 years old, Jacques Plante has this physical status:

Joseph Jacques Omer Plante (January 17, 1929 – February 27, 1986) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender.

During a career lasting from 1947 to 1975, he was considered to be one of the most important innovators in hockey.

He played for the Montreal Canadiens from 1953 to 1963; during his tenure, the team won the Stanley Cup six times, including five consecutive wins.

In 2017 Plante was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players" in history.Plante retired in 1965 but was persuaded to return to the National Hockey League to play for the expansion St. Louis Blues in 1968.

He was later traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1970 and to the Boston Bruins in 1973.

He joined the World Hockey Association as coach and general manager for the Quebec Nordiques in 1973–74.

He then played goal for the Edmonton Oilers in 1974–75, ending his professional career with that team. Plante was the first NHL goaltender to wear a goaltender mask in regulation play on a regular basis.

He developed and tested many versions of the mask (including the forerunner of today's mask/helmet combination) with the assistance of other experts.

Plante was the first NHL goaltender to regularly play the puck outside his crease in support of his team's defencemen, and he often instructed his teammates from behind the play.

Plante was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1978, was chosen as the goaltender of the Canadiens' "dream team" in 1985, and was inducted into the Quebec Sports Pantheon in 1994.

The Montreal Canadiens retired Plante's jersey, #1, the following year.

Plante ranks seventh among NHL goalies for all-time career wins with 437.

Early life

Plante was born on a farm near Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel, in Mauricie, Quebec, the first of 11 children born to Palma and Xavier Plante. The family moved to Shawinigan Falls, where his father worked in one of the local factories. In 1932, Plante began to play hockey, skateless and with a tennis ball, using a goaltender's hockey stick his father had carved from a tree root. When he was five years old, Plante fell off a ladder and broke his hand. The fracture failed to heal properly and affected his playing style during his early hockey career; he underwent successful corrective surgery as an adult. Plante suffered from asthma starting in early childhood. This prevented him from skating for extended periods, so he gravitated to playing goaltender. As his playing progressed, Jacques received his first regulation goaltender's stick for Christmas of 1936. His father made Plante's first pads by stuffing potato sacks and reinforcing them with wooden panels. As a child, Plante played hockey outdoors in the bitterly cold Quebec winters. His mother taught him how to knit his own tuques to protect him from the cold. Plante continued knitting and embroidering throughout his life and wore his hand-knitted tuques while playing and practicing until entering the National Hockey League (NHL).

Plante's first foray into organized hockey came at age 12. He was watching his school's team practice, when the coach ordered the goaltender off the ice after a heated argument over his play, and Plante asked to replace him. The coach permitted him to play, since there was no other available goaltender; it was quickly apparent that Plante could hold his own, despite the other players being many years older than he was. He impressed the coach and stayed on as the team's number-one goaltender.

Two years later, Plante was playing for five different teams — the local factory team, and teams in the midget, juvenile, junior and intermediate categories. Plante demanded a salary from the factory team's coach after his father told him that the other players were being paid, because they were company employees. The coach paid Plante 50 cents per game to retain him and maintain the team's popularity. Afterwards, Plante began to receive various offers from other teams; he was offered $80 per week — a considerable sum in those days — to play for a team in England, and a similar offer to play for the Providence Reds of the American Hockey League. Plante passed them up, because his parents wanted him to finish high school. He graduated with top honours in 1947. Upon graduation, he took a job as a clerk in a Shawinigan factory. A few weeks later, the Quebec Citadels offered Plante $85 per week to play for them; he accepted, marking the beginning of his professional career.

His nickname was "Jake the Snake".

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Playing career

In 1947, Jacques joined the Quebec Citadelles. Plante started playing for Quebec and learned how to play the puck outside his crease, a technique he developed when he noticed that the team's defense was failing. Fans of Plante's unusual playing style found it exciting, but his parents were furious because a goaltender should keep his players in net and let his players recover the puck. Plante had to come to the conclusion that as long as he was in possession of the puck, the opposition could not shoot it at him – this is now normal goaltenders. In the same season as last season, the Citadelles defeated the Montreal Junior Canadiens in the league finals, with Plante named Most Valuable Player on his team. Frank J. Selke, the Montreal Canadiens' general manager, was very interested in buying Plante as a member of the team. Plante was invited to the Canadiens' training camp in 1948. Selke gave Plante a deal on August 17, 1949. Plante played for the Royal Montreal Hockey Club in Montreal, earning $4,500 for the season and an extra $500 for training with the Canadiens.

In 1949, he married Jacqueline Gagné; the couple had two sons, Michel and Richard;

Plante was called up to play for the Canadiens in January 1953. Bill Durnan, the goaltender who played for Montreal when Plante first began, had retired, and Gerry McNeil, the team's top goaltender, had fractured his jaw. Plante played three games, but he created controversies in the short time. Coach Dick Irvin, Sr., did not want his players to stand out by any change to their regular uniforms. Plante wore one of his tuques while playing hockey, and after an altercation with Irvin, all of Plante's tuques had vanished from the Montreal locker room. Nonetheless, Plante missed only four goals in the three games he played, none of whom were victories.

Plante also appeared in the playoffs against the Chicago Black Hawks during the 1952-53 NHL season. With a shutout, he won his first playoff game. Plante's name was engraved on the Cup for the first time in Montreal, which culminated in the Stanley Cup, and eventually the Stanley Cup.

McNeil was still the Canadiens' starting goaltender at the start of 1953. Plante was sent by Selke to the Buffalo Bisons of the American Hockey League, so fans in the United States would get to know him. The plante was immediately profitable; Fred Hunt, the Bisons' general manager, told Kenny Reardon, "he [Plante] the best attraction since Terry Sawchuk's good old days."

Plante was well-entrenched in the NHL by the end of the 1953–54 season. He underwent surgery to repair his left hand, which he had broken in his youth, in the spring of 1954. He could not move his hand well enough to get high shots, but he compensated by using the remainder of his body. The operation was fruitful.

Plante was called up to the Canadiens and named him as their starting goaltender on February 12, 1954 – he did not return to the minor leagues for many years. Plante was the Canadiens' top goaltender from the 1954-1955 NHL season. Maurice Richard, Montreal's top scorer, was suspended for the remainder of the season and playoffs on March 13, 1955, with only four games remaining in the season. Plante was witness to the riot that followed in Montreal four nights later, performing in front of an ecstatic crowd. In the finals, the Canadiens lost to the Detroit Red Wings.

Plante was the Canadiens' unchallenged starting goaltender of the season from 1955 to 1956; Gerry McNeil had not played in the previous season and was sent to the Montreal Royals. Charlie Hodge, Plante's backup, was sent by the Seattle Americans, a Canadiens farm team. Montreal also won the Stanley Cup later this season, the first of what would be five consecutive Stanley Cup championship seasons. Plante did not recover well from the beginning of this season due to chronic bronchitis, a result of childhood asthma. Despite injuries to Plante and other team members during the 1957–58 NHL season, the Canadiens won their third straight Stanley Cup during the 1956–58 NHL season. The plante's asthma was getting worse. He had a concussion with only a few weeks to go into the season and missed three games of the playoffs. Plante's asthma was making him dizzy and he was having trouble concentrating; he died at the end of the game after teammate Doug Harvey scored the series-winning goal. At the end of the 1958–59 season, the Canadiens went on to win the Stanley Cup for the second time.

Plante wore a goaltender mask for the first time in a regular season game during the 1959–60 season. Despite the fact that Plante had been wearing his mask in practice since 1956 after missing 13 games due to a sinusitis procedure, head coach Toe Blake was afraid that it would damage his eyesight and would not recommend it during regulation play. Plante's nose was broken when he was struck by a shot fired by Andy Bathgate three minutes into a game against the New York Rangers on November 1, 1959, but he was admitted to the dressing room for stitches. When he returned, he was wearing the basic home-made goaltender mask he had been using in training. Blake was tense, but there was no other goaltender to call upon, and Plante refused to return to the field until he wore the mask. When the cut healed, Blake accepted the condition that Plante discard the mask. The Canadiens won the game 3–1. Plante refused to remove the mask during the following days, and Blake became less vocal about it as the Canadiens continued to win. The undefeated streak lasted 18 games. Plante did not wear the mask against Detroit on March 8, 1960, at Blake's behest; the Canadiens lost 3–0, and the mask returned for good the next night. The Canadiens won their fifth straight Stanley Cup, which was Plante's last year.

Plante subsequently created his own and other goaltenders' masks. He was not the first NHL goaltender to wear a face mask. Clint Benedict of Montreal wore a crude leather version in 1930 to cover a cracked nose, but Plante replaced it with the mask as everyday gear, and goaltenders now have this equipment.

Plante was sent down to the minor league Montreal Royals after being plagued by severe left knee pains during the 1960-61 NHL season. Torn cartilage was discovered in his knee, and the knee was surgically repaired in 1961. Plante was one of seven goaltenders to win the Hart Memorial Trophy this season, and he also won the Vezina Trophy for the sixth time in the current season. Plante's 1962-63 season was turbulent. His asthma had exacerbated, and he missed the majority of the early season. Plante's relationship with his mentor, Toe Blake, continued to deteriorate as a result of the latter's persistent health problems. Plante was at the center of a big controversy when he said that net sizes in the NHL were not consistent, giving a statistical edge to goaltenders playing for the Chicago Black Hawks, Boston Bruins, and New York Rangers. His allegation was later revealed as a result of a manufacturing defect.

Fans and followers alike were pushing for change after the Canadiens were booted out in the first playoff round for the third year in a row. Plante and Blake's tumultuous work ethic and demeanor caused Blake to announce that either he or Plante will leave the island for the 1963–64 season. Plante was sold by the New York Rangers, with Phil Goyette and Don Marshall in exchange for Gump Worsley, Dave Balon, Leon Rochefort, and Len Ronson on June 4, 1963. Plante was a member of the Rangers for one season and a second. He retired in 1965 while playing for the Baltimore Clippers, the Rangers' AHL affiliate. His wife was sick at the time and he needed surgery on his right knee.

Plante resigned as a Molson sales rep but remained involved in the league after his retirement, but not much in the sport. In 1965, Scotty Bowman asked Plante to play for the Montreal Jr. Canadiens in a game against the Soviet National Team. Plante accepted his country's honours, and after being accepted by both the Rangers (who controlled his rights) and Molson, he began training. Plante was named first celebrity of the game by the Canadiens in 2–1.

Plante received a call from his ex-teammate Bert Olmstead, asking for some assistance with the expansion of the Oakland Seals at the beginning of the 1967-68 NHL season. Plante was led by example, and after the three-week training camp, he returned home to Montreal. Plante also participated in an exhibition competition with the Seals. Plante's rumors swirled that the plante was planning a comeback.

Plante was selected by the St. Louis Blues in an intraleague draft and signed for $35,000 for the 1968–69 season. Plante split the goaltending duties with Glenn Hall in his first season with the Blues. For the seventh time, he won the Vezina Trophy, beating Bill Durnan's record. In the 1969–70 playoffs against the Boston Bruins, Fred Stanfield fired Plante in the forehead, knocking him out and breaking his fibreglass mask. The mask saved his life, Plante said as he regained consciousness at the hospital. That game was his last for the Blues, and he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1970. During his rookie season with the Maple Leafs, he led the NHL with the lowest goals against average (GAA). He also set a new Leafs franchise record by winning 9 straight games for the first time this season. He was named to the NHL's second All-Star team at the end of the season, his seventh appearance. He continued to play for the Leafs until being moved to the Boston Bruins late in the 1972–73 season, scoring a shutout against the Black Hawks in his first appearance for the Bruins. He appeared in eight regular seasons and two playoff games for the Bruins, his last in the league.

Plante joined the World Hockey Association in 1973 for a $1 million, 10-year deal to serve as the head coach and general manager of the Quebec Nordiques. He was dissatisfied with his and the team's results and resigned at the end of the 1973–74 season. Plante, who came out of retirement a bit earlier, played 31 games for the Edmonton Oilers of the WHA from 1974 to 1975. After finding out that his youngest son had died, Plante resigned during the Oilers' training camp in 1975-76.

Career statistics

* Stanley Cup Champion.

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