Sixty-five years ago Jacques Plante was called up by the Montreal Canadiens and it was a roster move that ended up changing the game forever.
As one of the winningest goalies in the history of the NHL, Plante was an outstanding goalie during his career but it was his invention of the goalie mask that made him one of the most iconic players in NHL history.
With February 12 marking the 65th anniversary of Plante’s NHL debut, Google honoured the Quebec native with a special doodle on its home page on Tuesday.
Plante first debuted his fiberglass goalie mask during team practices in 1956, but it wasn’t until the 1959-60 season that he started wearing it for games after he suffered a broken nose from an Andy Bathgate shot just over three minutes into a game.
Jacques Plante played 556 of his 837 NHL games in a Montreal Canadiens uniform and went 437-246-145 with 82 shutouts, a 2.38 goals against average and a .920 save percentage over his 18-year career. He was also named to eight All-Star Games, won the Stanley Cup six times (including five straight years from 1956-1960, won the Vezina Trophy seven times, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1978.
(H/T Google)
