Home : The First Twenty Years :Jacques Plante
I Remember JacquesAn Old Friend Pays Tribute To The Late, Great Goaltender.Jacques Plante was called a lot of things, not all of them complimentary. Iconoclastic? Yes. Hypochondriacal? At times. Idiosyncratic? Yes. Superstitious? Definitely. But, above all, Frere Jacques was a unique individual, a marvelous teacher ahead of his time, and the man who quite literally changed the very face of hockey with the introduction and popularization of the goalie's mask. At the time of his passing, In February of 1986, Plante was in his second tour of duty with the St. Louis Blues. They called him a "special goaltending instructor" but he was more. Words like "confidant," "mentor," and "expert" come to mind. As late as mid-January of 1986, five weeks before his death, Plante was on the ice in St. Louis, instructing the Blues' goaltenders, Rick Wamsley and Greg Millen.
Plante's first stint in St. Louis was short but memorable, probably the only stop of his 22-year pro hockey career that was an oasis from controversy. From June, 1968 to May, 1970 - at ages 39 and 40 and with two questionable knees -Plante teamed with the equally great Glenn Hall to form undoubtedly the greatest goaltending tandem in history. Together, they were the backbone of the Blues' second and third consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Finals. Plante was thrilled with the beautifully refurbished Arena and its fans. When organist Norm Kramer struck up "When the Blues Come Marching In," Jacques admitted to "breaking out in goose bumps." "Right from the start, I was the happiest guy in St. Louis," he once recalled. "It was good being back with a winner. After being with the Canadiens, my time with the Rangers (from whom the Blues acquired him) had been a letdown, but here under Scotty Bowman (the Blues general manager and coach) and with the players who made it to the Finals, it was exciting again."
Plante's statistics for 1968-69 reflected his happiness - 37 games played, a stingy 70-goals-against, a League-leading five shutouts and a goals-against-average of 1.96. In the '69 playoffs, he was even more fantastic - 10 games, 14 goals-against, three shutouts and an average of 1.43. For their regular-season heroics, the Plante-Hall duo was awarded the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goaltenders. Jacques also gloried in the regal treatment lavished upon the players by Blues owners, Sidney Salomon Jr. and Sidney Salomon III. For Plante, that meant a single room on the road, a real rarity in those days. And, when there were back to back games scheduled on a weekend, either Hall or Plante would work on Saturday night, then remain in St. Louis while a third goalie (usually Ernie Wakely) would travel.
Once, after playing on a Saturday night, Plante was invited to accompany Sid Salomon Jr. fishing on Sunday at his privately stocked lake. "The Salomons were more like close friends than wealthy bosses," Plante would recall later. "We drifted along on that warm, sunny afternoon not really caring whether the fish bit and listening to the broadcast of the Blues' afternoon game from Pittsburgh. I couldn't help thinking how much hockey had changed, and how much the Salomons had to do with it." I knew Jacques well from his days with the Rangers. His death at age 57 brought a flood of memories. In 1963, I was in my first year with the Rangers, working (at $75 a week!) as assistant publicity director. Similarly, Jacques was in his first season with the Rangers, and had left his family in Montreal. He lived first in the Paramount Hotel, and later on West 71st Street. I was still single so Jacques and I had time to fill and lots of free (that was very important to him, and I say that with fondness) access to the old Madison Square Garden. That meant prizefights, track meets, and basketball games, all of which we enjoyed terrifically and all of which Jacques would dissect with razor sharpness and incisive commentary. We often shared post event beers as well, and I got to like Jacques very much. It was no small thing for a still impressionable 22-year-old to be a genuine acquaintance of such a great star in the hockey firmament, but I cranked up my newfound professionalism, gritted my teeth. . .and loved every minute of it. I often drove with Jacques to Ranger practices, sometimes as faraway as Commack, Long Island, and I loved his stories and the discussions on hockey and life. He was a very bright guy, Jacques was, far brighter in fact than he is often portrayed. Things were not always copasetic with Jacques in New York. Plagued by allergies throughout his career, he developed a particular dislike for the Royal York Hotel in Toronto, claiming something there made him break out in a rash. The Rangers let him stay at the Westbury when we played the Leafs, but the allergy remained nonetheless. Explained Jacques, "I dreamt I was staying at the Royal York." In the ensuing years (St. Louis, Toronto and Boston were the playing stops; Quebec of the WHA, Philadelphia, Montreal and St. Louis the coaching stops), I managed to stay in touch with Plante quite often. Our paths crossed frequently and I would always go out of my way to chat with him and renew our friendship. To this day I have the feeling that every time I talked to Jacques I learned something new.
Of course, he taught us all a few things. I was there that November night in 1959 when a sharp backhand shot from the Rangers Andy Bathgate crumpled Plante to the Madison Square Garden ice. Some 20 minutes passed before he emerged from his facial stitching through the 50th Street side players' ramp, carrying a cream-colored facemask. Most of the 15,925 customers didn't realize what was happening until he pulled the mask over his face, and that elicited a collective gasp from the crowd. Was he really going to wear that thing? Indeed he was, and the game of hockey had changed forever. But the facemask would hardly be Jacques' only claim to hockey inventiveness. He was the first goalie to raise his hand and signal his teammates that an icing infraction was going to be whistled. He also popularized the practice of goaltenders leaving their creases to stop pucks and set up teammates. Yes, he got caught occasionally when the puck would carom crazily in front of the net and result in an easy goal, but the practice was a sound one and is used universally today.
His roaming ways also put him in the scoring column on occasion, a rarity for goaltenders. Jacques is officially credited with eight assists. He should have had a ninth. One night, the official scorer inadvertently credited Blues defenseman Jean-Guy Talbot, an old Montreal teammate, with an assist that rightly belonged to Plante. When the announcement came over the public address system, Talbot skated back to Plante and asked:
Merci, Jacques. by John Halligan, vice president, communications for the New York RangersIn his career, Jacques Plante:
Jacques Plante died of stomach cancer in Sierre, Valais, Switzerland, where he had been living for a number of years. He was only 57 years old. Each year, the top goaltender in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League receives the Jacques Plante Trophy. | ||||||||||
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