October at BoobNewb signals the beginning of hockey season. The Montreal Canadians finish up their Centennial season this year and we thought that it would be a great idea to honor the Montreal Canadians with a famous quote from one of their hall of famers – Jacques Plante. Jacques Plante was a goaltender for the Montreal Canadians on a full time basis from 1954 to 1963. He became the first National Hockey League goaltender to wear a mask during a regular season hockey game at a time when goaltenders still hadn’t worn a mask yet and helped to make the mask part of a standardized equipment for goaltenders nowadays. He was also one of the first goaltenders to stick handle with the puck and go behind the net to stop the puck for his defenders as before then goaltenders would simply stay in their nets all of the time and not move around very much.
Plante was also the first goalie to raise his arms up in the air to signal an icing call so that his teammates would know about the call in advance. In addition, Plante would go on to win several awards including the Hart Memorial trophy and the Vezina trophy which was a awarded to the league’s best goaltender. He would eventually be traded to the New York Rangers following several poor seasons due to injury. He would finish his career with the Edmonton Oilers of the WHA. He would later move to Switzerland with his second wife and act as an advisor and goaltending coach but later died of Stomach cancer in 1986. In this month’s quote, Jacques discusses the difficulties of being a goaltender in the NHL back during his playing days…
| “How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo?”. – Jacques Plante |
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