by Cate Racher, Staff Writer/Copy Editor, All Habs Hockey Magazine 

Welcome to Habs History! Throughout this series, we’ve been taking a look at the top seven goalies to ever wear the bleu-blanc-rouge throughout the Habs’ extensive history, according to their number of wins. It has included bios, player stats, and other fun facts about some of our favourite team goalies and how they fit into the team’s history. This week, we’ll be taking a look at Jacques Plante, but before we do that, be sure to check out parts one through six below.

No. 7: Michel “Bunny” Larocque
No. 6: “Little George” Hainsworth
No. 5: Bill “Dr. Strange Glove” Durnan
No. 4: Ken Dryden, the “Four-Storey Goalie” 
No. 3: “Saint Patrick” Roy
No. 2: Carey Price

Joseph Jacques Omer Plante was born on January 17, 1929 in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, the first of Palma and Xavier Plante‘s 11 children. Jacques began playing hockey at the age of three using makeshift equipment, including a hockey stick that his father had carved for him out of the root of a tree and pads made from stuffed potato sacks reinforced with wood. At the age of five, he sustained a broken hand after falling from a tree that would continue to affect his playing until he had corrective surgery as an adult. He began suffering from asthma as a child and could not skate for extended periods of time, leading to him becoming a goalie. Jacques received his first regulation goaltender stick at the age of seven.

Jacques’ first experience with organized hockey was at the age of 12 when he was attending École St-Maurice in Shawinigan. After the team’s regular goalie excused himself from the ice, Jacques rushed in and volunteered his services, where he ended up playing amongst 17 and 18 year olds. Jacques began playing once a week for a team in an industrial league, a job for which he was paid 50 cents per game. The more he played, word began to spread about his talents, and he was offered the opportunity to play in England and for the Providence Reds of the American Hockey League (AHL). His parents never allowed him to go, and he remained he school until he was 18.

When he was finished school, Jacques began working as a clerk at a factory on top of playing hockey nearly ever night. In 1947, he was invited to the training camp for the Montreal Junior Canadiens and was asked to sign with the Canadiens after one week, an offer which Jacques turned down because his salary as a clerk was larger.

Jacques spent two seasons playing for the Quebec Citadelles of the Quebec Junior Hockey League (QJHL) where he maintained a goals-against average (GAA) of 2.84 and 1.99. He was scouted by both the Toronto Maple Leafs and the New York Rangers, where he wanted to play, during that time. Ultimately, however, he would sign with the Canadiens.

In 1949, he married his first wife, Jacqueline Gagné, with whom he shared two sons, Michel and Richard. After he was signed, Jacques was sent to the Montreal Royals of the Quebec Senior Hockey League (QSHL) where he played for four seasons before his first stint with the Habs. Jacques played only three games with the Habs during the 1952-’53 season, winning two of those games and allowing only four goals. The following season, Jacques played 17 games for the Habs and maintained a GAA of 1.59 during the regular season and 1.88 during his eight post season games.

Jacques played his first full season with the Habs during the 1954-’55 season where he won 33 of his 52 games played and maintained a GAA of 2.14. That season he ranked third among all of the netminders in the NHL, and he would only get better from there. In the following season, Jacques played 64 games and maintained a GAA of 1.86 during the regular season. His performance during the playoffs not only earned the team the Stanley Cup, but it also earned Jacques his first of five consecutive Vezina trophies. The Habs would also go on to win the Stanley Cup 4 more times with Jacques in net.

Jacques’ most important contribution, both to the Canadiens and the sport of hockey in general, came on November 1, 1959. After taking a shot to the face three minutes into the first period from New York Rangers forward Andy Bathgate, Jacques was taken off the ice so he could receive stitches. He returned soon after wearing a fibreglass mask similar to the one that he occasionally wore during practice.

The Habs went on to win the game three to one, and coach Toe Blake finally relented and allowed Jacques to wear the mask in all games going forward. Within a few years, most goalies were wearing facial protection during games. By the 1974-’75 season, goalies were no longer bare-faced on the ice.

While Jacques was a brilliant hockey player, he never made an effort to be friendly with his teammates, with the goaltender staying by himself in his hotel room during away games and sitting alone on the bus.

“No, I never make friends,” Jacques stated in conversation with Hockey Hall of Fame Manager, Publishing and Editorial Services Kevin Shea. “Not in hockey, not elsewhere. Not since I was a teenager. What for? If you are close to someone, you must be scheduling yourself to please them.”

On June 4, 1963, Coach Blake and the Montreal Management traded Jacques, Phil Goyette, and Don Marshall to the New York Rangers. He played for the Rangers for two years before he was sent to  the Baltimore Clippers, New York’s AHL affiliate. He retired for the first time at the end of that season. Three years after his retirement, he joined the St. Louis Blues but was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs following the playoffs. In 1970, Jacques met his second wife, Raymonde Udrisard.

Jacques played for Toronto for three years, maintaining GAA’s of 1.88, 2.63, and 3.04 during that time. Later in the 1972-’73 season, he was traded to the Boston Bruin and played only 8 games that season. He retired once again, and in 1973 Jacques joined the World Hockey Association as the general manager and coach of the Quebec Nordiques but resigned soon after.

Jacques returned to the net during the 1974-’75 season at the age of 46 as the netminder for the Edmonton Oilers, where he maintained a GAA of 3.32 despite suffering a slew of injuries. He officially retired from playing hockey in October of 1975.

Jacques Plante’s career was a remarkable one. In his 837 regular season games, he won 435 games total, 314 of which were with the Canaidnes. He maintained a GAA of 2.38 and recorded 82 shutouts during the regular season. He would eventually go on to coach the Philadelphia Flyers, the St. Louis Blues, and the Montreal Canadiens before moving to Switzerland with his wife. In 1978, Jacques was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and is considered to be one of the best goalies and best hockey players of all time.

Jacques Plante died on February 27, 1986 at the age of 57 after a battle with stomach cancer. He was buried in Sierre, Switzerland; as his casket was being carried to his grave, Jacques’ body passed under an archway of hockey sticks held high by a visiting team from Quebec. On October 7, 1995, his number one jersey was raised to the Forum’s rafters.