A world hockey legend Jacques Plante has been honored by Google today because of his contributions to the development of the subject.
Born in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Jacques Plante, or Jake Jake, Snake is a French-Canadian hockey player who loved hockey very early on.
Jacques Plante was called from small tournaments to Montreal Canadiens on this day in 1954, Plante soon became the starting goalkeeper, helping Canadiens achieve one of the most outstanding run in the history of the sport.
A pioneer of the modern goalkeeper, Plante introduced a free-roaming style, often sliding behind a net to help his defense control the ball. But it was an unfortunate incident that inspired his most important contribution to the sport.
In November 1959, he was hit in the face for three minutes in a match against the New York Rangers. After being stitched, Plante returned to wearing the fiberglass mask he used in practice.
“The first time I wore a mask, the boys all told me that I would be afraid of women, again”, Jacques Plante joked. He added: “If I go on the way I’m going, soon my face will look worse than the mask”.
Ignoring the coach’s objections, Plante continued to wear a mask for the rest of his NHL career – becoming the first goalkeeper to regularly wear protective masks during matches. Other goals soon followed suit.
The only NHL goalkeeper ever won five Stanley Cups, Plante won the NHL Vezina Cup – awarded to NHL’s best goalkeeper – seven times in his career.
He also won the Football Cup because he was the tournament’s most valuable player. In 1978, three years after his retirement, Plante was introduced to his Heritage Hockey Arena that survived through his book, On Goaltending, which broke his innovation in detail, to a long-term impact on the game Jacques Plante loves.