Jacques Plante

Early life

Jacques Plante was born on a farm near Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel, Quebec, the first of 11 children of Palma and Xavier Plante. The family later moved to Shawinigan Falls, where his father worked in a factory. Plante began playing hockey in 1932, using a tennis ball and a goaltender's stick carved from a tree root by his father. At age five, he broke his hand in a fall from a ladder; the fracture healed poorly and affected his early playing style until corrective surgery as an adult.

Asthma limited his skating, leading him to play goaltender. His father made his first pads from stuffed potato sacks reinforced with wood. Plante learned to knit tuques from his mother and wore them during games and practices until entering the NHL. At age 12, he joined organized hockey when a school team's coach removed the goaltender and Plante volunteered. Despite being younger than the other players, he performed well and remained the team's starting goaltender.

Playing career

Plante joined the Quebec Citadelles in 1947, where he began playing the puck outside his crease because the team's defense was weak. This style excited fans but angered managers who preferred goaltenders to stay in the net. The Citadelles won the league finals that season, and Plante was named most valuable player. Montreal Canadiens general manager Frank J. Selke took interest, and Plante signed a contract in 1949.

He played for Montreal's affiliate Royal Montreal Hockey Club, earning $4,500 plus $500 for practicing with the Canadiens. In January 1953, Plante was called up after goaltender Gerry McNeil fractured his jaw. Coach Dick Irvin Sr. objected to Plante's tuque, which disappeared from the locker room, but Plante won all three games he played, allowing only four goals. Later that season, he earned a shutout in his first playoff game against the Chicago Black Hawks.

Montreal won the Stanley Cup, and Plante's name was engraved on it. In 1953, Selke assigned Plante to the Buffalo Bisons of the American Hockey League, where he became a major attraction.

Hockey analysis and coaching

Plante was known for his analytical approach to hockey. He shouted directions to teammates during games, a practice he began in the minor leagues, and kept detailed notes on opponents. During his first retirement in the 1960s, he worked as a colour commentator for Quebec Junior League broadcasts with Danny Gallivan. Radio Canada hired him as an on-air analyst for the 1972 Summit Series, where he dissented from the prevailing view that the Canadian team was superior.

Plante wrote hockey columns for several publications, including La Voix de Shawinigan, Le Samedi, and Sport Magazine. His book On Goaltending, published in English in 1972 and in French as Devant le filet in 1973, covered off-ice exercises, equipment, playing styles, and coaching methods. It was reprinted in both languages in 1997. In 1967, he became an instructor at École moderne de hockey, a summer school.

He traveled to Sweden in 1972 to teach goaltenders and coaches at the invitation of the Swedish Hockey Federation. During his retirements, he also coached goaltenders and consulted for several NHL teams.

Legacy

Plante was one of the first goaltenders to skate behind the net to stop the puck and to raise his arm on icing calls. He perfected a stand-up, positional style that cut down angles and wrote a how-to book on goaltending. He pioneered stickhandling the puck, a departure from the passive style of earlier goaltenders. Plante was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1978, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1981, and the Quebec Sports Pantheon in 1994. His number 1 jersey was retired by the Montreal Canadiens in 1995. The Jacques Plante Memorial Trophy is awarded to the top goaltender in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and the Jacques Plante Trophy is given annually to the top Swiss goaltender. The arena in Shawinigan where he played his first organized games was renamed Aréna Jacques Plante.