Jacques Plante

Joseph Jacques Omer Plante (January 17, 1929 – February 27, 1986) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. He played for the Montreal Canadiens from 1953 to 1963. Plante was the first NHL goaltender to wear a goaltender mask in regulation play on a regular basis. He won the Stanley Cup six times, including five consecutive wins in the 1960s and ’70s.

About Jacques Plante in brief

Summary Jacques PlanteJoseph Jacques Omer Plante (January 17, 1929 – February 27, 1986) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. He played for the Montreal Canadiens from 1953 to 1963. Plante was the first NHL goaltender to wear a goaltender mask in regulation play on a regular basis. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1978 and was chosen as the goaltender of the Canadiens’ ‘dream team’ in 1985. He ranks seventh among NHL goalies for all-time career wins with 437. In 2017, he was named one of the \”100 Greatest NHL Players\” in history. His nickname was “Jake Snake” and he was known for his unconventional style of play. He died of a heart attack in 1986 at the age of 85. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, and a son. He had a son, Jacques Plante Jr., who played in the World Hockey Association with the Quebec Nordiques in 1973 and 1974. He also played goal for the Edmonton Oilers in 1974–75, ending his professional career with that team. His son Jacques, a former NHL player, is now the president of the Quebec Citadels, a junior hockey team in the Quebec City suburb of Shawinigan Falls. He has also been a coach and general manager for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins, among other teams. He won the Stanley Cup six times, including five consecutive wins in the 1960s and ’70s. He retired in 1965 but was persuaded to return to the National Hockey League to play for the expansion St. Louis Blues in 1968. He later joined the Montreal Nordiques as a coach in the WHL in 1973.

He became the team’s general manager in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In his last years, Plante coached the team in Quebec. He passed up a lucrative offer from the Providence Reds of the American Hockey League, because his parents wanted him to finish high school. His father made Plante’s first pads by stuffing potato sacks and reinforcing them with wooden panels. His mother taught him how to knit his own tuques to protect him from the bitterly cold Quebec winters. He wore his hand-knitted tuques while playing and practicing until entering the National hockey League. He suffered from asthma starting in early childhood, which prevented him from skating for extended periods, so he gravitated to playing goaltender. While playing for Quebec Citlladees in 1947, he became known as the ‘Jake Snake’ and was nicknamed by fans as a result of his unconventional playing style. He started to regularly play the puck outside his crease in support of his team’s defencemen, and he often instructed his teammates from behind the play. The nickname was later changed to ‘Jake the Snake’ Plante played for five different teams in the midget, juvenile, junior and intermediate categories. He demanded a salary from the factory team’s coach after his father told him that the other players were being paid, because they were company employees. The coach paid Plante 50 cents per game to retain him and maintain theteam’s popularity.