DOUG

THE MONTREAL CANADIENS were on top of the world. Rulers of the hockey kingdom, they had it all. Their newest captain, Maurice “Rocket” Richard, was the most recognized athlete in Canada and a legend in his own time. The heir to his throne as the face of the Canadiens, Jean Béliveau, had just completed a season perched atop the league’s scoring leaders. Boom Boom Geoffrion was terrorizing young goalies all over the league with his slapshot. Dickie Moore, freed from the shackles of the previous regime, was starting to unleash his considerable talent. And Jacques Plante, the league’s best goaltender, was revolutionizing not only his position but the game at large.

Yet none of these men, for all their greatness, was the most valuable player on that wonderful team, or in the league for that matter. That honour belonged to Doug Harvey. Even today, 50 years after his prime playing years, the name still evokes awe.

Harvey’s immense talent was equalled by his versatility. He was the quarterback of the most feared power play the game has ever known. He was also the key ingredient in the Canadiens’ vaunted transition game, with his crisp and precise passes acting as the springboard for the rush into the opponent’s zone. “He controlled the game like an orchestra conductor,” recalled his teammate Bernie Geoffrion. “When others were running around like chickens with their heads cut off Harvey was nonchalantly looking for someone for a pass or easily relieving the opposition of the puck.”¹ At the same time, nobody was a more tenacious defender. He blocked shots, using his size to his advantage, all the while making the difficult seem far too routine.

Harvey was named to an amazing 11 consecutive all-star teams and was a six-time recipient of the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defence-man. There were no discernible weaknesses to his game; he excelled in all aspects and seemed able to bend the game and its outcome to his will. Once the puck was on his stick, it left only on his terms.

His was a methodical game; nothing was ever too rushed. At times Harvey would survey the ice before making the perfect pass. Yet he was also capable of rushing up the ice and, without notice and while in full stride, dish a perfect pass to a teammate.

Away from the rink, Doug Harvey lived life to the fullest. He enjoyed a beer and found comfort in many bars throughout the league.

“He loved a challenge – on and off the ice,” remembers Red Fisher. “It didn’t matter where it came from – the opposition or constituted authority. All that mattered was that it was a challenge, something which had to be addressed and overcome. He was stubborn, aggravating, unselfish, hard-drinking, fun loving and the best defenseman, by far, in Canadiens history.”²

Off the ice, Plante and Harvey went their separate ways. On the rare occasions that Plante went out to a bar, he would leave soon after the first beer. For Harvey the first beer was the prelude to a long evening. Whereas Plante was responsible with his money, Harvey thought nothing of giving his away. Many found Plante to be distant and aloof, while Harvey could be kind and generous to a fault.

Once the game started, however, Harvey had much in common with his goaltender. Both men were stubborn when dealing with authority, and went about playing their game their own way. Harvey encouraged Plante in his innovations, immediately noticing that many of them would also help ease his defensive load.

“I figure Plante takes fifteen per cent of the load off the defence,” Harvey told Montreal newsman Andy O’Brien. “Whereas we’d frequently get reefed into the corners while going after the pucks that they [the opposing team] dump into our end, Jacques often saves us the trouble. Being faster than a lot of forwards, he starts the puck going back while the opponents are still rushing in.”³

It was Harvey who suggested that Plante start talking with his defencemen during plays. By communicating with them, Plante was able to act as a second set of eyes for his defenders, alerting them to their situation or how the play was unfolding. It didn’t take long for the fans to notice Plante’s voice during the play, always in constant communication.

When Plante ventured out of his net to gather the puck, he would hear Doug, telling him where to pass the puck, left or right or to leave it behind the net or whether just to fall on it. Plante saved precious time by not having to look up and scan the ice before deciding what to do with the puck.

Plante took the communication a step further by not only yelling when the other team iced the puck but also raising his arm to signal his retreating defencemen that it was an icing situation. In this way a defenceman skating back towards his net, with an opposing player in full chase, would realize that all he had to do was finish the race for the puck.

With the exception of some well-timed suggestions, Harvey left Plante alone to play his game. According to Harvey’s biographer, William Brown, “Harvey never considered Plante to be a great team player – he was too self-absorbed, and he always disappeared when it was his turn to buy a round of beers – but he appreciated his value to the team.”⁴

On the ice, however, the pair helped to form an almost unbeatable combination. These two men of hockey genius were able to marshal their considerable talents towards common goals: the Norris Trophy, the Vezina Trophy, and ultimately the Stanley Cup.

“Harvey knew that Plante didn’t need any heroics by his defense-men,” writes Brown. “Harvey would block the shots that came at him, but would rarely throw himself at the puck. The last thing he wanted was to put himself out of position or deflect a shot on goal. The main thing was to let Plante make the stops.”⁵

Harvey was adept at slowing down the game. Plante took it upon himself to do the same. The difference is that Harvey did it by having the puck; Plante slowed the game down because of his own ingenuity. He was so successful that the league had to pass another rule specifically designed to thwart the Canadiens.

“Jacques would come out of the net and freeze the puck, especially in key situations,” remembered future coach Scotty Bowman years later. “If the Canadiens had a lot of pressure on them, and he wanted to get a face-off, Jacques was the first goalie to stop play. In fact, the league had to make a new rule that a goaltender couldn’t stop play from behind his own blueline.”⁶

The rest of the league was unable to thwart some of Jacques’ other ploys to slow the game. Quite often when facing an opposition power play he would claim to have an equipment malfunction. Skating over to the bench to get a “loose” strap fixed, Plante was actually buying time for his penalty killers to catch their breath as well as leaving the opposition to stir, already anxious for the puck to drop. “I usually do it at the request of a penalty killer,” Jacques explained. “These guys are out there going full speed and once in a while one of them will come over to me and say ‘Jacques, give me a chance for a breather.’ I try to accommodate them and skate over to the boards.”⁷

The opposition would howl in protest, but the referees’ hands were tied. In time, Plante became a master of gaining his team these unofficial “breaks,” and of slowing the pace of the game. At the same time, though, the Canadiens team was so strong that many of Plante’s breaks were often unnecessary.

Another facet of his game that drove his opponents to distraction was how he would put himself in between an opposing player and the puck. Running interference, he regularly drew the other team into taking unnecessary penalties.

The Montreal Canadiens entered the 1956–57 season as heavy favourites to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. In the space of one year they had gone from champion-in-waiting to established powerhouse. “I am a lucky fellow,” Toe Blake wrote on the season’s eve. “I have the greatest collection of hockey stars in many years, maybe of all time, and yet they are unselfish stars. They play and think as a team. So I stand pat. The Canadiens should win the regular season title and the Stanley Cup again. My men are confident, as they should be, but not cocky.”⁸

Much to the surprise of many, the Canadiens faltered a little, in large part because of injuries befalling the team’s biggest stars.

On the morning of October 23, Plante was once again felled in practice. This time, however, it was not because of a shot by a teammate but instead from a bronchial attack, which laid him up in a hospital bed for a few days. After a battery of tests, the depth of Plante’s asthma was discovered. Having not suffered an attack of consequence for almost a decade, Plante had falsely believed that his asthma had subsided. Gerry McNeil was summoned from the Montreal Royals to take Plante’s spot. After a year away from hockey, McNeil returned to the game, albeit in a less stressful situation as a minor league goaltender with the Royals.

Just as Plante prepared to resume playing after a few days, he had to return to the hospital because of an allergic reaction. After another set of tests it was discovered that he was allergic to eggs. Forever afterward his breakfast would consist of fried ham.

McNeil’s nine-game-stint with the Canadiens didn’t reignite a contest between him and Plante. Giving up 31 goals and winning only four of his nine games, McNeil had the slumping Canadiens eagerly looking forward to Plante’s return. When Plante was pronounced healthy again, McNeil was returned to the Royals. He would never play another NHL game.

As the season progressed, the Canadiens found themselves trailing the resurgent Red Wings. On March 17, the Red Wings came to the Forum and escaped with a 2–1 victory, clinching their eighth regular-season championship in nine years. A beaming Jack Adams, the Red Wings general manager, boasted that the Canadiens’ time as the league’s dominant team had been “the shortest ten years of my life.”⁹

As the regular season came to a close, the only excitement left was the chase for the Vezina Trophy. Glenn Hall, the Red Wings super-sophomore, had proven that his superb rookie season had been no fluke. In those days the Vezina Trophy was awarded to the goalie who had given up the least amount of goals over the season.

“I was two goals behind on Saturday night when we played the Black Hawks in Montreal, but this was our last game and Hall had two,” Plante wrote later. “The Red Wings were playing at Toronto. We then started our games at 8:30 p.m. while Toronto games started at 8:00. When we skated out I looked up at the scoreboard; Toronto was leading 1 to 0, which left me only one goal behind.”¹⁰

Every goalie starts each game expecting to earn a shutout. A shutout is predicated on many things, the least of which is a large chunk of luck. But on that particular night against the Black Hawks, Jacques didn’t hope to record a shutout. He needed to record a shutout if there was going to be any hope of his defending his beloved Vezina Trophy. Of course, Plante was not the only one who felt this pressure. His teammates also sensed the tension, and that night’s crowd also betrayed a slight anxiety. Every time Plante made a stop, the crowd roared and cheered.

“Halfway through the second period Toronto scored again,” Plante recalled. “That made it even for Hall and me. I tried not to think about it and concentrate purely on handling even the easier shots with utmost caution.”¹¹

With nine minutes remaining, the final score of the Detroit–Toronto game was posted on the scoreboard. The Red Wings had won, but Hall had allowed three goals. Now Plante held a one-goal lead in the race for the Vezina. All he had to do was keep the Black Hawks from scoring for the next nine minutes.

Not one shot made its way past Plante, who won his second straight Vezina Trophy. As the final buzzer sounded he felt released from the pressure. “I left the ice in a hurry, not even waving at the cheering fans. They must have thought me ungrateful, but I was rushing for the washroom where I was sick to my stomach.”¹²

Plante finished the regular season seven wins behind the league-leading Glenn Hall, and once again had the fewest losses in the league. His nine shutouts were twice as much as the next leading goaltender’s and five more than Hall’s. Plante’s goals-against average of 2.02 was the league’s best.

And yet Glenn Hall, who finished behind Plante in every statistical category except wins, wrestled the first-team all-star honours from him, and Plante had to settle for being the goalie on the second all-star team.

Recognition among the hockey establishment was hardwon for Plante. For many outside of Montreal, his success was explained more by the skill of those he played with rather than by his own skill. For those who chose to overlook Plante and his numbers, the main reason was ironically Doug Harvey. Adoration for the great Harvey was so immense that many subscribed to the theory that Plante’s success was a result of playing behind the unparalleled defenceman. Without Harvey, they reasoned, Plante was an ordinary goaltender, albeit one with a streak of eccentricity.

Widely ignored by the media in the other league cities, Plante’s most vocal champion was his coach. “First of all, Jacques is not only great at stopping the puck. He’s great at helping out his defense and the forwards by playing the puck for them around the net,” argued Toe Blake. “He lifts a team with his chatter and you know as long as he’s out there, our fellows will know where the opposing players are. He has the faculty of stopping the very difficult shots. When I say he’s the best goalkeeper in hockey today, I’m not over-stating his case one bit.”¹³

As the playoffs dawned, many anticipated a fourth straight final involving the Canadiens and the Red Wings. After the tightness of the regular season, however, the playoffs were decidedly anticlimactic. The Red Wings were once again upset in the semifinals, this time by the Boston Bruins. In the other series, the Canadiens repeated their five-game series victory over the Rangers from the season before, setting up a finals clash with the Bruins.

If there was one team responsible for the Canadiens’ slide into second place, it was the Bruins. In their 14 meetings that season, Boston had defeated Montreal seven times and tied them on three other occasions. Even the Rocket, long a Bruins tormentor, had scored against them only twice all year.

Over the course of the series the Bruins came to learn that the Canadiens team they faced in the regular season was a mere shadow of the team they now encountered. In game one, they also found out that the 35-year-old Rocket still possessed a little of the old spark.

“On Saturday,” wrote Baz O’Meara in the Montreal Star, “the fiery goal getter erupted with a four goal explosion, and when the duel had settled Canadiens were home with a 5–1 victory in the first game of their best-of-seven Stanley Cup series with the Boston Bruins. Nobody this year has so dominated a game as the Rocket did. He wasn’t only great on offense, he was wonderful on defense…. When it was all over nearly fifteen thousand fans gave him an ovation that he will long remember…. At thirty-five years of age he had done something that would live long in the annals of the game as a very singular feat.”¹⁴

Goals would be harder to come by in the second game. The first two periods remained scoreless as Plante battled with Bruins goalie Don Simmons. However, a little over two minutes into the third, Jean Béliveau lifted a backhand over a helplessly prone Simmons to break the deadlock. It was all the offence that Jacques Plante would need. Thanks to his sixth career playoff shutout in the Canadiens’ 1–0 win, Montreal found itself with a two-game advantage.

The year before, the Canadiens had allowed the Red Wings a sliver of hope in the third game. The Bruins would enjoy no such luxury in a thoroughly dominating 4–2 win that put Montreal on the brink of a repeat championship. “There was no turning point in the game,” voiced a grim Milt Schmidt, the Bruins coach. “We were never in it.”¹⁵

Simmons and Plante hooked up in another display of goaltending acumen in game four, and this time Plante was the only one to allow the puck to pass the goal line. Simmons required no more, and thanks to an empty-net goal, the Bruins were able to make the trip back to Montreal for game five.

Just like the year before, a sense of anticipation surrounded the fifth game as the city of Montreal once again readied itself for a big celebration. “If Jacques Plante is as hot as he has been so far in holding Bruins to four goals in four games they will prevail,” wrote the Montreal Star the morning of the game.¹⁶

That night’s game, held before a record Montreal Forum crowd of 15,286, was a chippy affair. Boston, facing elimination, came out in attack mode. As the first period concluded in a Montreal 1–0 lead, tempers boiled over into an on-ice brawl.

Fourteen seconds into the second period, Montreal upped the lead to 2–0, thanks to a Dickie Moore tally. Fifteen minutes later, Boom Boom Geoffrion made the score 3–0, and the celebration began in earnest as the Canadiens cruised to a 5–1 win.

As Canadiens captain Rocket Richard skated towards centre ice to accept the Stanley Cup before delirious supporters, there were accolades all around. In Montreal, Jacques Plante, who had permitted only five goals in the five-game final, was hailed as a goaltending great. Over the course of the two Stanley Cup seasons, Jacques had stopped 2,924 shots, or 92.3 per cent of all shots directed his way.

Beyond Montreal, acclaim for Plante’s achievements was decidedly muted, as the Toronto Star’s Milt Dunnell pointed out. “Jake has better luck when he’s on his own – when he doesn’t have to depend on the judgment of others. There’s no ballot for the Vezina trophy, the Oscar of the goaltending trade. Jake has that and the grand that goes with it. There’s no ballot for the Stanley Cup either. Jake has been good for the Habs and they’ve been good for him. Beyond the fact that they discouraged him from wearing his hand-knit toque, the Habs have permitted Plante to play pretty much as he wished – as long as he kept the puck from his net. That’s a privilege he wouldn’t have enjoyed on many clubs. He’d have been warned, fined, or benched for taking off on solo flights during a game. There’s an old belief that a goalie’s place is in the net. Jacques may even change that tradition. In years to come, coaches may demand a goalie with legs – one who can help the defense by rounding up stray pucks….”

“It will be called the Plante system of goaling. But first, someone will have to discover Jacques. He’s still a secret outside Montreal.”¹⁷