THE PINNACLE

THERE HASN’T BEEN MUCH that’s taken place in the world of hockey over the past half-century, both on or off the ice, that has escaped the keen attention of Red Fisher. The longest-serving beat writer in the NHL, he has written on the comings and goings of the Montreal Canadiens for the last 50 years.

Now, Red Fisher is able to look back at a career like no other. He considers himself lucky to have covered the Canadiens when they ruled the hockey world, like none before and none since. In his first 25 years on the beat, he was able to write the story of 17 Stanley Cup champions, and the story of the men who won has been at the core of Fisher’s writing. And in his long and illustrious career, no player has fascinated him more than Jacques Plante.

“I started covering the Canadiens in the mid-fifties and you had to be aware of Mr. Plante from minute one,” says Fisher today. “A great player, so confident in his own game, he was his own man. Along with being outspoken, he also had the brightest mind in hockey. I remember being on a weekly panel on the radio with Jacques Plante in the fifties. We had a panel comprised of Jacques Plante, Frank Selke Jr., Danny Gallivan, and myself. I thought it was a pretty darn good panel. Plante week in and week out was the guy who did the most talking on that show, and probably made the most sense. If he had something to say he said it, and it was always interesting.”¹

And rarely was Jacques Plante more interesting and more prominent than in the spring of 1960.

The 1959–60 season had been the most tumultuous season of Plante’s career. He had introduced the mask to widespread scorn and derision, with some of the harshest criticisms coming from his fellow goalies and his own coach. His name was now known in most households, mentioned in the media along with Rocket Richard and Gordie Howe as the game’s star players.

As the season drew to a close, Plante once again was in the spotlight. With five games left in the season and the Canadiens having clinched first place, coach Toe Blake decided that a weary Plante would sit out three of the games, with the reliable Charlie Hodge taking his place.

Throughout the league, the move generated simmering criticism. If Plante didn’t play, he couldn’t give up any more goals, thus helping to ensure another Vezina Trophy. Many came out and accused Plante of trying to back his way into a fifth consecutive Vezina win.

Two nights later, in his last game before his exile, Plante faced off with his closest competitor for the trophy, Chicago’s Glenn Hall. Hall entered the game only one goal behind Plante in the race for the Vezina. After 60 minutes he found himself six behind the “tired” Canadiens net-minder, as Plante turned back every shot from the Hawks in a 5–0 shutout.

After the game Plante didn’t board the train for Boston with the team, instead retreating to the quiet comforts of home. The next night, with Charlie Hodge in goal, the Canadiens blew a 2–0 lead to the Bruins, who emerged with a 3–2 upset win.

Four nights later, the Canadiens were at home for a contest with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and contrary to what had been decided the week before, Plante was back in the nets. The lure of winning an unprecedented fifth consecutive Vezina Trophy had proved irresistible.

Perhaps he should have stuck to the original plan, for the Leafs handed the Canadiens their first home defeat in their last 19 outings, by pasting them 6–2. The six goals surrendered by Plante dropped him into a tie with Glenn Hall in the race for the Vezina, both men having allowed 175 goals throughout the season.

period. With the two games being played almost simultaneously, Plante stood alone in his net eagerly waiting for any word about Hall’s progress in Boston.

Soon afterwards the updated score came in: 4–4. Plante knew that if he could keep the Rangers off the score sheet for the final 10 minutes, the Vezina would once again be his. True enough, with his defence throwing a checking blanket around him, the Rangers were unable to put another goal past him. And then, just as his game was ending, the announcement came in: Black Hawks 5, Bruins 5. As the final buzzer sounded that night in Madison Square Garden, Plante fell to his knees on the ice in celebration.

“In the dressing room he was crying unashamedly,” wrote Red Fisher. “Some of the people with sterner backbones may have regarded Plante’s emotional outburst with sly smirks, but nobody felt the tension as much as Plante did in this rink last night. The important thing, though, is that he didn’t back into the Vezina. He won it because he had the least goals scored on him for the season, the only time a National Hockey League goalie has won five Vezinas in a row. Nobody, not even his severest critics, can take that away from him.”²

And he did it all while wearing a mask.

Jacques Plante had the grand total of four days to savour his accomplishment. On the fourth day, the playoffs would begin as the Canadiens began the push for an unprecedented fifth consecutive Stanley Cup. In a rematch of the memorable semifinal from the year before, the Canadiens would once again face off against the Chicago Black Hawks, with one of the more intriguing subplots being the duel between the two men who had vied for the Vezina.

Both goaltenders were a study in contrasts, according to the Montreal Star. “Montreal’s worried, jumpy, accident prone Jacques Plante … and Glenn Hall, the calm young iron man of hockey who disdains Plante’s innovations such as face-masks and the wandering style and who hasn’t missed a single game since he made the NHL in the 1955– 56 season.”³

But for a moment it looked like the hyped goaltenders’ duel might not even take place. The day before the opening game of the series, Plante was hit on the Adam’s apple by a puck. After spending the night in the hospital, a sore-throated Plante was pronounced fit to play.

“Neither team won any prizes for their display last night,” wrote a disappointed Red Fisher in the aftermath of the first game, a 4–3 win for the Canadiens.⁴ But if the first game of the series turned out to be a disappointing bore, the second game, two nights later, was anything but.

With the Canadiens nursing a 3–2 lead with a little over a minute and a half remaining in the game, the puck found its way onto the blade of the team’s steadiest stick.

“I wanted our team to keep possession and I saw Tom Johnson and the ‘Rocket’ along the side,” Doug Harvey told the assembled reporters after the game. “So I tried to drive the puck hard against the boards. I guess maybe the puck flipped a little and I got my stick caught. So instead of a hard pass, all I got off was a blooper. Billy Hay picked it up and you know the rest.”⁵

The rest included Billy Hay, the league’s rookie of the year, breaking in on Plante, unobstructed, and then placing a deke that ended with the puck tucked in between Plante’s outstretched pads before it reached the back of the net.

The tying goal by Chicago was monumental, and it left the Canadiens shaken. Thanks to Harvey’s rare gaffe, the two teams finished regulation tied. As the players shuffled off the ice, the spectre of overtime hung over a suddenly silent Montreal Forum.

“I’ve never seen Harvey as dejected as he was during the rest leading up to the start of the overtime,” Toe Blake said. “Frankly, I was a little worried he’d go all to pieces in the overtime.”⁶ As some of his teammates, including fellow defenceman Bob Turner, tried to console him, Harvey kept muttering to himself that he owed his teammates a goal.

The Forum patrons sat nervously in their seats as the overtime commenced. After eight minutes of play, Bobby Hull, almost always an unstoppable force when headed towards the opposing goal, single-handedly rushed into the Montreal zone with the puck cradled on his stick. His charge ended with him crashing into the net, leaving three Canadiens as well as Jacques Plante sprawled on the ice.

The loose puck found its way onto the stick of Billy Hay, the man who had tied the game only minutes before. This time he saw an empty net yawning in front of him. Taking his time, Hay shot the puck towards the upper corner, seemingly a sure goal.

But Hay’s slight hesitation had given a fallen Plante enough time to desperately stab at the oncoming puck with his goal stick. Amazingly, the puck struck the outstretched stick and deflected over the net.

Henri Richard gobbled up the puck and headed up ice towards the Chicago goal. He quickly passed it forward to Dickie Moore, who spotted an onrushing Doug Harvey. Moore left the puck for Harvey, as he and Richard headed towards Glenn Hall and the Chicago net.

From just inside the blue line, Harvey shot the puck towards the net. It never made it that far and luckily bounced right back onto his stick. Given a second chance, Harvey’s aim was true, and his 40-foot shot somehow travelled through a maze of legs, and before a screened Hall could react, the puck was resting behind him in the back of the net.

The crowd exploded, his teammates poured off the ice, and in the space of a half-hour Doug Harvey had gone from the goat to the hero, as the Canadiens took a 2–0 series lead over the demoralized and stunned Black Hawks.

When the series headed to Chicago, the Canadiens should have been a comfortable lot. However, Toe Blake was far from content; he was, in fact, on edge. Memories of what had happened a year ago were still fresh. Then, like now, saw the Canadiens up 2–0. The year before, the Black Hawks took both games in Chicago to even the series. Blake was eager to avoid a repeat.

The third game dawned as 20,000 made their way to the sold-out Chicago Stadium. Once again, the Canadiens would find themselves playing in the sport’s harshest and most rowdy venue.

As expected, the Black Hawks came fastest out of the gate, out-shooting the Canadiens 12–10 in a scoreless first period. According to the Montreal Star, “it was Plante who finally emerged from an undistinguished series thus far to play the kind of hockey of which he’s capable. He produced three key saves – one off Eric Nesterenko, another off Elmer Vasko, who streaked in on him from nowhere, and another less dangerous one from Ron Murphy.”⁷

Midway through the second period, Montreal’s Billy Hicke broke the scoreless deadlock. Minutes later Jean-Guy Talbot made the score 2–0, and then a defensive curtain enveloped the desperate Black Hawks, who managed only four third-period shots at Plante.

The Canadiens’ 4–0 victory was devastating in its effectiveness, and disheartening to the sellout home crowd. The final period was a long affair as the fans frequently interrupted the game by throwing firecrackers, cans, paper, and other debris onto the ice.

“Plante saved us in the first period,” an impressed Blake told the Montreal Star, “and he did it by playing like the Plante of old. He looked as if he wanted to eat the puck. He was moving surely, and he was quick. I don’t know what made him return to form overnight, so to speak, and I don’t care. All that worries me is whether or not he can keep it up.”⁸

Blake needn’t have worried for the next game. After another scoreless first period, the Canadiens broke through for two quick goals in the second period, before hanging on in the face of a frantic Chicago onslaught in the third period.

“That’s when Plante produced his finest hockey,” wrote Red Fisher in the Montreal Star. “He was quick and agile … all this while he was harried and bothered by a crowd unhappy by the progress of events. They threw everything in the book from the stands: eggs, firecrackers, paper cups, rubber balls, and even a ladies shoe. The last object, Plante noted quickly, wasn’t the right size for Mrs. Plante, so he hurled the shoe back in the stands.”⁹

Out of time and patience, the Black Hawks took to running down the Canadiens’ masked wanderer. “The first time it happened Plante suffered a one-stitch cut on the top of his head,” reported Red Fisher, “but no further damage was done other than to hold up the contest for ten minutes or so.”¹⁰

As the final buzzer sounded the Canadiens gathered around their goalie, whose play the last two games had spoken louder than any words. He had faced down the Black Hawks twice, shutting them out both times and banishing them to the sidelines.

The Canadiens now prepared for the Stanley Cup finals. It was their record tenth consecutive visit to the finals as they sought an unprecedented fifth straight Stanley Cup championship. It would be Jacques Plante’s eighth straight appearance in the finals, a record that has yet to see another goalie come within three years of equalling.

As was the case the year before, the Canadiens matched up in the finals against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Despite an extended layoff, the Canadiens wasted little time in putting the underdog Leafs on the defensive. The opening game of the finals saw the Canadiens jump out to a quick 3–0 lead against the overwhelmed Leafs. It wasn’t until five minutes into the second period that Plante finally allowed a puck to reach the back of his net, snapping his playoff shutout streak at 150 minutes and 3 seconds. Another Leafs tally near the end of the second period added a glimmer of excitement to what had been a hopelessly dull game, but a goal by Henri Richard, who had already recorded three assists on the game, a minute and a half into the third, ended the scoring as the Canadiens prevailed 4–2.

The second game, played two nights later, followed a similar script, with the Canadiens jumping to an early lead 90 seconds in on a goal scored by Dickie Moore. Assisting were Henri Richard, for his fifth point of the series, and the Rocket. Jean Béliveau made it 2–0 mere minutes later, before the Leafs responded with a goal near the end of the first period to make it 2–1.

For the final two periods the Canadiens nursed their one-goal lead as an impenetrable Plante shut the door the rest of the way. Sitting in the crowd, carefully watching the game, was his old adversary Terry Sawchuk. After choosing Plante as the game’s first star, Sawchuk commented to the media that “Plante was the difference.”¹¹

As the series switched to Maple Leaf Gardens for the pivotal third game, it appeared that Plante, as he had in the series before, was starting to take control of the finals as well. The game left little doubt to the series’ outcome, as the Canadiens skated off with a convincing 5–2 win.

“Playing those Canadiens is like sitting on a horse with a noose around your neck,” declared Boston Bruins coach Milt Schmidt. “The minute the horse gets hungry and moves for a bite of grass you’ve had it. Make one mistake against the Habs and you’re dead.”¹²

With the Canadiens now in control and the series’ conclusion no longer in doubt, attention shifted to the Rocket, who had scored the final goal of the night. In adding to his own all-time record, the Rocket had scored the eighty-second playoff goal of his illustrious career. When cornered after the game and asked why he had kept the puck, a sly Rocket replied, “Just in case.”¹³

As the Leafs faced elimination, they were left to ponder what had gone wrong against the dominant Canadiens. They found the main reason for their predicament standing in front of the Montreal net. “There’s no doubt about it,” Punch Imlach confessed to reporters. “Plante is murdering us. He’s making the key saves.” Added legendary Leaf and assistant coach King Clancy, “He’s the best.”¹⁴

For Plante, who had struggled through a second half of the season where the discussion focused on his mask and his rising goals-against, it was the sweetest of vindications. As for why his play had suddenly returned to the level of past years, Plante had no explanation.

“I was scared going in to the Chicago series,” he revealed to the media. “I knew I wasn’t playing well and that the Black Hawks were climbing all the time. But since the third game of the Chicago series, it all came back. I started making the right moves. I don’t know what I’m doing differently. All I know is that I’m not being beaten by easy shots and it makes me feel good all over.”¹⁵

“This is such an easy team to play for,” Jacques continued, “and it is also such a tough team to play goal for, eh? When the team wins, people say Plante has a cinch, with defense guys like Harvey and Johnson in front of him. I’ve got to make saves, too, you know. Ah, but it’s nice to have shooters like Jean and Dickie and Pocket Rocket and all the others on your side.”¹⁶

Any thoughts that the Canadiens might let up were easily doused in a fourth game that was a display of utter hockey domination, the likes of which arguably have never been seen since. Jean Béliveau and Doug Harvey scored the opening two goals less than 30 seconds apart in the first period, with Henri Richard adding a third in the middle period, before Béliveau climaxed the scoring in the third period. The Canadiens’ 4–0 Cup-clinching win was yet another shutout for Plante, his third of the playoffs.

As the final buzzer sounded, Plante took the mask off his face and held it high in the air for all to see. He had proved all the detractors and doubters wrong. Not only had he won another Vezina Trophy while wearing a mask, he had now captured a Stanley Cup with one of the most stellar goaltending performances of all time, all the while wearing a mask.

The Stanley Cup was wheeled to centre ice at Maple Leaf Gardens, and NHL president Clarence Campbell made his presentation, during which Maurice Richard made his way over and hugged the Cup. Soon Jacques Plante skated over, and there stood the Rocket and Jake the Snake. After the Rocket spoke to the remnants of that evening’s crowd, he and Plante locked arms, and with the Cup between them posed for the assembled photographers.

The Canadiens’ supremacy that spring was complete. They had captured their fifth consecutive Stanley Cup in the minimum eight games. They had scored the first goal in each of the eight games. They had never trailed on the scoreboard in any of the eight games. Henri Richard and Bernie Geoffrion led all playoff scorers with 12 points each, while Plante was at his stingiest, allowing only 11 pucks to cross his goal line in the eight playoff games.

In the days that followed, the accolades usually reserved for the greatest of all champions poured in when describing the Canadiens.

Even Conn Smythe, a man who rarely gave out any compliments when discussing the opposition, was forced to admit that his beloved Leafs “had lost to the greatest team of all time.”¹⁷ Such a sentiment no doubt warmed the heart of Smythe’s long-time rival, Frank Selke.

As the Canadiens gathered for their team photograph the next day accompanied by the Stanley Cup, Jacques Plante stood at the pinnacle of his sport. He had claimed an unprecedented five straight Vezina trophies and six Stanley Cups all by the age of 31. As the years have gone by, the magnitude of his achievement and his contribution to that greatest of all teams has not diminished, especially in the eyes of his former teammates.

“When it came to the team that won five straight Stanley Cups, we had so much talent we never worried,” remembered Hall of Fame defenceman Tom Johnson. “We never thought we’d lose. There was a real confidence factor on that team, plus we got the great goaltending from Plante. You knew if you got a goal, and if you ever got two goals, forget about it, you had a win with Jacques Plante in goal. We never even thought of losing.”¹⁸

“Jacques Plante is my guy when you ask about a key player on that team,” asserted defenceman Bob Turner to Habs historian Dick Irvin Jr. “As far as I’m concerned he’s the best goalie of all-time. People talk about Sawchuk or Dryden or Fuhr and I just laugh. I don’t care. Plante was the best.”¹⁹

But perhaps the supreme testament to Plante’s role and importance on that greatest of all teams came in a conversation a few years later, between two men who had seen it all first-hand. “I once asked Toe Blake who was the best goalie he ever saw,” remembers Red Fisher today. “He told me that in the five years that the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup, Jacques Plante was the greatest goaltender he ever saw. For Toe to say that is really something. You have to have known Toe Blake. He threw around compliments like anchors. I was more than a little surprised, so I said to Toe that I didn’t think you liked the son of a bitch, and Toe said to me that he was the best, what do you want me to tell you.” And Red himself? “In my view he was the biggest reason the Canadiens won the Cup for five consecutive years. The 1959–60 team was the best ever and that was because of Jacques Plante.”²⁰

Fisher has also said that Plante “made goaltending an art rather than a profession. He set an entirely new standard of a way to play goal. He was a little more reliable all the time and he did more for the game of hockey than all the other goaltenders put together. He always ended up being a winner. Like him or not he was a winner.”²¹