THE BETRAYAL

HUGH TOWNSEND WAS LIVING a uniquely Canadian dream.

For as long as he could remember, Hugh’s life had revolved around the sporting scene in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, and more particularly, its largest town, New Glasgow. New Glasgow is located on the north shore of the province, about 165 kilometres northeast of Halifax.

As the bureau chief for Pictou County at the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, then the biggest daily in the Maritimes, Hugh was able not only to maintain strong ties with his home community but also to become a voice of its people.

Hugh wore a variety of other hats connecting him to the greater sporting world. In addition to writing for the Chronicle-Herald, he was the Maritime correspondent for the Hockey News, covering all aspects of the Maritime hockey scene. Possessing a keen eye for local hockey talent also helped him in his other job as the regional scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

His connections also led to some highly publicized visits in Pictou County as spring turned to summer in 1963. In his role as scout, in May Hugh had been able to procure a promotional visit from Maple Leafs superstar Frank Mahovlich, fresh off a second consecutive Stanley Cup. There were few names bigger in the hockey world at that time than the man known as “the Big M.” The visit had been a smashing success, with only a note of dissent as Stellarton, the town situated next to New Glasgow, expressed mild disappointment that Mahovlich wasn’t able to visit them as well because of his tight schedule.

In an effort to placate the Stellartonians, Hugh quickly arranged for Kent Douglas, another member of the Stanley Cup champions who had also won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, to come and visit them two weeks later.

A week or so later, the Trenton Legion approached Hugh about bringing in another Maple Leaf to visit the area. After plans to bring Carl Brewer fell through, the Legion asked Hugh if a player from another team could make the promotional visit.

And that’s how Jacques Plante came to visit Pictou County on the first weekend of June 1963. To say that the first Saturday of June was a hectic one for the visiting Plante would be an understatement. Townsend picked him up at the Halifax airport mid-morning and drove him an hour and a half to begin his day in Stellarton, at the local Sobey’s grocery store, sponsors of his visit, who had him draw a ticket for a $50 food order. Then he quickly made his way to Trenton, where he attended a youth track and field meet and handed out the winning medals.

Through the years, one of the constants on the Stellarton sporting scene had been a woman by the name of Mildred Dorrington. Mildred attended all types of events, photographing the participants and teams, all for the benefit of her bedridden husband, Aubrey, a noted sporting fan. In an act of kindness and generosity, Hugh arranged for the famed Plante to pay a surprise visit to their home, which became a treasured family memory.

In the early evening Plante was the guest of honour at a local golf club, and was then paraded through the streets of New Glasgow in Townsend’s convertible. The parade eventually wound its way to the New Glasgow Stadium as day turned to dusk. There, Plante was a guest at a fundraising event being held by the New Glasgow Rangers of the Maritime Senior Hockey League. Speaking briefly to the hundreds present, he enjoyed a rapturous reception.

Soon it was time for Plante to be driven back to the airport. It had been a whirlwind 10 hours for him. Like Mahovlich and Douglas before him, Plante went home with a beautiful painting of a Pictou County scene done by a prominent local artist – and a carton full of Nova Scotia lobsters.

Being an enterprising reporter, Townsend had questioned Plante on their trips from and to the airport about the status of the Canadiens, who’d been bounced from the playoffs for a third consecutive season. Rumours of an impending shuffle swirled around the Canadiens. The only things that anybody knew for certain were Toe Blake’s return and that there would be some changes on the roster.

“Montreal Canadien goaltender Jacques Plante said here Saturday that he does not expect a major shakeup in the Canadiens roster ‘as Montreal writers are saying will take place,’” wrote Townsend in that Monday’s Chronicle-Herald. “Taking a break from a busy schedule on his Pictou County visit, Plante said he does not expect any big names on the club to be traded. He said that Bernie ‘Boom Boom’ Geoffrion ‘definitely will be back with us next season. There isn’t a team in the league that would give us in return what Bernie is worth to us.’”¹

On the day after his Nova Scotia sojourn, Plante had an appointment with Frank Selke at the Forum. Selke asked Plante if he could represent the team at a league meeting taking place two days hence regarding the players’ pension fund. Plante readily accepted. Along with captain Jean Béliveau and Bernie Geoffrion, Plante was now one of the Canadiens who enjoyed the longest tenure with the club. At age 34, he was looking forward to taking more of a mentoring role with the team.

Two days later, on the morning of the meeting, he found himself roaming the golf course with teammate Jean Gauthier by his side. Gauthier was a nervous wreck that Tuesday morning. A rookie the year before, he loved being a Montreal Canadien, but feared that a late-season dip in his play could cost him his spot.

“I’m afraid I’m going to be traded,” he confided to his team’s goaltender in the clubhouse locker room. “You’re going to the meeting today. Maybe if you said a word to the management …”²

Jacques, looking to reassure his younger teammate, promised to help in any way he could.

Plante was driving to the meeting in downtown Montreal, enjoying the vocal strains of Egyptian-Italian songstress Dalida, when a news bulletin came on. “We interrupt the program to bring you a sports bulletin. One of the most spectacular trades in National Hockey League history has just been announced by the Montreal Canadiens. A seven-player trade with the New York Rangers revolving around their 10-season goaling star, Jacques Plante.”

A shocked Plante immediately pulled over to the curb as he turned the radio up. “Plante goes to New York together with Don Marshall and Phil Goyette in exchange for goalie Gump Worsley, Dave Balon, Léon Rochefort, and Len Ronson, a minor leaguer …”

The voice trailed off as unadulterated shock consumed Plante. He sat motionless, unable to move. Later on, he couldn’t remember how long he had sat in that car.

Since he had first learned to skate, Plante had dreamed of being a Montreal Canadien. Now, with a lifetime spent as a goalie, he still wanted nothing but to be a Montreal Canadien. He had never wanted to play elsewhere for anybody else. They had discovered him, nurtured him, moulded him, and guided him into the professional he was today. And now they had discarded him, traded him away like a piece of meat, after all he had brought them.

Phil Goyette, part of the trade, tells what it feels like to be traded. “It’s always a shock, especially when you’re with an organization for so many years like I was and like he was. I was from Montreal – I was established here, had a home, children, and school and so on.”³

It was a different world back then. Despite establishing himself as the game’s pre-eminent goaltender, Plante had acquired no more professional rights than he had the moment he signed his first contract with the Canadiens. A decade of starring for the team had brought him no say in the course of his career.

Nobody had considered what this meant to him personally. His family, his business interests, his property interests were all firmly established in Quebec. Now, without any question or consideration, he was expected to uproot himself to what was not only a new city but an English-speaking city, in a new country.

At that moment, sitting in his car, he had an immediate decision to make: should he still attend the pension meeting? Finally, he yanked the car into gear. He would still go to the meeting, but not as a Montreal Canadien. For the first time, he would appear as a New York Ranger.

Jacques Plante was not the only one shocked by the trade. Many in the media had a hard time swallowing the deal, as did some in the hockey world. Punch Imlach, the coach and general manager of the Stanley Cup champion Toronto Maple Leafs, spoke for many when he commented, “I still rate Plante the finest goalie in hockey, certainly far superior to Gump Worsley.”⁴

Even Frank Selke, the Canadiens managing director, fanned the flames when he was quoted a few days after the trade as saying that “Worsley never saw the day he could play like Plante when Jacques was at his best.” However, Selke revealed the reasoning behind what was viewed by many as a most puzzling transaction. “We got rid of Plante because we couldn’t depend on him anymore. Toe Blake couldn’t have taken much more without punching him on the nose. He’s the best goalie I’ve ever had and close to the best I’ve ever seen. But that doesn’t say he can run the hockey club.”⁵

“Jacques Plante is an extrovert who can’t put his personal interests aside for the benefit of the team,” continued Selke. “In the circumstances, no matter how brilliant a goaltender he may be, it was better that he left.”⁶

A day later in his column in the Montreal Star, Red Fisher recalled a brief discussion between himself, Blake, and Canadiens executive Sam Pollock that took place shortly after Montreal had been eliminated from the playoffs.

The three of us stood in the lobby of a downtown hotel, each a little fearful of saying the first word. After all, what do you say to a coach after his employees have been embarrassed in front of an entire country?

Finally Blake spoke. “I’ve had it, I’m through.”

Pollock shook his head sadly: “It’s natural to feel that way after losing 5–0.”

“Lookit,” hissed Blake, “how would you like it, Sammy, to have a goalie who doesn’t know when he’s gonna play. How would you like to go from city to city and never be sure you’ll have a goalie on the ice? As far as I’m concerned, I can’t take it anymore.”⁷

“Plante was the scapegoat for the Canadiens fall to third place,” wrote Fisher in the days following the trade. “The front office wanted to make an example of a big player to wake up the rest.”⁸

The Canadiens brass believed that they had acted in the best interests of the organization. To them, Plante had become more trouble than he was worth. That the team wasn’t winning Stanley Cups any more, and an unstated worry that Plante was starting to physically break down, influenced the decision.

Yet it was the strain of the relationship between Toe Blake and Plante that was the true spur for the trade.

“Blake thought he was a hypochondriac and that he dreamed up things,” journalist Frank Orr remembers today. “Blake was a very macho man, a man of his time, and expected all of his players to be the same. He would get mad when guys got hurt and he thought they were loitering when they didn’t come back. He would rail on about Plante. The Canadiens back then wouldn’t tolerate injuries. It was a pretty cruel system. If you got hurt a second time you were gone. When you slipped a little, that was it.”⁹

“Jacques’ trade wasn’t much of a surprise, because of his character,” Dickie Moore says. “He was bigger than the team, and nobody’s ever bigger than the team. Ultimately, it’s a team game.”¹⁰

“It might have been a surprise when he was traded but nobody complained,” reflects Henri Richard.¹¹

“I wasn’t surprised when he was traded,” says Cesare Maniago. “When you are as highly regarded as Montreal was during that time and you don’t win the Stanley Cup, then there’s going to be the odd change made. In that season, we had a strong team, but Toronto beat us out. There was such a strong following in Montreal. If you lost one game that was tough enough, but if you lost two in a row, then don’t even show your face around town because the people would be asking you all kinds of questions.”¹²

“They treated me like a traitor when all I’d done was give them my life and the best I had,” Plante confided to Frank Orr years after the deal.

“He solely blamed Blake for the deal,” says Orr today, “yet he refused to say an unkind word about Toe. You could tell that he really respected him. His story was a classic French-Canadian story, and then, as Plante put it, they shit on him and all because Blake wouldn’t indulge him.”¹³

What took place that warm June day in Montreal would never leave Plante. He would go on to star for other teams, but on that day he had his heart broken by his first and truest love.