Some would argue, and quite successfully, that Jacques Plante was the greatest goaltender to ever play the game of hockey. Regardless, Plante was the recipient of every major award available to a goalie, an innovator that changed the game and will forever be a Hockey Hall of Fame legend.

Jacques Plante – Behind the Mask was written by Raymond Plante in 2001 and is a descriptive, detailed and exciting chronology of the life of Jacques Plante. The book, originally written in French is translated to 226 pages of English by Darcy Dunton.

Who was Jacques Plante? Plante played professional hockey from 1952 to 1974. He is best known as the goaltender who led the Montreal Canadiens to five straight Stanley Cups in the 1950’s and the man who was the first netminder to wear a mask. Over his NHL career, Jacques also played for the New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins, as well as a season with the Edmonton Oilers of the World Hockey Association.

Behind the Mask describes how Plante desired from a young age to be not just an NHL goaltender but the goaltender for the mighty Montreal Canadiens. His boyhood hero was the great Georges Vezina. As described in the book, goalie was the only position for Jacques:

(From page 14) When ice time was taken up by the school hockey team, Jacques would stand against the boards, his tuque pulled well down on his forehead and his goaltending equipment slung over his shoulder. Jacques Plante was never able to play any other position in hockey because his asthma prevented him from skating for any length of time.

The book not only describes Plante’s on-ice heroics but his interesting life away from the arena. Jacques struggled throughout his life with asthma, several times pushing his health dangerously close to the edge. It spells out to the hockey world his struggle with loneliness after being traded to the Rangers that ultimately led to an early retirement. On a lighter note, it describes his love of knitting, reading and writing as well as playing alternate sports such as baseball and lacrosse.

Put to the forefront throughout the book was Plante’s role as an innovator in the National Hockey League. Jacques was the first goaltender to leave the net in pursuit of the puck and, of course, he was the first to don the mask. For most of his life, he was also responsible for the development of the goalie mask as it evolved basically into what is found in arenas throughout the world today.

Jacques succumbed to stomach cancer early in 1986 after a short battle at his retirement home in Switzerland. Anatoly Tarasov, coach of a Russian contingent that travelled to Canada to play the Montreal Junior Canadiens in 1965, says it all about Jacques (Plante was obviously not a junior in 1965 but was allowed to play in the game):

(From page 150) "You want me to talk about Jacques Plante? We only knew him by name. Tonight, not only did we meet him, we felt his presence. I'd like to ask you to thank him - to say thank you to Jacques Plante on behalf of all of us. I am speechless when I see him play. I hope I can say that the Russian team deserved to meet such a goaltender. It was a great honour for us to play against him."