 The Mask |  Marc Andre Fleury Goalie Mask |  James Reimer Goalie Mask |  Brent Johnson Goalie Mask |  Henrik Lundqvist Goalie Mask |  Vladislav Tretyak 1970's |  Jacques Plante Mask |
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 The Mask |
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The MASK
The Story of the Hockey Mask
By Stephen Sollami
Mask Evolution
The hockey mask has evolved from a shameful accessory to a blank canvas of expression
The Mask: Jim Craig 1980
MIRACLE ON ICE: JIM CRAIG
The 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY became one of the most memorable Olympics in recent history. The Olympics featured all of the usual events but in 1980, hockey stole the show as the most exciting and memorable sport. Entering the games in 1980, the Soviet Union were the heavy favorites to win the gold medal in hockey. The Soviets had taken the gold back home to the USSR in six of the previous seven Olympic games. However, their luck would soon run out as they had to face Team USA in a game that would later be renowned as the “Miracle On Ice.” The game was held in a small arena in Lake Placid and not a single one of the 8,500 seats were empty. The home crowd was extremely excited as they waved American flags and sang patriotic songs throughout the course of the game. The Americans were battling all game and overcame a 3-2 deficit going into the final period to defeat the mighty Soviets en route to the gold medal game. One of the defining moments in the game came with 33 seconds left when one of the Soviet’s star players fired a slap shot and The United States’ goalie Jim Craig blocked the shot to seal the victory for the Americans. Craig played a key role in one of the landmark moments in United States sports history. In the game, Craig stopped 36 of 39 shots from the Soviet team. Craig's composure was evident in the final moments of the game and allowed the underdog U.S. team to protect their one goal lead and eventually win 4-3. Two days later, he again would lead the way to a 4-2 victory over Finland, clinching the gold medal for the Americans. Craig will forever be a legend in USA hockey in one of the most important and memorable games in not just hockey but also all of sports. Craig also wore a face-hugging style mask with an American flag sticker on the side right near his temple, which would become a symbol and icon for this team. The mask Craig wore during the games is on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame to showcase the greatness that was the 1980 United States hockey team. Twenty-one years after Plante was shamed by his peers, the mask became a symbol associated with strength, triumph, overcoming adversity, and United States hockey, forever.
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PART I
Professional hockey first came to the United States in 1917; however, it was not until 1959 when goaltenders began to wear protective masks. From 1917 to 1959, goaltenders would guard the net with their faces completely unprotected while a frozen puck was shot directly at them at up to one hundred miles per hour. Since the introduction of the mask, the original goaltender’s mask has become a symbol of the horror movie industry as Jason Vorhees sported a hockey style mask in the Friday The 13th horror film series. However, before Jason Vorhees, there was a man named Jacques Plante.
Jacques Plante was the first goaltender to create and wear a mask in professional hockey. Plante was a Canadian hockey goalie who played from 1947-1975, although his career may have been a lot shorter if it had not been for his protective mask innovation. He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and won six Stanley Cup championships with the Montreal Canadiens from 1953 to 1963. However, he will forever be known for his role in the moment that changed the game of hockey.
On November 1, 1959 in a game between the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Rangers, Plante was struck in the face with a slap shot from Andy Bathgate. Stan Fischler, a member of the media who was covering the contest for The Hockey News and The New York Journal-American, vividly remembers the play:
"A Montreal attack was blunted and the Rangers counterattacked. Andy Bathgate, the Rangers' hard shooting forward, got the puck in the Canadiens' zone. Andy had been notorious among NHL goalies for his slap shot, but this time Bathgate went to his backhand, using a screen. Like Rocket Richard, who was playing for the Canadiens, Bathgate had a menacing backhander and this one caught Plante square in the mug.
"I watched Plante crumble to the ice in a pool of blood. It was obvious that this was serious stuff and the Canadiens' trainer skidded out to the crease," Fischler added. "With a trail of blood behind him, the goalie was escorted to the Montreal dressing room."
PART III
Hockey has always been a game that requires a significant amount of strength and hockey players are stereotypically tough. After Plante began wearing the protective mask regularly, he faced significant criticism from his peers. When he introduced the mask to the game, many players, coaches and fans questioned his dedication and bravery. It is crazy to think that a man who wanted to wear something to protect his face from a frozen puck getting hit at him at high speeds would be considered a coward, but that was the wide opinion of people associated with the game of hockey. However, Plante did not take the accusations personally and had a sense of humor about the whole ordeal. Plante responded by making the analogy of him not wearing a protective mask to someone sky diving without a parachute. Soon thereafter, the face-hugging style of protective masks became the standard professional hockey and the last goaltender to not wear a mask played his final game in 1974. Six years later, the vintage face-hugging style goaltenders mask would transform from a symbol of cowardliness to a symbol of greatness at the 1980 Olympics.
The hockey mask has significantly changed since the early days of the blank white face-hugging hockey mask similar to those worn by Jason Vorhees. Goal tenders’ masks have evolved from blank canvases worn out of shame by Jacques Plantes in 1959 to a works of art worn by goalies across the National Hockey League to express their feelings and affiliations. The masks have evolved into artistic storytelling with colorful and intricate designs that nearly every goaltender dons in the NHL. Goaltender Gerry Cheevers truly began the mask artwork movement in practice in the late 1960s. He had retreated from the ice after being hit in the mask with a shot. Ordered back on the ice, Cheevers filed his protest first, having a trainer draw the representation of 10 stitches on his white mask where the puck struck him moments earlier. After this moment, every time Cheevers took a puck to the mask, he added stitches. Before long, his entire mask was covered with black stitch lines. The protest served as a blatant visual reminder of the damage that could have been done without the use of a mask. When Cheevers started putting the stitches on people took note that the mask wasn't just to protect your face, it was a piece of art.
PART II
The puck opened up a cut from the corner of Plante’s mouth all the way up through his nostril and the pain was unimaginable. Plante then layed down on the trainers table and was stitched up by the team doctor. After a 21-minute delay to clean the blood off the ice and patch up Plante’s face, he returned to the Canadiens' bench. Hall of Fame center Jean Beliveau recalled the players' reaction when Plante spoke to coach Toe Blake.
"Jacques came back to the bench and told Toe, 'I'm ready to go back in but I have to wear my mask,'" Beliveau said. "He (Plante) had worn it in practice but Toe never liked the mask until this incident in New York."
"When he came out with the mask, you could feel and hear the buzz of the crowd," The Canadiens went on to win the game against the Rangers, 3 to 1 mostly in part to the use of the mask. Before the next game, Toe Blake said that Plante was not going to wear the mask, but Plante said to Blake,
“If I don't wear the mask, I'm not playing.”
PART IV
The designs and mask patterns would get more creative as time moved on and they really started to reflect the goaltender’s personality. Former NHL goalie John Hedberg said of the mask design, “It becomes your identity to a certain degree.” Hedberg donned a mask that had a picture of a moose on it and his nickname became “moose” for the rest of his professional hockey career. Many goalies also use images from pop culture to express their favorite movies, TV shows, or characters. In the NHL this season, the pop culture masks include the "Optimus Reim" Transformers mask worn by James Reimer of the Maple Leafs; a Ned Flanders theme for Peter Budaj of the Winnipeg Jets; a "Tombstone" mask for Devan Dubnyk of the Arizona Coyotes which includes Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and Melman the giraffe from the animated "Madagascar" movies; a tribute to Swedish metal band In Flames for Ottawa Senators goalie Robin Lehner; another in a series of "Ghostbuster" masks for Cam Talbot of the Rangers; and a play on "The Lego Movie"' for Frederik Andersen of the Anaheim Ducks that ties perfectly to the goalie's Danish roots. Artist Greg Harrison can be credited with taking the level of artwork on masks to the next level when he began airbrushing the masks with the desired designs. Players loved what Harrison was doing and said that he made the masks into works of art. However, they were works of art ever since Cheevers scribbled those first black stitches on his helmet years earlier.
The hockey mask is often over looked in hockey as it seems totally normal to wear today and we cannot imagine a goaltender not wearing a mask. However, it really was not that long ago when Jacque Plante was ridiculed and called a coward for doing so. The mask has gone through significant transformations since then to evolve from a symbol of weakness to a symbol of triumph and now to a blank canvas where goalies can express themselves through works of art to build an identity among their peers in the National Hockey League.