TSN – that’s Canada’s ESPN, for the non-hosers – is running a poll of its readership right now to determine the best goalie mask in the league today. Before getting to the contenders, however, TSN tips its hat to the man recognized as the originator of the modern goalie mask, Mr. Jacques Plante. Pictured above, Jacques was no lame. But he wasn’t a fool, either – he knew that pucks could kick the shit out of his face. Eventually, one did – as evidenced by the blood in the picture, taken almost fifty years ago today – and so the prototype mask he had developed made its NHL debut. Here’s the story, from TSN:

On Nov. 1, 1959, the goaltending position in the National Hockey League was forever changed when Montreal’s Jacques Plante debuted the first goalie mask in a regular season game.

The story of Plante’s mask really began prior to the debut game. Plante developed and tested a plastic mask in practice and in preseason games, and wanted to use it in regular-season matches. Alas, Canadiens head coach Toe Blake prohibited him from wearing it for fear that it would limit his vision of the play. On Nov. 1, in a game against the New York Rangers, Plante was hit in the face by a shot from Andy Bathgate and required seven stitches to close cuts to his nose and lip. There was a 20-minute delay of game while the repairs took place and Plante refused to return to the ice unless he could wear his mask to protect the injuries.

Not having a back-up goalie, Blake was forced to either agree or forfeit the game – and allowed Plante to wear his white mask. Plante finished the game with 27 saves and the Canadiens beat the Rangers 3-1.

Plante continued to wear the mask for the rest of the season, and played very well while doing it. His success in goal combined with the enhanced safety he enjoyed soon inspired other goalies to adopt masks as well.

Plante’s invention has come a hell of a long way since in the past fifty years. As fucking awful (!!!) as the guitar on this video is, press mute and check out this slideshow:

For more old-timeyness, here’s a pretty thorough compendium of classic goalie masks, past and present. And Hockeymasks.com maintains what’s essentially an online museum of masks, a must-see.

But back to the current state of the art, and TSN’s poll. Lots of flash on every mask here, but check out Senators backup Brian Elliott’s mask – he’s got TMNT’s Casey Jones splashed all over his piece, just like on his last one.

And lookit Jason Labarbera’s new Metallica mask for the Coyotes.

Most are too busy for my taste. (Ayo Marty Brodeur, why’d you ditch the classic for this tired design?) But I can’t help kinda liking Nabokov’s skeleton ghoul for the Sharks, Scott Clemmensen’s big panther for Florida, and Mike Smith’s pirate ship mask complete with treasure chest for Tampa Bay. Remember, Smith’s one of the dudes who had an ad for “Saw V” on his mask last year, because Tampa Bay co-owner Oren Kroules’ company produced it. Whatever though. Nowadays, you can get damn near anything on a mask, even Sarah Palin. But my personal favorite out of all the custom jobs that I’ve seen so far has to be this Bloom County bootleg:

Not sure how Berkeley Breathed would feel about it, but I like it. Somebody touch it up in Sabres blue & gold and ship it to Ryan Miller for tonight’s game in Jersey.

Already I can tell that I’m gonna have to author a sequel to this post, since I’m already 500-some words in and I haven’t even really scratched the surface of the art of goalie masks. Before I close up this initial exploration, here’s a link to The Hockey News‘ Top 10 Scary Goalie Masks, since we’re close to Halloween. And in that vein, I’ll end with Gilles Gratton’s classic animal mask. Hit me with gems I’ve missed – there are many – in the comments.

- Caps