The goalie mask as we know it today comes in many shapes and designs. It is also advanced when it comes to protecting the goalie from pucks that frequently break the radar gun. However, it wasn't always that way. Like its football cousins, hockey wasn't too big on head protection. In fact, many of the players in the early days only wore stocking caps on some days, since the game was still an outdoor sport. Ironically, it was an injury by one Jacques Plante (above) that gave birth to the goalie mask. Rather primitive in design, it protected most of the face, with holes for the eyes and mouth. If one can go far as to make a movie link, you could say that it also inspired the Jason movie series. Now, granted, the franchise wore out its welcome after, oh, the fourth installment, but it did what a lot of us would like to do today: thin out the stupid population, though not necessarily in the manner that Jason did it.
Back to the mask, Plante had a pretty good career, backstopping the Canadiens to a few Stanley Cups in his tenure. However, being the first goalie to wear a mask in a regular season game is the one thing that people will remember him for the most.
More Plante facts, courtesy of Wikipedia:
Plante was one of the first goaltenders to skate behind the net to stop the puck. He also was one of the first to raise his arm on an icing call to let his defencemen know what was happening. He perfected a stand-up, positional style, cutting down the angles; he became one of the first goaltenders to write a how-to book about the position. He was a pioneer of stickhandling the puck; before that time, goaltenders passively stood in the net and simply deflected pucks to defencemen or backchecking forwards.
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