Goaltending's Innovators

Prior to the arrival of Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek, and Martin Brodeur, the debate about the greatest goalie in the history of hockey usually revolved around Terry Sawchuk, Glenn Hall and Jacques Plante.

Most people sided with Sawchuk, with his career record 447 wins and once thought untouchable record of 103 shutouts. Roy and others modern contemporaries have bettered the wins mark, while Brodeur will likely catch Sawchuk's SO mark in the next couple of seasons.

For whatever reason I always chose Plante as the best, over Sawchuk and all the others. I believe its because he was such a great innovator. He really became one of hockey's most important players ever by influencing the game. Most notable, of course, was his popularizing of the goalie mask. But he was also popularized leaving the net to play the puck, challenging shooters by coming out from the goal line, and signaling icing calls. Only his quirky hobby of knitting failed to catch on as essentials amongst the goaltending fraternity.

In honor of Plante's innovating ways, let's take a look at some other great goaltending innovators:

In 1896 Whitey Merritt was the goalie for the Winnipeg team that challenged for the Stanley Cup. He showed up wearing white cricket pads on his legs. All early goalies wore rudimentary shin pads, but they quickly copied and bettered Merritt's shin protectors.

In 1927 the earliest recorded goalie mask was used. Plante may have popularized the mask in 1959, and Clint Benedict may have been the first NHL goalie to temporarily use a mask in 1930, but in 1927 Elizabeth Graham tended the net wearing a fencing mask. She was the goalie for Queen's University.

Legend has a team from Rat Portage (now known as Kenora), Ontario placing two goalies in the net at the same time. The team played with one less skater. The move didn't work though, perhaps because both goalies were constantly bumping into each other.