A few quotes from the Jacques Plante book.
"“It was Jacques Plante, the famous ‘pucktamer,’ the best Canadian goaltender of all time,” Tretiak recalled in his memoirs."
"Ed Johnston of the Boston Bruins, and now the third goaltender for Team Canada, claimed that Plante’s influence on Tretiak’s style was easily detectable. “You can see Jacques’ scientific approach in the way Tretiak plays. He doesn’t go down on the angles. And he turns with the play when an attacker cuts in front of the net, just the way Jacques does.”
Asked by the media to comment on his unofficial student’s play, Plante maintained, “I didn’t really teach him that much, just a little about playing the angles and positioning himself in the net. Tretiak has to learn to use his stick a little more and how to control the puck with it in the goal area.”"
"In studying and analyzing the pros, Plante found one goalie who stood out the most, a goalie whom he sought to emulate more than the others: Terry Sawchuk of the Detroit Red Wings.
Almost a year younger than Plante, Sawchuk had been called up to the NHL in the 1949–50 season, during Plante’s first year with the Royals, but really began to make his mark the following season. Rare has been the player in the history of the game who has made such an immediate impact. Sawchuk had captured the Calder Trophy as the league’s rookie of the year and was named to the first all-star team in 1951. He repeated the first all-star selection each of the following two seasons, as well as copping a pair of Vezina trophies as the leader in goals-against average. But for most people, it was his performance in the 1952 playoffs that forever cemented his reputation as the best goaltender of his day. In eight games, Sawchuk went undefeated, helping the Red Wings win the Stanley Cup with two consecutive sweeps over the Toronto Maple Leafs in the semifinals and then the Canadiens in the finals. Sporting four shutouts, he surrendered only five goals in the other four games, setting a still standing post-season record goals-against average of .63.
Plante watched Sawchuk intently. If Plante aspired to be the best goaltender, then it only made sense for him to study the best. Two aspects of Sawchuk’s game struck Plante. The first was how he would assiduously play the angles when confronting the shooters, a characteristic born of one of Sawchuk’s greatest strengths: his fearlessness between the pipes. The second was Sawchuk’s stance. Standing just an inch short of six feet, Sawchuk managed to crouch incredibly low into his net. By squatting down as much as possible, he was able to keep his sightlines open when looking for oncoming pucks.
“I couldn’t figure out how he was able to block so many screened shots,” Plante told the Hockey News a couple of years later. “Then … I suddenly found out. Sawchuk puts the back edge of his stick flat on the ice, handle and all, blade up. He crouches, watching for the shot to come out of a scramble or from the point. You’d be surprised how many shots are stopped by that stick. You don’t have only the blade, which might be turned in and a goal scored on a hard shot, but the full length of the stick. Besides, the goalie is in position to grab a higher shot faster.”"
"That summer, Jacques wrote a letter to the Canadiens management revealing to them for the first time his greatest secret and asking them to pay for an operation to fix his wrist. A bold Plante promised them that, if they would cover the cost of the operation, he was sure he would be “as good as any goalie in the NHL, not even barring Terry Sawchuk.”"
"Plante finished the regular season seven wins behind the league-leading Glenn Hall, and once again had the fewest losses in the league. His nine shutouts were twice as much as the next leading goaltender’s and five more than Hall’s. Plante’s goals-against average of 2.02 was the league’s best.
And yet Glenn Hall, who finished behind Plante in every statistical category except wins, wrestled the first-team all-star honours from him, and Plante had to settle for being the goalie on the second all-star team."
The following is a real interest quip about net size.
"“The goals aren’t the same size in all the rinks.”
“You’re nuts. They’re all the same everywhere – the official goal nets,” insisted Reardon.
Plante nonchalantly shrugged. “The crossbars at the top are two inches lower in New York, Boston, and Chicago. I know because they hit my back lower there than in the Forum, Toronto, or in Detroit – two inches lower.”
The reporters’ jaws collectively hit the floor. Plante was claiming that there had been a violation in the rules that had resulted in a competitive edge, a violation that had gone undetected by the league.
“Even if you’re right,” protested an incredulous Reardon, “isn’t it the same for all of you goalies playing the circuit?”
“No, it isn’t the same for everybody!” responded Plante. “Glenn Hall plays 35 games at home in Chicago with less goal to protect than I have to protect for 35 games at the Forum in Montreal. We’re both in a race for the Vezina Trophy and that gives him an edge. Do you call it fair?”"
