As crazy as some of these comments are, the thing that strikes me as truly crazy was the fact that one of the earliest instances of pro goalies wearing masks in-game (which I heard about at the time) was Jacques Plante in 1959, AFTER he had already been struck in the face and gotten injured by it. So that he could go back in to play. Any goalies in the thread, how safe would you feel facing vulcanized rubber at high speeds with an unprotected face/ head??
Ive noticed a few anecdotes from that era in my reading that the situation with goalies and face protection across all of hockey wasnt quite as crazy as it sounded. Pretty sure junior goalies were consistently wearing baseball catchers masks up to teenage years before Plante introduced it to the NHL, and there might have been a few minor pros doing it as well. It was mostly an "NHL goalies are marketing stars, so we cant have them covering their faces" sort of thing.
I know it sounds nuts, but it wasnt really that insane to play maskless before the curved stick revolution happened with Bobby Hull turning flat bladed sticks into banana blades. If you watch footage from the flat-bladed stick era of say, Howe unleashing the scariest shot in the league from 50 feet straight through the goalie, its still only around the 3/4 mark to the top corner.
The really insane part imo was the era that came after masks arrived 1960-1980 where the players got significantly bigger and stronger, their shot power increased to match, the curves on sticks were literally 1 to 2" deep, (absolute max now is 1/2" I think?), so the resulting shots had the power and movement of an MLB closer throwing curveballs and sliders. You couldnt just track that kind of shot straight into a glove the way you can now, with all that movement. And to compensate for those changes, all the goalies gained was a molded fibreglass shield on their face that did nothing to deflect the blow from a puckstrike.
There was a point in the 1970 finals where the Espo line did a set play with a slapshot and tip to the top corner that hit Plante directly on the mask so hard he was knocked out cold. Standing over him the Bruins players are like "Oh ****, is he dead?
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