Goalie mask
Encyclopedia
Mask
A mask is an article normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance or entertainment. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes...
worn by ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
, inline hockey
Inline hockey
Inline hockey, often referred to as roller hockey in the United States, is a sport similar to ice hockey but played with inline skates. Like its parent sport, skaters on two teams use hockey sticks to direct a disk-shaped puck into the opponent's goal; however, various details of the game, such as...
, and field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
goaltender
Goaltender
In ice hockey, the goaltender is the player who defends his team's goal net by stopping shots of the puck from entering his team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring...
s to protect the head
Human head
In human anatomy, the head is the upper portion of the human body. It supports the face and is maintained by the skull, which itself encloses the brain.-Cultural importance:...
from injury
Injury
-By cause:*Traumatic injury, a body wound or shock produced by sudden physical injury, as from violence or accident*Other injuries from external physical causes, such as radiation injury, burn injury or frostbite*Injury from infection...
. Jacques Plante
Jacques Plante
Joseph Jacques Omer Plante was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. During a career lasting from 1947–1975, he was considered to be one of the most important innovators in hockey...
was the first goaltender to create and use a practical mask in 1959. Plante's mask was a piece of fiberglass that was contoured to his face. This mask later evolved into a helmet/cage combination, and single piece full fiberglass mask. Today, the full fiberglass mask is the more popular option because it is safer.
History
Queen's University
Queen's University, , is a public research university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded on 16 October 1841, the university pre-dates the founding of Canada by 26 years. Queen's holds more more than of land throughout Ontario as well as Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England...
netminder Elizabeth Graham, mainly to protect her teeth. In 1930, the first crude leather model of a mask (actually an American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
"nose-guard") was worn by Clint Benedict
Clint Benedict
Clinton Stevenson "Praying Bennie" Benedict was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played for the Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Maroons. He played on four Stanley Cup-winning squads. He was the first goaltender in the National Hockey League to wear a face mask...
to protect his broken nose. After recovering from the injury, he abandoned the mask, never wearing one again in his career. At the 1936 Winter Olympics
1936 Winter Olympics
The 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1936 in the market town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, Germany. Germany also hosted the Summer Olympics the same year in Berlin...
, Teiji Honma
Teiji Honma
was an ice hockey goaltender who represented Japan at the 1936 Winter Olympics, held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany.Honma was 25 years old at the time he represented Japan, as a member of the Manchurian Medical University ice hockey team...
wore a crude mask, similar to the one worn by baseball catchers. The mask was made of leather, and had a wire cage which protected the face, as well as Honma's large circular glasses.
It was not until 1959 that a goaltender wore a mask full-time. On November 1, 1959, in a game between the Montreal Canadiens
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ...
and New York Rangers
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...
of the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
(NHL), Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante
Jacques Plante
Joseph Jacques Omer Plante was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. During a career lasting from 1947–1975, he was considered to be one of the most important innovators in hockey...
was struck in the face by a shot from Andy Bathgate
Andy Bathgate
Andrew James Bathgate is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey centre who played 17 seasons in the National Hockey League for the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins.-Playing career:...
. Plante had previously worn his mask in practice, but coach Toe Blake
Toe Blake
Hector "Toe" Blake, CM was a Canadian ice hockey player and coach in the National Hockey League .-Nickname:His nickname came out of his childhood for his younger sister was unable to pronounce his name...
refused to permit him to wear it in a game, fearing it would inhibit his vision. After being stitched up, Plante gave Blake an ultimatum, refusing to go back out onto the ice without the mask, to which Blake obliged not wanting to forfeit the game since NHL teams did not carry back-up goaltenders. Plante went on a long unbeaten streak wearing the mask, which stopped when he was asked to remove it for a game. He donned the mask for the rest of his career after. When Plante introduced the mask into the game, many questioned his dedication and bravery; in response, Plante made an analogy to a person skydiving without a parachute.
Although Plante faced some laughter, the fiberglass goaltender mask soon became the standard and a symbol of the game as typified by the famous painting "At The Crease," by Ken Danby
Ken Danby
Ken Danby, was a Canadian painter in the realist style.-Life and work:Ken Danby enrolled at the Ontario College of Art in 1958. His first exhibition in 1964 sold out....
. This style of mask is no longer used by hockey leagues, yet its fame continues because of its use by horror movie icon Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
of the Friday the 13th film series. Casey Jones
Casey Jones (TMNT)
Arnold Bernid "Casey" Jones is a character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Like the turtles, Casey Jones is a vigilante, and was created as a parody of vigilante characters that were in comics. Casey wears a hockey mask and cut-off biking gloves and carries his weapons in a golf bag...
of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a fictional team of four teenage anthropomorphic turtles, who were trained by their anthropomorphic rat sensei in the art of ninjutsu and named after four Renaissance artists...
franchise
Media franchise
A media franchise is an intellectual property involving the characters, setting and trademarks of an original work of media , such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or a video game. Generally, a whole series is made in a particular medium, along with merchandising and endorsements...
also wears a stylized version of the mask, as did D-Roc the Executioner, the late guitarist of the heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band Body Count
Body Count
Body Count is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1990. The group is fronted by rapper and actor Ice-T, who founded the group out of his interest in heavy metal music, taking on the role of vocalist and writing the lyrics for most of the group's songs. Lead guitarist...
. Since the invention of the fiberglass hockey mask, professional goaltenders no longer play without a mask. The last goaltender to play without a mask was Andy Brown
Andy Brown (ice hockey)
Andrew Conrad Brown is a retired Canadian ice hockey goaltender. His father, Adam also played hockey in the National Hockey League as a left winger....
, who played his last NHL game in 1974.
Vladislav Tretiak
Vladislav Aleksandrovich Tretiak, MSM is a former goaltender for the Soviet Union's national ice hockey team. Considered to be one of the greatest goaltenders in the history of the sport, he was voted one of six players to the International Ice Hockey Federation's Centennial All-Star Team in a...
, the noted Russian goaltender who competed against Canada in the 1972 Summit Series. Like the original fiberglass design, the helmet/cage combination has been criticized for not providing adequate facial/cranial protection. Dan Cloutier
Dan Cloutier
Dan Cloutier is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey goaltender. In his 10-year National Hockey League career, Cloutier played with the New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vancouver Canucks, and Los Angeles Kings, spending the majority of his career in Vancouver...
switched from this type of mask to the widely more popular full fiberglass citing safety reasons upon the advice of the Los Angeles Kings
Los Angeles Kings
The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles, California. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...
. Dominik Hašek
Dominik Hašek
Dominik Hašek is a Czech ice hockey goaltender who is currently with HC Spartak Moscow of the KHL.In his 16-season National Hockey League career, he played for the Chicago Blackhawks, Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, and the Ottawa Senators. During his years in Buffalo, he became one of the...
, a Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy
Vezina Trophy
The Vezina Trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League's goaltender who is "adjudged to be the best at this position". At the end of each season, the 30 General Managers of the teams in the National Hockey League vote to determine the goaltender who was the most valuable to his team...
-winner in the late 1990s used this type of mask; Hašek retired from the NHL in 2008. Rick DiPietro of the New York Islanders, is one of the last NHL goalies to use this type of mask. Goalies at lower levels of hockey (such as high-school, college, or recreational leagues) who choose to use this design cite reasons such as the plastic helmet used is lighter than the fiberglass or composite materials used in other designs, and that the helmet has a wider opening than a traditional mask for a less claustrophobic feeling and better sight of the puck.
Carbon fiber
Carbon fiber, alternatively graphite fiber, carbon graphite or CF, is a material consisting of fibers about 5–10 μm in diameter and composed mostly of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are bonded together in crystals that are more or less aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber...
, or a fiberglass
Fiberglass
Glass fiber is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the invention of finer machine tooling...
and kevlar
Kevlar
Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...
mix. These masks are able to better withstand the impacts of hockey puck at higher speeds and are used at all levels of organized ice hockey. These masks are considered safer since they disperse the impact of the puck better than the helmet/cage combination. Tim Thomas
Tim Thomas (ice hockey)
Timothy James Thomas, Jr. is an American professional ice hockey goaltender with the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League . Raised in Davison, MI, Thomas played college hockey for the University of Vermont for four years, from 1993–1997, during which he was drafted 217th overall by the...
of the Boston Bruins
Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The team has been in existence since 1924, and is the league's third-oldest team and its oldest in the...
wears a newer style one piece called a Sportmask Mage RS, made like the newer fiberglass mask, but resembles the helmet/cage combination.
Tactical play
The advent of the goaltender mask changed the way goaltenders play, allowing them to make more saves on their knees without fear of serious head or facial injuries. Before the advent of the mask, most goaltenders stayed standing as much as possible. In the modern era, a goaltender is likely to make the majority of saves when he has one or both knees on the ice. With the technological advancement of the mask, shots hitting the head cause more temporary discomfort instead of serious concussions and lacerations; however, a mask does not guarantee avoiding injury, and goaltenders have been concussed by a shot hitting the head. Some goaltenders, like Dominik HasekDominik Hašek
Dominik Hašek is a Czech ice hockey goaltender who is currently with HC Spartak Moscow of the KHL.In his 16-season National Hockey League career, he played for the Chicago Blackhawks, Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, and the Ottawa Senators. During his years in Buffalo, he became one of the...
and Henrik Lundqvist
Henrik Lundqvist
Henrik Lundqvist is a Swedish professional ice hockey goaltender for the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League . He was nominated for the Vezina Trophy in his first three seasons in the NHL, finishing third all three times, and is the only goaltender in NHL history to record 30 wins in...
, have used their heads intentionally to stop shots. Lundqvist said that his reason for this is to not obstruct his vision by placing his catching glove in front of his mask to stop the shot.
Mask decoration
With the available surface area provided by fiberglass masks, goaltenders find it fashionable to give their mask distinctive decorations. This tradition started with the earliest masks, notably by the now-retired Boston BruinsBoston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The team has been in existence since 1924, and is the league's third-oldest team and its oldest in the...
goalkeeper Gerry Cheevers
Gerry Cheevers
Gerald Michael "Cheesey" Cheevers is a former goaltender in the National Hockey League and World Hockey Association between 1961 and 1980, most famous for his two stints with the Boston Bruins, where he backstopped the team to Stanley Cup wins in 1970 and 1972...
, who was known for drawing stitches on his mask whenever it got hit. These stitches represented where Cheevers would have been cut had he not been wearing his mask. Jim Rutherford
Jim Rutherford
James Earl Rutherford is a former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League for the Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Los Angeles Kings in the 1970s and 1980s...
, a member of the Detroit Red Wings in the 1970s, was the first to put a little paint on the eyebrows of the mask which started a trend once combo masks became popular. Modern-day masks also offer this ability, and goaltenders are well-identified with their helmet design, often transferring the motif into their new team's colors when traded or signed to a new team (for example, Patrick Lalime
Patrick Lalime
Patrick Lalime is a Canadian professional ice hockey broadcaster and former player. Lalime played twelve seasons in the National Hockey League with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Ottawa Senators, St. Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks and Buffalo Sabres...
's Marvin the Martian
Marvin the Martian
Marvin the Martian is a fictional character appearing in the Looney Tunes cartoons. Marvin's likeness appears in miniature on the Spirit rover on Mars.-Conception and creation:...
theme, Felix Potvin
Felix Potvin
Félix "The Cat" Potvin is a former National Hockey League goaltender.-QMJHL career:From 1988 through to 1991 Potvin played with the Chicoutimi Saguenéens, a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League team...
's cat theme, Curtis Joseph
Curtis Joseph
Curtis Shayne Joseph is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. He last played for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League....
's Cujo
Cujo
Cujo is a psychological horror novel by Stephen King. The novel won the British Fantasy Award in 1982, and was made into a film in 1983....
theme, or Ed Belfour
Ed Belfour
Edward John Belfour is a former Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender.Belfour was born in Carman, Manitoba and grew up playing hockey. He played junior hockey for the Winkler Flyers before going to the University of North Dakota where he helped the school win the NCAA championship in the...
's eagle theme).
In other sports
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
catcher
Catcher
Catcher is a position for a baseball or softball player. When a batter takes his turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. This is a catcher's primary duty, but he is also called upon to master many other skills in order to...
s have begun wearing facemasks similar in style to goaltender masks.
Goaltender masks are commonly seen being worn by Box Lacrosse
Box lacrosse
Box lacrosse, also known as indoor lacrosse and sometimes shortened to boxla, LAX or simply box, is an indoor version of lacrosse played mostly in North America. The game originated in Canada, where it is the most popular version of the game played in contrast to the traditional field lacrosse game...
goaltenders at both youth and professional levels.
External links
- A Brief History of the Goalie Mask
- Head Case: Weird, Wild Hockey Masks - slideshow by LifeLife (magazine)Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazine