1959–60 Montreal Canadiens season

Regular season

On November 1, 1959, at 3:06 of the first period, Jacques Plante was hit in the face by a shot fired by Andy Bathgate. Plante came back in the game wearing a mask (the second goaltender in NHL history to wear a mask after Clint Benedict) starting a trend where all NHL goaltenders today wear a mask.

Jacques Plante

The use of the goalie mask was Plante's most enduring contribution to the game, however, occurred as a result of an incident on November 1, 1959. He was hit in the face by a shot from New York Rangers player Andy Bathgate, needing to go to the dressing room for stitches. When he returned, he was wearing the crude home-made goalie mask that he had been using in practices. His coach, Toe Blake, was livid, but he had no other goalie to call upon, and Plante refused to return to the goal unless he kept the mask. Blake agreed on the condition that Plante discard the mask when the cut healed. Only Camille Henry beat him in that game, which the Canadiens won 3–1. In the ensuing days Plante refused to discard the mask, and as the Canadiens continued to win, Blake became less obstinate. The unbeaten streak stretched to 18 games. Plante did not wear the mask, at Blake's request, against Detroit on March 8, 1960. The Canadiens lost 3–0, and the mask returned for good the next night. Plante subsequently designed his own mask and masks for other goalies. Although Plante was not the first NHL goalie known to wear a facemask (Montreal Maroons goaltender Clint Benedict had done so thirty years before), Plante introduced the mask as everyday equipment, which continues to this day.

Final standings

Record vs. opponents

Schedule and results

|- |1||W||October 8, 1959||4–1 || align="left"| Boston Bruins (1959–60) ||1–0–0 |- |2||T||October 10, 1959||1–1 || align="left"| Detroit Red Wings (1959–60) ||1–0–1 |- |3||L||October 11, 1959||4–8 || align="left"| @ Boston Bruins (1959–60) ||1–1–1 |- |4||W||October 15, 1959||4–2 || align="left"| Toronto Maple Leafs (1959–60) ||2–1–1 |- |5||L||October 17, 1959||2–4 || align="left"| New York Rangers (1959–60) ||2–2–1 |- |6||W||October 18, 1959||6–5 || align="left"| @ New York Rangers (1959–60) ||3–2–1 |- |7||W||October 22, 1959||4–1 || align="left"| Chicago Black Hawks (1959–60) ||4–2–1 |- |8||W||October 24, 1959||5–1 || align="left"| Boston Bruins (1959–60) ||5–2–1 |- |9||W||October 25, 1959||2–1 || align="left"| @ Detroit Red Wings (1959–60) ||6–2–1 |- |10||W||October 27, 1959||2–1 || align="left"| @ Chicago Black Hawks (1959–60) ||7–2–1 |- |11||T||October 28, 1959||1–1 || align="left"| @ Toronto Maple Leafs (1959–60) ||7–2–2 |- |12||T||October 31, 1959||2–2 || align="left"| Detroit Red Wings (1959–60) ||7–2–3

| Legend:

Playoffs

The Canadiens placed first in the standings and met the Chicago Black Hawks in the first round of the playoffs. The Canadiens swept the Hawks 4–0 to move on to the finals against Toronto.

Stanley Cup finals

Montreal swept the Maple Leafs, outscoring them 15–5, en route to being the first team since the 1952 Detroit Red Wings to go without a loss in the playoffs.

After the series Rocket Richard retired. He went out with style, finishing with his 34th finals goal in game three.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Montreal Canadiens

Montreal won the best-of-seven series 4 games to 0.

Player statistics

Regular season

Scoring

Goaltending

Playoffs

Scoring

Goaltending

Citations

References

• Canadiens on Hockey Database
• Canadiens on NHL Reference

References

1. "1959-60 Montreal Canadiens Schedule".
2. "1959-60 Montreal Canadiens Statistics - Hockey-Reference.com". hockey-reference.com.