Jacques Plante Read online

  Jacques Plante, 1929–1986.

  Raymond Plante

  Prolific novelist and scriptwriter Raymond Plante has written several television series for young people, produced by Radio-Canada. He was also responsible for two series of novels for adolescents, published by Québec/Amérique and Éditions du Boréal. He has written over twenty-five books, nineteen of which are for young readers. His works have been translated into English, Dutch, Chinese, Greek, Spanish, Catalan, and Basque. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Canada Council Prize for Literature, Youth Category (1986), the 12/17 Brives-Montréal Prize (1994), and the Mr. Christie Book Award (1995). He contributed to the hockey nostalgia anthology, Une enfance bleu-blanc-rouge, published in 2000 by Les 400 coups.

  The Translator: Darcy Dunton

  Darcy Dunton attended the Université de Montréal and McGill, earning degrees in art history and anthropology. Her translations from French to English include the novel Cristoforo by Willie Thomas, (Breakwater Books, 2004), the biography Emma Albani: International Star by Michelle Labrèche-Larouche (XYZ Publishing, 2001), and two books on wine, Let’s Talk Wine! by Marc Chapleau (XYZ Publishing, 2003) and The Encyclopedia of Home Wine-making by Pierre Drapeau and André Vanasse (XYZ Publishing, 1998).

  THE QUEST LIBRARY

  is edited by

  Rhonda Bailey

  The Editorial Board is composed of

  Ven Begamudré

  Lynne Bowen

  Janet Lunn

  Editorial correspondence:

  Rhonda Bailey, Editorial Director

  XYZ Publishing

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  Lantzville, BC

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  In the same collection

  Ven Begamudré, Isaac Brock: Larger Than Life.

  Lynne Bowen, Robert Dunsmuir: Laird of the Mines.

  Kate Braid, Emily Carr: Rebel Artist.

  Kathryn Bridge, Phyllis Munday: Mountaineer.

  William Chalmers, George Mercer Dawson: Geologist, Scientist, Explorer.

  Deborah Cowley, Lucilie Teasdale: Doctor of Courage.

  Gary Evans, John Grierson: Trailblazer of Documentary Film.

  Judith Fitzgerald, Marshall McLuhan: Wise Guy.

  lian goodall, William Lyon Mackenzie King: Dreams and Shadows.

  Stephen Eaton Hume, Frederick Banting: Hero, Healer, Artist.

  Naïm Kattan, A.M. Klein: Poet and Prophet.

  Betty Keller, Pauline Johnson: First Aboriginal Voice of Canada.

  Michelle Labrèche-Larouche, Emma Albani: International Star.

  Wayne Larsen, A.Y. Jackson: A Love for the Land.

  Francine Legaré, Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France.

  Margaret Macpherson, Nellie McClung: Voice for the Voiceless.

  Dave Margoshes, Tommy Douglas: Building the New Society.

  Marguerite Paulin, René Lévesque: Charismatic Leader.

  T.F. Rigelhof, George Grant: Redefining Canada.

  Arthur Slade, John Diefenbaker: An Appointment with Destiny.

  Roderick Stewart, Wilfrid Laurier: A Pledge for Canada.

  John Wilson, John Franklin: Traveller on Undiscovered Seas.

  John Wilson, Norman Bethune: A Life of Passionate Conviction.

  Rachel Wyatt, Agnes Macphail: Champion of the Underdog.

  Jacques Plante

  RAYMOND PLANTE

  BEHIND THE MASK

  Originally published in French as Jacques Plante: Denrière le masque

  © 1996 Raymond Plante and XYZ éditeur.

  English translation Copyright © 2001 Darcy Dunton and XYZ Publishing.

  Second printing, 2005

  All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher – or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency – is an infringement of the copyright law.

  Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

  Plante, Raymond, 1947-

  [Jacques Plante. English]

  Jacques Plante : behind the mask

  (The Quest Library ; 11)

  Translation of Jacques Plante.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 0-9688166-2-2

  1. Plante, Jacques, 1929–1986 – Juvenile fiction. 2. Hockey goalkeepers –

  Quebec (Province) – Biography – Juvenile fiction. I. Dunton, Darcy. II. Title. III Title: Jacques Plante. English. IV. Series: Quest library; 11.

  PS8581.L33J3213 2001 jC843’.54 C2001-940383-6

  PS9581.L33J3213 2001

  PZ7.P52Ja 2001

  Legal Deposit: Second quarter 2001

  National Library of Canada

  Bibliothèque nationale du Québec

  XYZ Publishing acknowledges the support of The Quest Library project by the Canadian Studies Program and the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) of the Department of Canadian Heritage. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government of Canada.

  The publishers further acknowledge the financial support our publishing program receives from The Canada Council for the Arts, the ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, and the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles.

  Chronology and photo research: Michèle Vanasse

  Index: Lynne Bowen

  Layout: Édiscript enr.

  Cover design: Zirval Design

  Cover illustration: Francine Auger

  Printed and bound in Canada

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  International Rights: Contact André Vanasse, tel. (514) 525-2170 # 25

  E-mail: [email protected]

  Books by Raymond Plante

  Novels for young people:

  Monsieur Genou, “Jours de fête” series, Leméac, Montreal, 1981. Awarded the Prix belgo-québécois (1982).

  La Machine à Beanté, Jeunesse/Romans series, Éditions Québec/Amérique, Montreal, 1982. Reprinted in the Boréal Junior series, No.11, Éditions Boréal, Montreal, 1991. Awarded the ACELF prize (1982); translated into Spanish and Catalan.

  Le record de Philibert Dupont, Jeunesse/Roman series, Éditions Québec/Amérique, Montreal, 1984. Reprinted in the Boréal Junior series, No.12, Éditions Boréal, Montreal, 1991. Translated into English, Spanish, and Catalan.

  Minibus,(short stories), Jeunesse/Romans series, Éditions Québec/Amérique, Montreal, 1985.

  Le dernier des raisins, Jeunesse/Roman series, Éditions Québec/Amérique, Montreal, 1986. Reprinted in the Boréal Inter series, No.11, Éditions Boréal, Montreal, 1991. Awarded the Canada Council prize for literature, youth category (1986). Translated into English, Dutch, Spanish, Catalan, and Basque.

  Des hot-dogs sous le soleil, Jeunesse/Roman Plus series, Éditions Québec/Amérique, Montreal, 1987. Reprinted in the Boréal Inter series, No.12, Éditions Boréal, Montreal, 1991. Translated into Spanish and Catalan.

  Y-a-t-il un raisin dans cet avion? Jeunesse/R
oman Plus series, Éditions Québec/Amérique, Montreal, 1988. Reprinted in the Boréal Inter series, No.13, Éditions Boréal, Montreal, 1991.

  Le raisin devient banane, Boréal Inter series, No.1, Éditions Boréal, Montreal, 1989.

  Le roi de rien, Roman jeunesse series, La Courte Échelle, Montreal, 1988. Awarded the ACELF prize (1988). Translated into Spanish, Chinese, and Greek.

  Véloville, Premier Roman series, La Courte Échelle, Montreal, 1989. Translated into Spanish.

  Le chien sancisse et les voleurs de diamants, co-authored with André Melancon, Boréal Junior series, No.9, Éditions Boréal, Montreal, 1991. Translated into Catalan.

  Les dents de la poule, Boréal Junior series, No.22, Éditions Boréal, Montreal, 1992. Awarded the Monique Corriveau prize (1993).

  La fille en cuir, Boréal Inter series, No.24, Éditions Boréal, Montreal, 1993.

  L’étoile a pleuré rouge, Boréal Inter series, No.28, Éditions Boréal, Montreal, 1994. Awarded the Prix 12–17 Brive/Montréal prize (1994) and the Mr. Christie’s Book Award, 12 and over category (1995).

  Un monsieur nommé Piquet qui adora les animaux, La Courte Échelle, Montreal, 1996.

  Les manigances de Marilou Polaire, La Courte Échelle, Montreal, 1996.

  Véloville, La Courte Échelle, Montreal, 1997.

  Le grand rôle de Marilou Polaire, La Courte Échelle, Montreal, 1997.

  Le long nez de Marilou Polaire, La Courte Échelle, Montreal, 1998.

  Élisa de noir et de feu, La Courte Échelle, Montreal, 1998.

  Attention, les murs ont des oreilles, La Courte Échelle, Montreal, 1998.

  Marilou Polaire et l’iguane des neiges, La Courte Échelle, Montreal, 1998.

  Novels for adults:

  La débarque, L’Actuelle, Montreal, 1974. Awarded the L’Actuelle prize (1974).

  Le train sauvage, Littérature d’Amérique series, Éditions Québec/Amérique, Montreal, 1984.

  Avec l’été, Éditions Boréal, Montreal, 1991.

  Un singe m’a parlé de toi, Éditions Boréal, Montreal, 1993.

  Projections privées, La Courte Échelle, Montreal, 1997.

  Contributed to the hockey nostalgia anthology, Une Enfance bleu-blanc-rouge (Les 400 Coups, Montreal, 2000), with “La Société des partisans disparus.”

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to thank Ms. Renée Gravel, who accomplished a prodigious research job, compiling a huge number of newspaper and magazine articles that were written during Jacques Plante’s career. I would like to express my appreciation to the employees of the microfilm room of the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, in Montreal, for their kindness, competence, and zeal in assisting Ms. Gravel in her task, as well as the employees of the National Archives in Ottawa. Finally, I would like to thank Ms. Andrée Poulin, journalist, and Ms. Claire Couture, producer at Radio-Canada in Ottawa, both of whom gave me some interesting leads, and Mr. Boguslav Podorsky of the archives at Radio-Canada, who allowed me to consult audio-visual documents.

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  First Period

  From Shawinigan to Chicago

  1 A Taxi in Chicago

  2 A Funny-Looking Stick and a Woollen Tuque

  3 Far from Home…and from the Nets

  4 Behind the Bench with the Habs

  Second Period

  A Masked Knight in the Kingdom of Hockey

  5 The Rocket’s World

  6 A Taste for the Stanley Cup

  7 The Phantom Puck-Stopper

  8 On Top, and Back Down Again

  9 The Masked Wonder

  Third Period

  “Un Canadien Errant”

  10 Lonely in Manhattan

  11 The Red Night

  12 The Amazing Comeback

  Overtime

  The Man Who Carried a Filing Cabinet

  in His Head

  Chronology of

  Jacques Plante (1929–1986)

  Sources Consulted

  Index

  First Period

  From Shawinigan

  to Chicago

  In 1944, Jacques plays in four different categories

  midget, juvenile, junior, and intermediate.

  1

  A Taxi in Chicago

  Saturday, Aprii 4, 1953.

  This time, it was for real. Jacques’ hands were shaking. His skate laces had never given him so much trouble – they had never been so stiff. Nor had the straps of his leg pads ever seemed so numerous and so difficult to buckle.

  His hands were trembling so hard that he wondered if he would be able to use them properly. How could he stop the streaking pucks? Would his wobbly knees even hold him up? Would he be able to move fast enough to block surprise rebounds?

  He brushed these thoughts away. If a hockey goaltender wants to overcome the incredible tension that he faces at game time, the last thing he should do is visualize the puck getting past him. Like a fighter shadowboxing before a match, he has to fan the spark that will ignite each one of his movements and give them perfect precision: the lateral slide that will send the puck into the corner of the rink, the block by a leg projected outward with lightning speed, the last-minute dive, and the spring that will bring him up ready, agile as a cat, to stop the faster and even more dangerous shots off a rebound.

  The whole game depends on the goalie. He is the last player that the adversary must try to outplay, the one whose smallest mistake is irreparable, fatai – the one who can save the game when he faces an opponent on a breakaway, and the one whose failure demoralizes the whole team. The goaltender is the only player who must never lose sight of the puck, even for a fraction of a second. He has to continually sharpen his concentration in spite of the unbearable heat, the yelling crowd, his fear of injury, scrambles in front of the net, a teammate’s error, or the superior power of the opponents. A goalkeeper has to harden his shell: whatever happens, he must be a solid wall, a fortress.

  But Jacques Piante was also a man. A solitary man, whose hands were trembling now. In spite of the confidence he had built up over the years, in spite of his talent and his famous reflexes, his hands were stili shaking. His knees were almost knocking together. He couldn’t let the team down.

  This was the game that had to be won – absolutely. The Montreal Canadiens had their backs to the wall, and he, Jacques Piante, owed it to himself to triumph, to show that he was the man of the hour. Tonight, he was living his life’s dream.

  The dressing room of the old Chicago Stadium reeked of sweat and fear, the fear that drives champions to excel, to fight with their last ounce of strength to be able to revel in the taste of victory – and to save their skins. The atmosphere in the dressing room resembled a pumping heart pulsing with electricity.

  Maurice Richard, the soul of the Habs, was sitting nearby, and Jacques could see that his hands were trembling too. The Rocket looked over at him. He never talked much, but used his flashing eyes to communicate with his teammates – or to intimidate his opponents during a game. This time, however, he spoke to Jacques in a low voice: “I’m nervous too. Don’t worry about it – it’s always like this before an important game. It’ll go away when you’ve been on the ice a few minutes.”

  Tonight was the important match of the season. On that springtime Saturday, the Canadiens were facing sudden death. The Black Hawks were leading the best-of-seven semifinal series 3 to 2. One more defeat, and it was ali over. A single loss and Jacques Piante would be sent down to the minors, where he would likely disappear and be forgotten.

  Jacques was alone, infinitely alone, like all those of that special brand of athletes, goalkeepers. He suffered the same pre-game nervousness as the other players, he wore the same uniform, b
ut he had a completely different job to do. Managers and sportswriters repeated it endlessly: without a strong goalie in the nets, a team had no chance of winning the Stanley Cup, the ultimate prize for each of the six great teams that made up the National Hockey League – the world championship, in fact. And now, the Habs were counting on him. Jacques’ hands weren’t shaking for nothing. He had to empty his mind to resist the crushing pressure that could make him slip up badly.

  Just a few hours earlier, Dick Irvin Senior, the Canadiens’ coach, had knocked on the door of Jacques’ room at the Lasalle Hotel.

  “You’re coming in the taxi with us.”

  The brief sentence was the equivalent of an order. Jacques, who had travelled with the team as backup goalie, was startled. The white-haired coach was known for his originai ideas; he loved to baffle the opponents by his unexpected tactics. Only the opponents? Not necessarily: often, by shuffling the cards, he set challenges for his own players; that was how he pushed them to try harder and play better. But even then, the young goaltender did not realize what was awaiting him.

  In the taxi, Irvin sat in the front seat. Jacques slid into the back between Tom Johnson and Doug Harvey, both solid defencemen who were maintaining a tense silence.

  The taxi set off, a metal box full of nerves in the light of the lengthening days of spring, amid the wind that was swirling loose pieces of paper ali over the Chicago streets, as usual.

  After a moment, Dick Irvin turned around, as if he had just reached a decision, and barked, “Jacques, you’re replacing Gerry McNeil tonight.”

  The young man caught his breath. Naturally, with the Canadiens in a tight spot, the Silver Eagle, as the reporters had dubbed Irvin, was entitled to pull a surprise move. But McNeil wasn’t injured, and his performance until the playoffs had been impeccable. He had even stopped Gordie Howe from scoring his fiftieth goal in the last game of the regular season. By doing so, the goalie had protected his teammate Maurice Richard’s record as the only offensive player to have scored fifty goals in one season.