THE CANADIAN PRESS
MONTREAL -- Imagine if an NHL goaltender skated out to start a game not wearing a mask.
Today it's unthinkable. But until Nov. 1, 1959, all goalies played without them, exposing their faces to bone-crushing shots that sometimes left them bleeding and unconscious in the crease.
Fifty years ago Monday at Madison Square Garden in New York, Jacques Plante of the Montreal Canadiens changed hockey.