Plastic mask on the face of the goalkeeper. History of sports equipment
"The mask, of course, protects the face, but it also hides it, hides your emotions. Whether you need it or not, the mask will do it anyway."
Vladislav Tretiak.
"- The mask is a powerful psychological factor. You feel more secure in it. And it's not about kilograms of steel and plastic at all. Put on a carnival mask - a millimeter of cardboard and other tinsel - and that's it: you are a different person. You are confident and protected.Even if you shoot from a pistol, you will behave differently.The share of fearlessness will increase several times.
Therefore, you get used to the mask, and the goalkeeper's too. Without it, awkward and a little scary.
The mask, of course, protects the face, but it also hides it, hides your emotions. Whether you need it or not, the mask will do it anyway." Vladislav Tretyak
Today, the leadership of the National hockey league actively advocates for minimizing goalkeeper equipment. Officials believe that the impressive shells, bulky pads and oversized sweaters of today's goalkeepers not only serve to protect the players, but also contribute to a decrease in the effectiveness of matches.
However, at the dawn of hockey history, goalkeepers were forced to do without, it would seem, absolutely necessary game attributes - a helmet and a mask.
Naturally, goalkeepers in the first half of the 20th century regularly received head injuries and abrasions. But it was seen as an integral part of the game, and the first attempts to protect your face from a direct hit of the puck were considered an eccentricity.
Before the advent of masks, goalkeepers were forced to play in a high stance, far from modern style"butterfly".
In 1927 the goalkeeper women's team Queen's University of Kingston (Ontario, Canada) Elizabeth Graham decided to use a fencing mask in the game.
Clint Benedict, the goalkeeper of the Montreal Maroons NHL club, was considered a great original. Once, in two matches of the 1929/30 regular season, he managed to collect a bouquet of a concussion, a dangerous cut, a broken nose and a crushed cheekbone.
Clint returned to the ice only a month later, and his face was adorned with a curious-looking mask with a huge nose, made of leather and wire. Having healed his injuries, Benedict abandoned the not very convenient device (having played only 5 matches in the mask).
Using such an imposing nose became a problem. He significantly spoiled my review, - a 37-year-old native of Ottawa commented on his experiment.
The Japanese Teiji Honma went even further. On Olympic Games In 1936, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, he appeared in a mask more typical for baseball catchers. Honma wore glasses, and he seriously feared for their safety during ice battles. At these Games, the Japanese lost both of their matches - to the Swedish team (0:2) and the future Olympic champions to the British (0:3). Both meetings were played outdoors, which led to additional breaks caused by snowstorms in the Bavarian Alps.
The problem of eye protection in the late 1930s was also taken care of by Canadian Roy Musgrove, who played in the British National League.
Olympic champion (1956) in the national team of the Soviet Union Nikolai Puchkov
In the 1950s, European ice hockey goaltenders began to wear protective helmets, but their faces were still unprotected.
Toronto legend Johnny Bauer wears a clear plastic mask that was deemed unusable
In 1954, NHL goaltenders were offered masks made of transparent plastic. These projects could be revolutionary, but, alas, their developer himself did not play hockey at a professional level.
As a result, the very first tests showed that goalkeepers in such a “muzzle” had practically nothing to breathe, and the glass fogged up very quickly.
However, as time went on, more players appeared in North America with cannon throws and snaps. But who knows how many more years it would take for the league to adopt the fateful changes, if not for the demarche of the brightest star of the goalkeeping workshop of its time.
Longtime Montreal Canadiens goalkeeper Jacques Plant is a six-time Stanley Cup winner and a seven-time winner of the Vezina Trophy, the award for the best goaltender of the season in the NHL.
On November 1, 1959, a puck from New York Rangers forward Andy Bathgate broke Plant's nose and tore his cheek. Jacques was forced to go to the locker room, where he was promptly stitched. But this was not enough for the goalkeeper. The Canadian flatly refused to return to the court unless he was allowed to wear a homemade fiberglass mask that fits snugly to the game.
Plant used this mask during training, starting in 1956, when he suffered from sinusitis (inflammation of the mucous membrane of the sinuses) for several weeks.
Montreal head coach Joseph Blake was furious when he learned of Jacques' ultimatum. He believed that the mask not only worsens the goalkeeper peripheral vision, but also contributes to a decrease in concentration. However, Plant firmly stood his ground, and the mentor had to give in.
The fact is that at that time the goalkeepers of the NHL teams did not yet have changers, and if Blake nevertheless decided to teach his ward a lesson, the end of the match with the Rangers would have been disrupted.
Thus, Jacques Plant initiated a revolution, but it was still far from its final triumph. The Canadian received permission from the coach to wear his branded mask only as long as the team is winning. As a result, the Canadiens went on an 18-match unbeaten streak... And when Plant nevertheless took to the ice without a mask, Montreal was defeated by Chicago (0:3). After that, the irreconcilable Joseph Blake capitulated, and his team won the Stanley Cup once again following the results of the 1959/60 playoffs.
The innovator Plant, in his quest to wear a mask, had to fight back not only from his trainer. Goalkeeper colleagues, journalists and fans of other teams practiced wit for a long time, coming up with derogatory nicknames for Jacques. One of the most harmless is “Chicken” (the figurative meaning of the English word “Chicken” is a coward).
Plant was also criticized by his outstanding contemporary, Detroit goalie Terry Savchuk.
Detroit goaltender Terry Savchuk.
- Many people think that the mask really helps us - just because Plant himself wears it. But he is a great goalkeeper not at all because of the mask. I'm in big game for more than 10 years and I’m not going to put anything on my head,” Savchuk proudly declared, whose face to this day remains one of the most recognizable in hockey history.
But only three years have passed, and the stubborn, fearless, long-term struggle with chronic depression, Terry has finally changed his mind.
And Jacques Plante until the end professional career continued experimenting with equipment. Already playing for the St. Louis Blues, he got a puck in the face. The usual mask of fiberglass and rubber was split, and the goalkeeper found himself in the hospital with a concussion. This incident led to a noticeable improvement in the design of the protective product.
Later, Plant founded his own company called "Fibrosport", specializing in the manufacture of goalkeeper masks. To test the samples, an air gun was used, from which pucks flew out at a speed of 120 miles per hour.
To make a plastic mask, a clay cast of the goalkeeper's head was originally made. Then, with the help of a special resin, fiberglass was applied to it. When the product dried, the craftsmen cut holes for the eyes on it and gave it an individual face shape.
Sometimes the fiberglass mask was made woven so that its wearer would not feel stuffy. It was in this that the longtime symbol of Montreal hockey Ken Dryden began his career in the NHL.
In the 1970s, hockey masks not only became a ubiquitous phenomenon in the NHL, but also began to emphasize the bright personality of their wearers.
So, Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Doug Favell became a trailblazer. In honor of the Halloween holiday, he painted the mask orange, which shocked the local public.
And Los Angeles goalkeeper Rogatien Vachon, winner of the 1976 Canada Cup, applied two luxurious royal crowns from the club logo to the fiberglass.
Grin of Gilles Gratton
One of the strongest goalkeepers in North America, Tony Esposito (Chicago), became the author of an important modification: he supplemented the standard plastic mask with an additional protective mesh.
Two-time Vezina and Conn Smythe Trophy winner Bernie Parent (Philadelphia) on the cover of the authoritative Time magazine:
By an evil irony of fate, the ascetic white mask of Parent, which became famous, did not save the goalkeeper from early retirement. On February 17, 1979, in a match with the Rangers, Bernie was hit in the right eye by the stick of his own player. The injury turned out to be too serious, and the Pilots legend had to hang up his skates.
A year earlier, under similar circumstances, Buffalo goalkeeper Jerry Desjardins' path in big hockey was cut short ... These incidents unambiguously emphasized all the disadvantages of plastic: such masks adjoined the goalkeepers' faces too close. They protected well from cuts and abrasions, but did not protect against head injuries and eye damage.
It is worth adding that the “Last of the Mohicans” turned out to be Pittsburgh goaltender Andy Brown. By 1974, he was the only NHL goalie to never wear a mask.
Viktor Konovalenko.
The famous Super Series in 1972 between the national teams of Canada and the Soviet Union brought a fundamentally new design of the goalie mask to North America.
If double Olympic champion Viktor Konovalenko long years played in the classic "braid", then his young successor as number one in the USSR national team, Vladislav Tretiak, presented something completely unusual.
Tretiak went out on the ice in an ordinary hockey helmet, to which a protective grille was attached.
WITH light hand Canadians such a mask was called the "birdcage". The Soviet goalkeeper preferred the arched structure of the wire mesh, but over time, a more conservative straight lattice came into fashion.
It was in this mask that Dominik Hasek performed for three decades.
But the last stage of evolution today should be considered the appearance of a hybrid helmet, the idea of which belonged to the Canadian Dave Dryden (Ken's brother). In 1977, he removed the face of his old plastic mask that covered his entire head and, using a soldering iron, created a protective wire mesh in its place.
So there was a helmet, the closest to what the vast majority of modern goalkeepers wear.
Hockey players in a retro photo of the early 20th century can only be recognized by their skates and sticks. Instead of impressive equipment - spacious pants, sweaters and hats. Modern "ammunition" of the player ice squad- a real triumph of scientific and technical thought, following the main guidelines: easier, faster and safer.
It is not surprising that the first skates, which appeared in the 50s, were called by hockey players “stomp skates”. A short boot, a non-fixed ankle, heavy blades and a glass made the game much more difficult and did not allow reaching the speeds available today. Now a player runs a full circle of the hockey rink in 14 seconds, and in 1980 this path took twice as long. Good skates are durable and lightweight. Made from composite materials, the boots minimize the risk of foot injury from the puck, and the presence of air chambers with pumping allows for a tighter fit around the shin and fixing the heel.
The thinner the steel plate of the blade, the faster it heats up when rubbing against ice, melts it better and, accordingly, glides easier. Some top models of skates, due to the perforated blade and lightweight glass, weigh from 816 to 882 grams. Thermoforming technology helps to adjust the shoes to fit. Before trying on, the steam is placed in a special oven, the thermal gel or foam included in the design of the boot softens when heated, after which the boots that have become plastic for a while are put on the leg and, in the process of “memorization”, take an anatomical shape.
The hockey helmet is one of the youngest must-have pieces of equipment. The first revolutionaries who advocated its implementation were goalkeepers. True, the public, already accustomed to a spectacular spectacle, ridiculed everyone who tried to defend their right to “cover”, calling them a coward. A real riot on the ice happened in 1959, after the puck broke the nose and tore the cheek of Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plant. The Canadian demanded permission to wear a homemade fiberglass mask. The coach of the team was indignant - the safety of the player interested him much less than the reduction in the viewing angle and the loss of vigilance of the puck catcher. But he was forced to give up. For some hockey players, playing without helmets was the norm and an indicator of sportsmanship, others could not come to terms with such inconveniences as a sweaty head. Global sobering came after the tragedy of 1968, when Minnesota North Stars player Bill Masterton died from hitting his head on the ice. After this incident, many athletes, as a sign of respect for the deceased, began to use "head" protection. However, the NHL only made helmets mandatory in the late 1970s. Even in the first Super Series of the USSR - Canada in 1972, most Canadians took to the ice with their heads uncovered.
Modern models made of high-strength polycarbonate are equipped with shock absorbers that can protect the head from both direct blows and tangential blows. Air vents in the helmet's shell help dissipate heat, while fabric inserts wick sweat away from your eyes. Top-of-the-line helmets have a size adjustment mechanism that makes the helmet perfect for any player.
Pavel Bure, former NHL star, board member of the Night Hockey League: “ In the Soviet Union, it was impossible to buy small size skates for playing hockey - you had to learn how to play ice skates for figure skating. The choice is huge now. For my son, I bought hockey skates in sizes 20-22 without any problems for two years, and the same as those of professionals. He rides, learns to play. Although I still do not have a goal to grow a real hockey player out of him - rather, all this is done more for his health. And then we'll see - if he grows up, if he wants to seriously continue to play, I will only be glad.
As for the evolution of helmets for playing hockey, I heard that at one time they had opponents ... But any injury threatens to be eliminated from the game. When I started, there was no mandatory requirement to play only with a mask. Then a rule was introduced, with which I also agree - children under 18 must play in a mask. Moreover, for most players it remains a hobby, not a professional sport..»
Hockey masks have become an integral part of the goalkeeper's ammunition relatively recently - only in the second half of the last century. And not all goalkeepers, believe it or not, gladly accepted this invention.
The pioneer who tried (albeit unsuccessfully) to direct these masochists on the true path was ... a woman. The earliest reference to a face-shielding goalkeeper dates back to 1927, when Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario women's goalkeeper Elizabeth Graham took to the ice wearing a fencing mask.
Elizabeth went to such measures not because of her own fearfulness, but at the insistence of her father. Graham Sr. had just spent a lot of money fixing his naughty hockey daughter's teeth and was unwilling to take on the new expense.
In men, the first known mask appeared around the same time. In any case, on a postcard depicting a match in Switzerland between a local team and the Americans, the goalkeeper of the guests (his name has not been preserved in history) protects the gate, wearing an iron “cage” for playing baseball on his face.
At the 1936 Olympics, Teiji Honma, the goalkeeper of the Japanese national team, put on approximately the same construction. He wore glasses, and the owl shape of this particular baseball mask suited him perfectly.
Around the same time, another bespectacled goalkeeper, Canadian Roy Musgrove, who played for the British club Wembley Lions, put on a special wire mesh that protected only his eyes. Musgrove's "mask" was taken from the national sport of the North American Indians - lyakros (in women's lyakros, where there is no contact, but there is a real chance to get a stick in the eye, such gizmos are still worn).
1932 US Olympic goaltender Franklin Farrell tried something similar. But the photographs, of course, depict him at a much more mature age.
Borrowing from other sports did not help much, and sometimes simply prevented goalkeepers from seeing the puck, so in the future hockey went its own way.
In the NHL, the first attempt to protect the goaltender's full face was made in 1930 by Montreal Maroons goaltender Clint Benedict, who managed to get the puck in the face in two games in a row. The first blow cut his face and caused a concussion, and the second (three days later) broke his nose and cheekbone. Benedict returned to the ice only a month later, wearing a frightening shell of leather and wire on his face, covering his nose, mouth and forehead, but not his eyes and ears.
Benedict could not play in this muzzle for a long time - a huge leather "nose" prevented him from seeing. Toward the end of that season, a puck thrown by Montreal Canadiens legend Howie Morenz hit Benedict in the throat, and the inventor-goaltender was forced to retire. Oddly enough, his courageous and tragic example did not serve as an immediate stimulus for the improvement of goalkeeper ammunition.
Only in 1954 was the next attempt made, when a Canadian craftsman sent masks made of transparent plastic for testing to all six NHL clubs. One of them is shown in the photo by Toronto goalkeeper Johnny Bauer. However, these facilities instantly fogged up, and the goalkeepers, having tried them in training, answered the inventor with a categorical refusal.
The goalie revolution took place only in 1959, and its leader was one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time - the legendary Jacques Plant of the Montreal Canadiens. A genius, a nonconformist, an eccentric (his hobby, for example, was knitting), an innovator (he was one of the first to go out of the gate, giving passes to partners at the front side) - in general, an ideal candidate for revolutionaries. As in the case of Benedict, Plant put on a mask not from a good life: one day, Jacques was once again hit in the face with a puck during training, crushing his cheekbone. Then he gave an interview to a Montreal radio station, in which he turned to the fans with a request to help him find a suitable mask. One listener volunteered to make a fiberglass cast of Jacques to fit the outline of his face. Plant tried out the mask at pre-season training camp, which his trainer, hardline conservative Toe Blake, didn't like. He believed that the mask would limit the visibility of the goalkeeper and, by creating a sense of security in him, would not allow him to properly focus on the game.
However, on January 1, 1959, a valiant "click" by Rangers player Andy Bathgate ended with a split cheek for Plant. The goalkeeper retired to the dressing room where he received stitches (the game had to be stopped for 45 minutes) and refused to return until he was allowed to wear a mask. Blake raged and cursed, but Plant was adamant. He knew that a player of his caliber could dictate his terms even to a dictator like Blake. Moreover, Montreal did not have a backup goalkeeper.
The revolutionary had a hard time. The fans mocked him, the press branded him a coward, Blake continued to tear and throw. But Plant never gave a damn about other people's opinions, and in the end his example proved to be contagious. In the 1960s, most NHL goaltenders had an epiphany and realized that going through life as a well-written handsome man was much more pleasant than with pizza instead of a face.
To no one was this more true than Detroit's Terry Savchuk, whose face, after numerous puck hits, was itself like a scary mask.
In this famous photograph, Savchuk's scars were slightly highlighted by the make-up artist, but the crazy look of this very difficult and very unhappy person is real. The mask that Savchuk eventually put on was very primitive and made him look like Frankenstein's monster. Which, in this case, was a step forward in terms of beauty.
Fiberglass, a malleable material, could be molded to the shape of the goalkeeper's face or woven into a cage. Such a "pretzel mask" was later worn by Plant, followed by Ken Dryden.
Initially, the masks were made of fiberglass and were either brownish, unpainted, or pure white. But the simple white color seemed primitive to many.
The first goalkeeper to decorate his mask was Jerry Chivers. During the 1966 season, Chivers began to notice puck and stick marks. The mask began to look more and more sinister, but scars, as you know, adorn a man.
The first goaltender to wear a colored mask was Doug Favel of the Philadelphia Flyers. On Halloween night, his teammates painted his mask bright red as a joke. This color was reminiscent of a festive horror pumpkin.
But in the mask painted in the colors of the club, the goalkeeper of the NY Islanders Glen Resh, nicknamed “Chicho”, appeared for the first time. The same mask can be considered the first artistically painted. And Linda Spinella, a student at an art college, pored over her. On a white mask by Ernie Higgins, she depicted Manhattan Island and the letters NY.
But were the first masks reliable? of course not. In the 1970 Stanley Cup Final, the mighty Boston Bruins faced St. Louis Blues, whose gates were defended by Plant. In the second period of the first meeting of the finals, Fred Stanfield threw the puck on goal with a flourish. Bouncing off Phil Esposito, the puck hit Plant in the face, breaking his mask. Plant collapsed and was forced to watch the remaining playoff games in a hospital bed with a ventilator.
While in the hospital, Plant thought about improving the design of the mask so that it could withstand a direct hit from a puck. He came to the conclusion that such a mask should have stiffeners on the forehead that form a single unit with the nose. Such ribs were supposed to provide protection against washer hits and protect against the direct impact of a washer hit. In addition, he gave Special attention ear protection. Plant created his own mask-making firm, Fibrosport. The masks were tested by firing pucks from an air gun at 120 mph. Only pucks suffered from such tests ...
Jacques Plante was a great goalkeeper, (only prizes the best goalkeeper NHL, "Vezina Trophy", he collected as many as 7 pieces!) played for a long time, and even in his old age (season 1974-75) he played for a year in the WHA, in Edmonton.
In the end, all the hockey authorities recognized the need for masks for goalies. In October 1978, the Canadian Standards Association made masks mandatory for goalkeepers.
Europe introduced such a rule even earlier.
The mask even influenced the way goalkeepers play. Many of them began to play, crouching low, without fear for the face, which was at the same time below the crossbar of the goal, and therefore, on the very “line of fire”.
So, Plant was not left alone, other goalkeepers picked up his initiative. Mask makers began to appear. Let's remember a couple - three of the names of these artisans who contributed their own, although not big, but interesting and pretty stone to the foundation of the industry hockey equipment. At first, masks were made by solderers, dentists, and garage workers. Then the goalkeepers themselves, both playing and retired, got down to business.
Ernie Higgins made the first mask for his son, and it was eventually used by young Boston Bruins goaltender Jerry Chivers. Until the mid-70s, the Higgins mask remained as classic and prestigious as the Cadillac in the automotive world. A huge number of professional and amateur goalkeepers performed in this mask. Higgins made a large number of masks, the main difference being triangular cutouts on the cheeks and T-shaped holes on the forehead. Apparently, Higgins became the first professional manufacturer of hockey goalie masks.
Later, Higgins increased the protective area of the masks, covering the ears and forehead. At the request of Bruins goaltender Eddie Johnstown, Higgins made a mask that allowed him to protect most of his head. Early examples of Higgins masks had slits in the frontal part, which then transformed into T-shaped holes: three vertical and four horizontal.
After some time, Higgins modernized the masks by adding soft pads on the forehead and cheeks. Some later mask designs had triangular cutouts on either side of the mask. Definitely the Higgins masks had their distinctive features, first of all, the triangular ventilation holes on the sides of the mask, giving it a frightening character. In addition, behind every piece of plastic that came out of his hands, there seemed to be some kind of living face. Who knows, maybe he would have found himself in Hollywood ...
The whole head needed protection, and designers began to come up with masks that cover almost all vulnerabilities. It turned out to be a hybrid of a helmet and a mask. Obviously, it was uncomfortable, bulky and poorly ventilated.
But now it's time, finally, to appear on our stage to the great Tretiak. His merit is not only in three gold and one silver Olympic medals(and other regalia), but also in the fact that he introduced the fashion for the “Tretyak mask”.
It was 1972. This grid, intertwined not at right angles, but in arcs, fell into place so well that its design is still used today. And they began to call such a lattice "cat's eye". Take a look at a unique shot of Tretyak with his first experience and his "classic" mask.
The eighties of the twentieth century passed under the sign of lattice masks attached to an ordinary gaming helmet. These helmets were not signed, only occasionally small club logos were applied to them, or an inscription was made about belonging to the national team. However, this applied to all the players on the team.
Modern "combi" combines the dignity of deaf voluminous masks with " cat's eye”, has a occipital pad and an elongated chin part. Thick softening pads are required to withstand large impact loads. Lattice - removable. There is enough space on the helmet to portray whatever your heart desires. Everyone liked this design and now goalkeeper helmets differ mainly in color.
The color of the grille most often remains "natural", metallic "chrome". But there are also colored grilles: blue, red and even gold.
