Plante and the New Year's Eve game.

A few weeks back I received an e-mail from one of the folks at Quebec City's Morrin Centre asking if I would consider acting as a sort of host/interviewer for a talk that they wanted to host featuring a hockey writer.

My initial reaction was one of curiousity. What hockey writer? What book, or books? The answer to the first question was Todd Denault. I didn't know who Todd Denault was. "No matter", I thought. Turns out he wrote about Jacques Plante. The second part of the title is "The Man Who Changed the Face of Hockey." True enough, Plante did change the face of hockey, as it were, but I know that he brought much more than that to the history of the game.

In the words of Ken Dryden, whom Todd quotes in his book, "There are a lot of very good goalies; there are even a fair number of great goalies. But there aren't many important goalies. And Jacques Plante was an important goalie."

Ol' Ken sure has a way with words, Plante certainly was an important goalie.

In addition to the whole mask innovation business, Plante was also innovative in the way he approached the position from an athletic, technical and mental point of view.
Not to mention, that he was a businessman, head coach, general manager and one of the first NHL goalie coaches.

I won't go into the whole retelling of the Jacques Plante story, but I will say that of all of the hockey books I've read, and I've got boxes full of them, this one is right there on the shelf next to The Game, Hockey is a Battle, and Lions in Winter.

Superbly written and researched, this is one book that must be read by hockey history fans. A look into one of hockey's most fascinating players, in one of hockey's most fascinating times.

So now I look forward to meeting with Todd this coming Saturday, April 16th as part of Quebec City's ImagiNation writer's festival. In addition to discussing Jacques Plante, we'll get to chat about the 1975 New Year's Eve Montreal Canadiens vs. Soviet Union Red Army matchup, the subject of Todd Denault's latest, "The Greatest Game."