Former Habs

Plante's first mask, a crude fibreglass model fashioned in Montreal, is held in the hand of the goaler himself.
Gazette Files

Thursday marks the 48th anniversary of Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante wearing a face mask into an NHL game for the first time, having been savagely cut by a backhander off the stick of New York Rangers' Andy Bathgate. Plante simply told his coach, Toe Blake, that he wasn't returning to action without it.

Plante revolutionized the game, while seriously getting under the skin of Blake, and goaltenders to this day, from the NHL to house leagues and even ball hockey, owe Jake the Snake a huge debt of thanks. Who knows how many injuries his trail-blazing prevented?

Below is a tribute to the historic event of Nov. 1, 1959 that took place on the ice of New York's Madison Square Garden. Thanks to the National Hockey League's public relations department for producing it:

Albany River Rats goaltender Michael Leighton, acquired by the Canadiens last season as an insurance policy that was never needed, yesterday was named the Rbk/AHL player of the week for Oct. 22-28, stopping 84 of 86 shots, going 3-0 and earning two shutouts.

The Canadiens sent Leighton to the Carolina Hurricanes on draft day last June, and used what they got in return to select defenceman Scott Kishel in the seventh round.

The Gazette profiled the likeable, much-travelled Leighton during his short stay in Montreal last spring.

While the Canadiens were winning back-to-back games Friday and Saturday, former Montreal defenceman Craig Rivet's San Jose Sharks were dropping two straight. Still a leader in the dressing room, if one on the other side of the continent, Rivet called out his teammates.

Not your standard economy seat. From Dallas Stars website

Canadiens majority owner George Gillett Jr. co-owns the Liverpool soccer club with Tom Hicks, who owns the Dallas Stars and baseball's Texas Rangers. So in a case of "my toybox is bigger than yours," Hicks has unveiled the new private 757 aircraft in which his Stars – former Canadien Mike Ribeiro included – will travel in dramatic style.

The Canadiens hardly slum it; they travel by charter, too, though not in their own plane. Check out the Stars' new jet here, and don't miss the photo gallery. It's stunning.

OK, George, the puck is in your end of the ice...

Former Canadiens goalie David Aebischer has cleared waivers and is headed to the San Antonio Rampage, the AHL farm team of the Phoenix Coyotes.

The Phoenix Coyotes have put former Canadiens goalie David Aebischer on waivers. The Swiss native has made just one start this year, losing to Columbus. He has a goals-against average of 3.00 and a save percentage of .909. Aebischer is being paid $600,000 by Wayne Gretzky's Coyotes, signed as a free agent.

Don't miss this excellent look at the late Canadiens goalie Michel (Bunny) Larocque, by Habsworld.net's T.C. Denault.

Canadiens greats, including former coach Scotty Bowman (left) and Dickie Moore, two Hall of Famers, gathered in the Eastern Townships yesterday for a memorial service honouring the life of the late Habs GM Sam Pollock. Click on the photo above to read Red Fisher's report.
Dave Sidaway, Gazette

Former Canadien Joé Juneau has taken up a coaching job in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, where he will lead a push to improve hockey facilities, and to provide education to Inuit children plagued by poverty, criminality and dropping out of school.

Inside/Out reader Larry Purdy of Paradise, Newfoundland, sends along this cherished clipping he's had for years, probably from Star Weekly, a Saturday supplement in the Montreal Star. For all of the rough stuff for which John Ferguson was famous, he also had a butter-soft heart. Larry's photo shows the Canadiens great with his son, John Jr., in a photo taken not long after the lad arrived in 1967. Rest in peace, Fergy.

John Ferguson: The one and only, battling in front of New York Rangers goalie Gilles Villemure.
Courtesy B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame

Hardrock Canadiens forward John Ferguson, a five-time Stanley Cup winner with Montreal, died today at his home in Windsor, Ont., following a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 68.

To his opponents, Fergy was the fiercest competitor who could lay you out with a look, no less a hook. He was a towering presence on the Canadiens of the 1960s, a role player who also had a surprisingly nice touch around the net, scoring 145 goals in 500 regular-season NHL games. (He'd likely have scored more, of course, had he not also earned 1,214 penalty minutes.)

And to those who were privileged to call him a friend, including one of his dearest friends, Serge Savard, Fergy was a man with a heart as big as the race horses both men loved, a player to whom the game was everything, the template for the policeman that every NHL team would employ to keep the peace, or stir it up, as the case may be.

There was only one Fergy. He lived his life to the fullest, and enriched those who crossed his path. The Canadiens, and hockey, have lost a great one today.