Our four defensemen all had flaws: one couldn't skate backwards, one couldn't turn to his left, one couldn't turn to his right, and the fourth couldn't pass the puck accurately to our blue line. Somebody had to clear the loose pucks, so I started doing it myself.

Jacques Plante

Categorized in : Myself Doing Blue Flaws

Only a goalie can appreciate what a goalie goes through. by Jacques Plante

Only a goalie can appreciate what a goalie goes through.

goalies hockey appreciate

Hockey is an art. It requires speed, precision, and strength like other sports, but it also demands an extraordinary intelligence to develop a logical sequence of movements, a technique which is smooth, graceful and in rhythm with the rest of the game.

hockey sports art

How would you like it if, at your job, every time you made the slightest mistake a little red light went on over your head and 18,000 people stood up and screamed at you?

hockey mistake jobs

If you jump out of a plane without a parachute, does that make you brave? No, I think that makes you stupid. I will never play without the mask again.

nhl stupid thinking

How would you like a job where, if you made a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo?

hockey mistake jobs

Playing goal is like being shot at. by Jacques Plante

Playing goal is like being shot at.

nhl hockey goal

Suppose you were working at your job one day, and you made a little mistake. Then all of a sudden a red light went on over your desk, and fifteen thousand people stood up and yelled at you that you sucked?

day you light people

If I don't wear the mask, I'm not playing. by Jacques Plante

If I don't wear the mask, I'm not playing.

wear playing mask

How would you like a job where when you made a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo?

you light mistake people

You had no mask, and the coach kept telling you, 'Use your head.'... by Jacques Plante

You had no mask, and the coach kept telling you, 'Use your head.' And I did.

head your you mask

If I've got to use my head, I might as well wear the mask. by Jacques Plante

If I've got to use my head, I might as well wear the mask.

head wear well mask

Dad was a machinist who had to work hard - harder than any man I... by Jacques Plante

Dad was a machinist who had to work hard - harder than any man I have ever known.

work-hard man dad work

Whenever I won an award in the NHL, I thought of my father and the pride he would get in reading about it and having people mention it to him.

award reading father people

All of us kids in the neighbourhood had to go shoeless for the same reason - all except the landlord's son, because his father had more income.

go reason father son

The shoot-and-chase approach had become big in hockey. Teams would come up to the blue line and shoot the puck around our boards deep in our zone, then swarm in after it forechecking, trying to regain possession.

deep hockey blue trying

Someday, I'm going to learn to knit with my feet. by Jacques Plante

Someday, I'm going to learn to knit with my feet.

learn going someday feet

I am getting old, but it works in this job. I'm so slow now that I can't get out of the way of the puck.

slow i-am job way