Mark J. Terrill / AP

Columbus goalie Steve Mason keeps his eye on the puck — and because he's wearing a mask doesn't have to worry about it injuring his face while making a save.

By Craig Custance

updated 5:16 a.m. ET Nov. 1, 2009

For today's goalies, it's not a matter of toughness. It's a matter of sanity. November 1 marks the 50th anniversary of the night when Montreal legend Jacques Plante refused to re-enter a game until he was allowed to wear a protective mask.

Half a century later, NHL goalies wouldn't even consider going near a sheet of ice without a mask. Playing without one is unfathomable.

"I can't imagine," Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo told Sporting News. "That's pretty crazy. Obviously the shots were not what they are today, but still. There was a lot of stuff going on around the crease. I don't know how those guys did it."

Said Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere: "It's actually crazy. I'm sure the shots weren't the same, the sticks weren't the same, but still crazy. Stupid crazy."

Before Plante, several other players tried rudimentary forms of the mask. Most notably, Clint Benedict in 1930 wore a mask for five games. But it was generally frowned upon and Plante's decision set the tone for goaltenders from then on.

The craziness ended on Nov. 1, 1959. The Montreal Canadiens were playing the New York Rangers, when an Andy Bathgate shot hit Plante in the face in the first period. Plante had his face stitched up and when he returned to the game, this time he was masked.

It was finally a moment of sanity even though Plante's coach Toe Blake was dead set against the idea. Charlie Hodge was Plante's backup in Montreal. When they made a goalie mask for Plante, the second one went to Hodge.

During a phone conversation with Sporting News, the 76-year-old former Montreal goalie said Blake's anti-mask stance was the only reason Montreal goalies didn't wear one earlier.

"He was from the old-school. Let's face it," said Hodge, who won the Vezina Trophy in 1964. "Jacques put it on and Blake screamed a lot about it but Jacques put it on anyway. That was where that was at."

Hodge's reaction to the introduction to the mask in games?

"I didn't mind it. I didn't mind it at all," he said. "It as a case where I was a slow learner. (Without a mask) I nearly lost an eye, had a broken nose, broken cheek bone and broken jaw."

The new masks didn't solve everything. Hodge remembers taking a shot off the mask that took a chunk out of his mask, and got his head pretty good too. The solution by the Montreal trainer was to tighten the straps on Hodge's mask so his head wouldn't swell up.

"Things were a little different then," he said.

A little.

By the time Hall of Famer Tony Esposito made his NHL debut during the 1968-69 season, goalie masks were the norm in the NHL. But the Blackhawks legend didn't wear one regularly until he was 18 years old, which led to a frequent battle with his mother, who wasn't crazy about Esposito manning a goal without head protection.

It didn't help that he'd often sprint home after playing hockey at the rink by his school, with snow pressed against his head to help slow the bleeding caused by a puck to the head.

He was more than happy to wear a mask in the NHL, but life without one wasn't going to stop him from being a goalie.

"If they didn't have masks, I would have played anyway," said Esposito, who still has his first goalie mask in his home office in Florida. "That's how my mentality was. I was used to it, a few cuts here and there didn't seem to bother me."

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