Unmasked Man

Was Glenn Hall the best goalie ever?

The Man They Call Mr. Goalie
by Tom Adrahtas Albion Press, $16.95

QUESTION: WHO'S the best net-minder ever—Jacques Plante, Patrick Roy or Terry Sawchuk? The author says it's Glenn Hall, an II-time All-Star. Plus, Hall—not Roy—invented the butterfly style of goaltending that Adrahtas writes "was visionary and is more alive in the NHL of the new millennium than it was when he first employed it to howling criticism in the 1950s."

What's more, it's safe to say that no netminder will break Hall's NHL record of 502 consecutive regular-season games played. Hall played those games without a mask too. Whether he enjoyed that streak is another matter: So keyed up that he routinely vomited before and between periods of nearly every game, Hall came to believe that he wouldn't perform well unless he threw up.