Scary Goalie Masks

With Halloween and the 50th anniversary of the goalie mask upon us, it's only right that we take a look at some of the most colorful headwear in NHL history. Jacques Plante's mask, which he first wore at New York's Madison Square Garden on Nov. 1, 1959, was a simple fiberglass deal that merely hinted at the often ghoulishly elaborate ones to come. Plante, by the way, was not the first netminder to wear a mask -- Clint Benedict of the Montreal Maroons donned a leather-and-wire variation for a game in 1930 to protect his broken nose and cheekbone -- but Plante was the one who popularized it.