Don't look at this photo of Terry Sawchuk too close to bed (Courtesy of Rare Historical Photos).
A little disclaimer at the beginning of this article: the first face masks of the NHL look like horror movie mask replicas. The history of the face mask is a disconcerting topic.
The First Face Mask Ever
The first goalie to wear a face mask is thought to have been Clint Benedict in 1930. Although Clint was an incredible goalie, he is best known as the father of face protection. Benedict was no weakling; he played hurt like everyone else in his time. At one point, the goalie could barely use one of his legs, covered with a skinny little cricket pad.
Clint put his foot down after he took a puck to the face, was knocked out, and had to spend a month in the hospital with a shattered nose and cheekbones that affected his vision in January of 1930. After six weeks, he returned to hockey with a leather mask with metal bars that mostly protected his nose.
Benedict couldn’t keep his face mask for long; the bulky mass would block his vision, and so he threw it out after a few games. He would retire the following year after a puck to the throat. What could possibly go wrong when pucks are being propelled at players bare faces all game long?
The Other First Face Mask Ever?
There is a possibility that George Hainsworth may have been the first player to wear face protection more than a year before. He took a friendly fire hit to the face during warm-ups. The team doctor attempted to stop the blood flowing from the goalie’s nose and eventually determined Hainsworth broke it. George would play that night with a broken nose, quickly dressed by the physician.
After the game, George had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance with one eye nearly swollen shut. Two days later, he was back on the ice. Four days after the initial injury, Hainsworth was playing with what was described as a “piece of plaster” from one side of his face to the other. Another reporter suggested it was a rubber mask. No one is clear if it was those things or just more dressing. Apparently, keeping up with the details on injuries was a bit complicated; it seems there were many.
What did George Hainsworth have to say about it all? He played through getting seven teeth knocked out and a cerebral concussion; he would definitely play through this. Although it didn’t go without pain, whether he was wearing rubber, plaster, or basic dressing, he did take a puck to the nose and lift both his hands like a man blinded, according to hockey correspondent Harold Burr.
Following up With our Face Mask Friends
Clint “Praying Benny” Benedict
How did the goalies hold up in life after being part of the NHL? In a time in the league when the game was more about testing torture techniques like breaking someone’s nose and then taking a puck to it than hockey.
Clint “Praying Benny” Benedict played professional hockey from 1912 to 1931. He received his nickname for being the first player to drop his knees to the ice to stop a puck. Praying Benny even legalized this move after playing with the refs for a while – did he drop because he lost his balance or was it intentional? Only Clint knew. He was credited with making flopping an art form.
Benedict was a controversial guy off the field with little time for prayer. He was in a little bit of a scandal when the Ottawa Senators couldn’t hide the extent of his drinking any longer. His late nights and hitting the bottle got excessive, and the team would penalize him for it financially. Clint said no thanks and sued the team; they sued him back, and soon his debauchery, found in court records, was tabloid fodder (the 1930s version).
Clint Benedict Laying Low
Praying Benny would lay pretty low after the scandal. He was married, managed the Wembley Arena, and coached the team for two seasons in London. After that, he came back to Ottawa, bought a house five minutes from the rink he played in professionally, married, and made a living as a municipal clerk. He was enshrined in the hall of fame in 1965 (many thought he was brought in so late because of his earlier debauchery).
Clint’s favorite player was Gordie Howe, and he thought goalies of his time had it soft in comparison to the goalies of the 1950s and 1960s due to the power play. The players shot harder and faster. Do these men not have pain receptors? Clint Benedict would pass away in 1976 at age 84.
George Hainsworth
George Hainsworth was described as boring on and off the ice. Boring on the ice because he never made spectacular saves. This actually was something he apologized to the Montreal Canadiens fans for. This is a bit humorous, considering he was one of the best goalies in NHL history. Anyway, allegedly he wasn’t a party animal like Praying Benny, complaining about his team’s “drinking and carousing” during the playoffs instead of keeping their noses straight.
After retiring, George would serve in the military and work as a radio inspector. He died tragically young, at age 55, on his way home from visiting his son with his wife in 1950. He had a head-on collision with a truck and was pronounced dead on the scene.
For other disconcerting historical articles, look here.
