Michel Pierre Plasse (June 1, 1948 – December 30, 2006) was a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
professional
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...
goaltender
In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...
.
Playing career
Born in
Montreal, Quebec
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...
, Plasse played in the
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
(NHL) from
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...
to
1982 after being the first overall draft pick in the
1968 NHL Amateur Draft. During his NHL career, he played for the
St. Louis Blues
The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the ...
(1970–71),
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...
(1973–74),
Kansas City Scouts
The Kansas City Scouts were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1974 to 1976. In 1976, the franchise relocated to Denver, and became the Colorado Rockies. In 1982, the Rockies relocated to New Jersey where ...
(1974–75),
Pittsburgh Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins (colloquially known as the Pens) are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference, and have playe ...
(1975–76),
Colorado Rockies (1976–80), and
Quebec Nordiques
The Quebec Nordiques (french: Nordiques de Québec, pronounced in Quebec French, in Canadian English; translated "Quebec City Northmen" or "Northerners") were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City. The Nordiques played in the W ...
(1981–1982).
Despite being a first draft pick, Plasse played just sixty minutes in goal for his first club, St. Louis, playing mainly for their affiliate, the
Kansas City Blues of the
Central Hockey League
The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...
. On February 21, 1971, the
Oklahoma City Blazers were trailing the Blues 2–1 and decided to pull their goaltender. Plasse scored on the open net and became
the first professional goalie in the history of the game to score a goal.
[Hockey’s Book of Firsts, p.10, James Duplacey, JG Press, ]
Plasse returned to Kansas City as the first pick of the NHL Scouts in the 1974 expansion draft. Plasse attended the draft at Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel.
"All year long, I said I was going to Kansas City. I used to sing that in the locker room to my teammates, 'Kansas City, here I come,'" Plasse told Jay Greenberg of the ''Kansas City Star''. (''Icing on the Plains: The Rough Ride of Kansas City's NHL Scouts'', pp. 41-42)
In total, Plasse clocked up 16,760 regular season minutes on ice in 299 games, conceding 1,058 goals with an average of 3.79 goals per game. He earned 2 shutouts, both for Pittsburgh in 1975–76. He played 4 Stanley Cup playoff games, conceding 9 goals in 195 minutes at a rate of 2.77, including 1 shutout. Plasse won the
Stanley Cup with Montreal in
1973
Events January
* January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 15 – Vietnam War: ...
.
Death
Plasse died in
La Visitation-de-l'Île-Dupas, Quebec
La Visitation-de-l'Île-Dupas is a municipality in the Lanaudière region of Quebec, Canada, part of the D'Autray Regional County Municipality. Its territory is located on several of the Sorel Islands in the Saint Lawrence River where it flows int ...
of a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
on December 30, 2006.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Plasse, Michel
1948 births
2006 deaths
Binghamton Whalers players
Canadian ice hockey goaltenders
Cleveland Barons (1937–1973) players
Colorado Rockies (NHL) players
Drummondville Rangers players
Fort Worth Texans players
French Quebecers
Hampton Gulls (AHL) players
Hershey Bears players
Ice hockey people from Montreal
Kansas City Blues players
Kansas City Scouts players
Montreal Canadiens draft picks
Montreal Canadiens players
National Hockey League first-overall draft picks
Nova Scotia Voyageurs players
Pittsburgh Penguins players
Quebec Nordiques players
St. Louis Blues players
Stanley Cup champions
National Hockey League first-round draft picks