For the 1968-69 National Hockey League season, the fans of the St. Louis Blues were given a monumental treat. Two of the games greatest goaltenders shared duties between the pipes for St. Louis in just the team’s second year of existence. The two future Hall of Famers didn’t disappoint, taking home the Vezina Trophy with the lowest combined goals against average.
Glenn Hall was the original goalie for the franchise, coming over from the Chicago Black Hawks for the 1967-68 season. Hall played with the club for four years before retiring from the game. Jacques Plante played two years with St. Louis, 1968-69 and 1969-70 before moving on to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
O-Pee-Chee celebrated the duo with hockey card number 207 in their 1969-70 set. The card features a mug shot of both goalies on the front of the card with the back being a piece of a larger puzzle. The card has a book value of $50. The set consists of 231 cards and is valued complete at $2000. The Topps set from that year looked the same but was much smaller in quantity and did not include this Vezina card.
The Blues finished first in the West Division, a group of six consisting solely of expansion teams from the year before. St. Louis finished 19 points ahead of the second place Oakland Seals. The team allowed just 157 goals over the 76 game regular season schedule. Next in line in that category was the New York Rangers with 196. The most goals scored against the Blues in a single game that season was six (6-4 loss to Toronto, 6-3 loss to Chicago, 6-2 loss to Boston).
In 1969-70, Hall appeared in 41 regular season games, compared to 37 by Plante. Ted Ouimet played one full game for the Blues while Gary Edwards and Robbie Irons both were between the pipes for a matter of minutes. Jacques posted the lower GAA with 1.96 while Glenn was at 2.17. Between the two, they posted an outstanding 13 shutouts, eight by Hall and five by Plante.
Hall was also the team’s highest scoring goalie with two assists during the regular season. Their different personalities showed up with Glenn recording 20 penalty minutes while Jacques was given just one minor penalty. In contrast to Hall’s total, teammate Camille Henry sat just six minutes in the sin bin.
The Stanley Cup playoffs that season featured five sweeps in seven series. St. Louis swept the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round before doing the same to the Los Angeles Kings in the semi-finals. The duo of Plante and Hall shutout the Flyers twice and the Kings once. The Blues came up against the Montreal Canadiens in the finals and were, in turn, swept. The most goals the Habs scored againsts the Blues in a single game was 4 in a 4-0 game four.
It was Plante that came to the forefront in the post season. Jacques appeared in ten games while Hall played in just three.
Between the two legendary goalies, Hall and Plante have their names inscribed on the Vezina a combined total of ten times.
Glenn Hall played in the NHL from 1952-53 to 1970-71 with the Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Black Hawks and St. Louis. Besides his three Vezina wins, Hall was the Calder Trophy recipient in 1955-56 and was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 1967-68. Glenn was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1975.
Jacques Plante played in the NHL from 1952-53 to 1972-73 with the Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, St. Louis, Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins. Plante was the Hart Trophy winner in 1961-62 and entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1978.