Today is a big day in hockey history: The 50th anniversary of the late Montreal great Jacques Plante being the first goaltender to wear a protective facemask during a National Hockey League game. Thus changing the face of the NHL, literally and figuratively.

It’s worth noting that this golden anniversary falls during a November that, in a couple of weeks, will also produce a Friday the 13th. The connection? In pop-cultural terms, the old-style hockey mask that Plante debuted in 1959 really hit the limelight 23 years later, when Jason first donned his in Friday the 13th Part III. Thus turning a highly-visible piece of athletic equipment into an even more recognizable horror-movie icon.

I’ll let you decide if November the 1st or Friday the 13th is the more significant date for hockey-heads. I just like the juxtapositional occurrence of the two dates on this particular anniversary, the 50th commemoration of Plante’s debut.

Times have changed, of course. Plante’s first mask, and the flat-plated ones that became standard netminder equipment during the ’60s and ’70s, morphed into today’s ornately-decorated catcher’s-mask models, with little resemblance to the original designs. Even though Jason Voorhees stuck with the old-school look in his 2009 remake (how could he not?), the on-ice product goes for less scare and more flare.