Who Was That Masked Man?

A few days ago was the 50th anniversary of Jacques Plante donning his goalie mask for the first time. There have been a ton of special shows, features and articles about it, so I thought I'd beat that dead horse and do my own. You can never have enough goalies, right??


Good mask shots usually depend on how close I was able to get and for some that was very good. So here is a list of all of the cool masks I got pictures of last season.


Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers has a red, white and blue American mask.





I actually like Steve Valiquette's Rangers mask better. It has the Statue of Liberty in a Rangers jersey and Spider Man on it.





Cristobal Huet pays homage to the Chicago Blackhawk's logo with a beautiful Native American headdress.





Marc-Andre Fleury has this mean little flower on one side, a tie-in to his last name and a penguin on the other side.





View from the front.





The Bruins' Tim Thomas has a big scary bear in the black and yellow/gold of Boston.





Last season when Martin Biron was with the Philadelphia Flyers he had a lumberjack on each side of the mask and Philly colors.





The other side.





Kevin Weekes came through Blue Land last season with the New Jersey Devils. He has a big bad ass panther on his mask.





A look at the other side of Weekesie's mask.





Peter Budaj was the starting goalie for the Colorado Avalanche last season. He has a large angry, red Incredible Hulk on his mask.






And of course on the back, Budaj's trademark buff Ned Flanders.





So that is what some of the visitors did last season in Blueland. Let's look at some of the residents of Blueland.




Kari used this mask quite a bit last season. He had scenes from "Kill Bill" on it. On this side you see Beatrix Kiddo/The Bride. The other side has O-Ren Ishii. You can also see Kari's trademark image of Atlanta Rapper Lil' Jon on the back.





Another mask that Kari frequently wore has the image of The Joker from the latest Batman movie.





On the other side is a big Atlanta emblem.


What is the big Finn wearing this season? A hospital gown. We haven't seen him on the ice yet. He recently had yet another back surgery. Get well soon, Karpa!




On to my beloved Johan "Moose"Hedberg.




Last season Moose had "Indiana Moose" (and the Phillips Arena of Doom based on our stats last season).





This season he has gone in a more lighthearted direction with a mask can't say I love (it's growing on me though). It's the Sponge Bob Moose Pants. He has 3 daughters, I'm guessing they had something to do with it.





On the other side...DUH it's Patrick of course.





Last season Ondrej Pavelec spent most of the season with our AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. He did spend a lot of time with us though. His mask reflected his split time. One side was Atlanta, the other Chicago.





This season Pavs was very ambitious and has an all-Atlanta mask. He's certainly been playing like he's ready to stay here. On once side is the Atlanta skyline with Phillips arena. On the other is a famous Atlanta landmark, the Fox Theater.





Last but not least, Drew McIntyre stirred up some comments during training camp with his mask. He has a pirate Mr. Potato head and 2 CareBears (for his wife and daughter) on the back.


Fun stuff!