Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Chet Pickard 2010-11 Mask

Chet Pickard of the Nashville Predators (born Nov. 29, 1989 in Moncton, NB.)

I really like this one! Beautiful colors. From looking at his NHL player card I see that he's not actually playing with the Predators this season. Maybe he's playing for their AHL team...




Braden Holtby 2010-11 Mask

Braden Holtby of the Washington Capitals (born Sept. 16, 1989 in Lloydminster, SK.)

Holtby started wearing a new mask in early 2011. I'll leave the first one at the bottom of the entry. But here's the new one. I love the bear (because he also plays for the Hershey Bears in the AHL.) Big thanks to Canucks Fan for sending this info to me!





His previous mask:






Monday, September 27, 2010

Jonas Hiller 2010-11 Mask

Jonas Hiller of the Anaheim Ducks (born Feb. 12, 1982 in Felben Wellhausen, Switzerland.)

Here's what Jonas Hiller had to say about his mask over at InGoal Magazine.

InGoal Magazine reader Terry Smith writes: I love the all black mask you are wearing this year. How did you come up with the idea to keep it so simple and plain, and did it have anything to do with Swiss goalie Martin Gerber having something similar for a whle in Ottawa a few years ago?

Jonas Hiller: “No, actually it was a prototype for a new design from my mask maker in Switzerland (Alec Voggel of Airxess) and my painter just put a flat black on it because he wanted to cover the carbon fiber look and then we started putting the gold Ducks logo stickers on it and I started to think it actually looked pretty cool. And I brought it to training camp and guys liked it and I’ve never had so many people talking about it, so I thought I’d just keep it for now. I’ve heard a couple of nicknames – Darth Vader and Batman – but it’s cool if people talk about it. I always try to come up with something different. Sometimes there is so much stuff on the masks you can barely figure out what it is, but with that it fits the Ducks outfit. It’s beat up a little bit and it’s tough to try to keep it flat black because it gets shiny where it gets hit, but it still looks good. If I waned to do another layer, I could probably spray paint it, but it looks a little more mean if it’s beat up.”

The Goalie Guild has more photos here.





Sunday, September 26, 2010

Carey Price 2010-11 Mask

Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens (born Aug. 16, 1987 in Anahim Lake, BC.)

I see a rodeo theme...I read that Price tried his hand at professional team steer roping in the off-season.

Edit: Some people have asked about the cross on the back of the mask. I didn't find anything about the cross on this season's mask in particular, but I found an article about his previous mask and it mentions that he always wants a cross. Here's what it says:

"The new mask, which Price debuted two weeks ago in the Habs' home opener, has two common themes amongst his previous head protectors - the CH logo on the forehead and a cross located somewhere in the art work.

This installment in Price's collection has the CH front and centre and has a lightning bolt striking the top of a Celtic cross, which is painted on the head plate of the mask.

'That's one thing that hasn't changed,'' Price explained of his desire to have a cross on his helmets. 'It's probably something that I'll always have on my mask.'"

So he didn't explain why, just that he always wants to have one. I'll continue looking.







On March 26, 2011, Price wore a special mask. Here's the story about it over at InGoal Magazine.





This is a tribute mask that he wore some last season and in pre-season this year. Maybe since it's a tribute mask it's for special purposes.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Cam Ward 2010-11 Mask

Cam Ward of the Carolina Hurricanes (born Feb. 29, 1984 in Saskatoon, SK.)

According to The Goalie Guild that's "Blackbeard, the English pirate, on both sides of the mask."




Alex Auld 2010-11 Mask

Alex Auld of the Montreal Canadiens (born Jan. 7, 1981 in Cold Lake, AB.)

He is paying respect to the 3 Montreal goalies that have had their numbers retired (Plante, Dryden and Roy.)

Auld got a new mask in Feb. 2011. Here's the link to that entry.










Semyon Varlamov 2010-11 Mask

Semyon Varlamov of the Washington Capitals (born April 27, 1988 in Samara, Russia.)

From The Goalie Guild: "The left side of the mask features white stars crossing over George Washington’s profile and the U.S. Capitol building in blue tint, while the right side matches that with a blue-tinted bald eagle head next to a waving American flag. The crown of the mask features a shortened “Caps”; font logo on top of a deep blue base with red and white stripes being filled with blue stars. The chin features Semyon’s signature “VARLY” font on top of blue stars and the American and Russian flages. The “V” and the “Y” in “VARLY” both have the winged portion of the Capitals winged “W” logo trailing off of them."