Designs lend faceless goalies an identity
Though they're primarily for protection, goalie masks are judged like works of art.
For trick or treaters this year, Dubya or Nixon or Harry Potter are the means of concealment most favored. But great masks can be seen for nine months of the year; they're not merely confined to the hours after dusk each and every Oct. 31.
They've gone from a piece of protective equipment to an outlet for personal expression, now adorned with statues and messages and statements and even the mascots of heavy-metal rock bands. They've become big business and much-sought-after items.
Frank Cibra, like everyone else, has his favorite.
"That's easy. The Jeff Hackett mask," replies the Ottawa-based mask maker. "I designed it."
Cibra, who produces between 60-80 masks a year for NHL and minor-league goalies, also lists Sean Burke, Grant Fuhr, Byron Dafoe and Curtis Joseph, among others, as clients. So why is the Hackett model at the top of his hit parade?
"Because the two kids playing pond hockey, one on either side of the mask, are my sons, Joel and Ian."
Goalie masks, then, can be personal statements for the artists as well as the combatants. They give the game's faceless men an identity, a tie-in to a nickname or a team logo or a city.
Others are designed as a tribute.
Cibra, as an example, has designed a mask for Bruins' goalie Dafoe to wear the night Boston honors its two-time Stanley Cup-winning Hall-of-Fame goaltender Gerry Cheevers. On either side of the mask are images of Cheevers' famous black-stitch mask, and above the eye sockets is written "Thanks for the Memories."
Dafoe will wear the mask in the game that evening and then present it to Cheevers as a momento.
He has also created a special mask for Phoenix's Robert Esche, which he will wear when the Coyotes visit Washington. Illustrations of police officers, firefighters, search-and-rescue workers and the Red Cross all adorn the mask. It will be auctioned off following that game with proceeds to aid the families of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
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Frank Cibra's 10 favorite masks |
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1. Jeff Hackett, Montreal: Two boys playing pond hockey theme. 2. Ron Tugnutt, Columbus: Splash theme. 3. Byron Dafoe, Boston: Grizzly bears on either side of the mask. 4. Tommy Salo, Edmonton: Viking with sword. 5. Curtis Joseph, Toronto: A Steven King Cujo theme. 6. Grant Fuhr, circa St. Louis: Piano keys, notes and other musical themes. 7. Brian Boucher, Philadelphia: WWI fighter pilot. 8. Sean Burke, Phoenix: Girl on a Harley on the front, Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page on the sides. 9. Robert Esche, Phoenix: USA flag border, Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jr. on the sides. 10. Rick DiPietro, N.Y. Islanders: Wizards on each side, Stars and Stripes theme. |
"The one with the Island and the N.Y. on it," he says. "It's in the Hall of Fame now and attracted a great deal of attention at the time I began wearing it. The student was just hanging around the clubhouse and asked me if I'd like my mask painted. I said 'Sure.' Amazing, isn't it?
"There's one mask I passed on and I'm kicking myself about," he sighs. "LeRoy Nieman offered to paint one for me when I was on the Island, but because the trend at the time was going from the full mask to a cage, I hesitated and it never got done.
"I sure wish I had that mask now."
Some images favored by ex-goalies, such as the Gary Simmons mask of a Cobra that ranks among Resch's gems, are obscure. Others, like the Statue of Liberty theme used by Ranger netminder Mike Richter are widely-known and appreciated.
"The most striking? The Gilles Gratton mask of a lion," says Madison Square Garden and ABC-TV hockey analyst John Davidson. "That one was pretty cool.
"It was featured on magazine covers. He played here in New York, Gratton. An interesting guy. Hated to play. HATED to play. But a 12-string classical guitarist, classical pianist. When everyone else was driving around in these block-long El Dorados he bought a Volkswagon.
"And the one before that, I'd have to say Gerry Cheevers' stitches mask. So distinctive, that one, with the black on white."
Davidson used to wear a mask hockey devotees still remember with great fondness, using three slightly curvy bold red-white-and-blue stripes. Again, clean, uncluttered, distinctive.
"I still have that one," he says. "And I wore one for a while with a Lone Ranger theme that I liked a lot. But it was stolen. Then, years later, it wound up for sale on the Internet. Christie's, I think. I phoned the guy who had it and he offered to give it back, but he wanted sticks and bunch of other stuff in exchange and then never phoned me back anyway."
Not surprisingly, many goalies hold soft spots in their hearts for masks they used to wear.
"For over-the-top," laughs the CBC's Kelly Hrudey, "I think my Hollywood one is pretty competitive."
CTV SportsNet analyst John Garrett chooses one he used in the WHA with the Toronto Toros and then the Birmingham Bulls, Greg Harrison-design, featuring the horns and flame shooting from the bull's nostrils.
"For Halloween-scary type masks, what about Terry Sawchuk's classic?" says Garrett. "It actually looked like a skeleton. HE actually looked like a skeleton. This drawn, gaunt face underneath these skeletal-type bars. Those huge eye holes in the mask which made the effect even more striking.
"For guys that grew up not wearing a mask -- and I don't think I used one until bantam hockey, at, oh, 12 or 13 -- the Cheevers mask remains one we all remember. We could all relate to it. You'd get a stick in the head, and think of Cheevers: 'Oh, that would've cost me 10 stitches.' You take a puck and think 'That would've been 20, minimum'.
"Of the modern -- quote, unquote -- era, I quite liked the Brian Hayward mask when he was in San Jose. The one that gave the impression that his face was stuck in the mouth of the Shark. That had some style."
| “ | When you think about it, a goalie mask is about the only form of personal expression an athlete can make in pro sports. ... And I think that's kinda neat." ” | |
| — Brian Hayward, former Sharks goalie and current Mighty Ducks analyst |
"A personal trademark, if you like," Hayward says. "When you think about it, a goalie mask is about the only form of personal expression an athlete can make in pro sports. Major League Baseball has to approve whatever a catcher puts on his mask, which have evolved into being almost like goalie masks. The NFL guards what allows its players to wear. Remember the furor over Jim McMahon writing things on his headbands?
"But hockey goalies can express themselves through the artwork on their masks. And I think that's kinda neat."
Of the modern masks, many ex-goaltenders, Davidson and Hrudey among them, rank Richter's ode to Manhattan highly.
"Statue of Liberty one stands out because from above, you can see the Statue right on his forehead," says Davidson. "That works. But it's kinda like full metal now. The masks are so busy. There are great messages on some of them -- Marty Brodeur has the names of his kids, for instance, Olie the Goalie had a small Pentagon painted onto his after the Sept. 11 tragedy. But in some cases it's almost too much."
Garrett, too feels that today's masks are too off-the-wall, too over designed.
"I mean, Corey Hirsch had a Psycho theme with the Bates Motel painted on his mask," he exclaims. "Now I like Alfred Hitchcock as much as the next person but, really, what has that got to do with anything?!"
Hrudey agrees: "The detail is awesome, but a lot of the time it's difficult to see on TV or from the stands."
Some people prefer the formative years of the early '60s, others the explosion in color and design started in the late mid-to-late '70s, others the pop art pieces of art worn today.
"Clients are demanding more and more detail on their masks," says Cibra, who should know. "Mask design has evolved just as the game has."
Bottom line, like or loathe, it's all a matter of personal taste.
"With goalie masks, as with anything else," says Resch, "beauty really is in the eye of the beholder."
George Johnson of the Calgary Herald is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
