Weekend Open Thread: Masks

The Calgary Flames used four goalies during the 2013-14 season. Those goalies brought with them wildly different styles, personas and, yes, even masks.

To provide a retrospective on the various facial protection Calgary’s netminders used last season, here’s a quick and dirty rundown of their masks.

Berra arrived in training camp and hedged his bets. His mask had a Flames logo on one side and an Abbotsford Heat logo on the other. Smart guy, eh? He wore this mask in both places, but commissioned another mask once he made the Flames full-time.

So Berra ordered a cool cowboy mask. But unfortunately, the mask had a narrow chin on it – you may notice all Berra’s masks have wider chins – so he ordered this temporary mask and sent away his first mask (the hybrid) to get repainted with the cowboy design. The temporary mask is pretty boilerplate for a Flames mask – fire, logos and Berra’s name and number.

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Berra’s final Calgary mask had cowboys on it like he always wanted.

MacDonald’s mask from last season, it the “Mack” truck from the Cars movies on either side. MacDonald’s kids apparently love Cars, so he got the design.

Ortio’s mask from last season with HIFK. He wore it during the mid-part of his season when his regular mask broke and needed some repairs.

Ortio had this mask for training camp. It was used in Alaska, Abbotsford and Calgary. This one broke mid-season, so Ortio briefly switched back to his Finnish league mask for a few weeks.

Ramo’s first mask featured a monster with big scary teeth and brains oozing out.

Mid-season, Ramo decided he wanted another mask, so he had this beauty made. Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, this one has a black Flames logo, a really cool black raven motif, and a skull. Most Finns have skulls on their goalie masks.