Sunday 13 September 2015

Best Goalie Masks: Pittsburgh Penguins

        When your team brings to mind movies such as Happy Feet and Surfs Up, It's somewhat hard to come up with a mask that fits with the world's toughest sport (I also give kudos to whoever designed the Penguins logo). However, there are a select few goaltenders for the Penguins franchise who have embraced this challenge and sported some of the best masks that this sport has ever had. The best goalie mask for the Pittsburgh Penguins is:
97-98 PATRICK LALIME
Once again, Lalime takes home the victory for best goalie mask. Well, actually, this one came before the Senators one, technically. Lalime wore this for his first seasons in Pittsburgh, along the way setting the record for most consecutive wins from the start of a career, winning 16 straight, breaking the record set by Ross Brooks, and more notably, Ken Dryden. The mask itself features a penguin breaking out of its shell, which is very much like what Lalime did in his rookie season, breaking out of the minors. Before the days of his Marvin the Martian masks, Lalime embraced the cartoon penguin and donned a mask still talked about today.

HONOURABLE MENTION:
11-12 MARC-ANDRE FLEURY
While Lalime's mask is cartoony and entertaining, Marc-Andre Fleury's is mixing Penguins and flowers and somehow wearing quite a menacing mask. on the right side, there is his classic flower in goalie gear, standing in front of a brick wall. Inscribed on the blocker is the word "flower". Of course, all this flower business is based on the fact that "Fleury" is basically French for "flower". All in all, a good mask.

Thanks for reading, and keep updated for more hockey card posts!


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