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The NHL Unmasked

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By CARTER GADDIS

Published: November 5, 2007

Updated: 11/04/2007 11:45 pm

TAMPA - The cut ran from just beneath Bobby Taylor's nose clean through his upper lip. Teeth were visible. The puck had done its bloody work well.

"I saw myself in the mirror," Taylor said, "and I went, 'Holy cow!'"

It was 1968. At the time, Taylor, the Lightning's TV color analyst since 1992, was a minor-league netminder from Calgary, Alberta, just trying to prevent enough goals to prove he belonged in the NHL.

As difficult as it might be to fathom for the latter-day hockey fan accustomed to the elaborately painted and face-concealing headgear preferred by today's goalies, Taylor wore no mask that day four decades ago as he stood between the pipes.

He wasn't just trying to be a tough guy.

Masklessness was a way of life for NHL goalies for the first 42 years after the league was founded in 1917. A gradual shift away from bare-faced bravado began on Nov. 1, 1959, when Montreal's Jacques Plante defied convention and started to wear a mask every game after taking one too many pucks to the face.

In the 48 years since Plante's flash of defiance (not to mention common sense), the goalie mask has evolved into a hyper-protective, highly stylized, airbrushed personal ad, plastered on a molded composite canvas of fiberglass, Kevlar and carbon fiber.

Plante's original game mask was a simple contraption of his own design - eyes, nose and mouth holes carved out of an unpainted fiberglass shell, evoking ancient rituals of the South Pacific or Central Africa.

Today's mask is part work of art, part life saver and can cost as much as $3,000.

"There's a story behind every one of them," said mask artist Todd Miska of Miska Designs in North Branch, Minn. "I don't think I've had anyone who's said, 'Just make it to match my pads.'"

Protection Before Expression

The cut that split Taylor's upper lip that day in '68 took 76 stitches to close.

He was back on the ice the same day ... still without a mask.

"It was almost like they had to take me kicking and screaming," Taylor said, "into the new era."

Machismo wasn't the only thing that made goalies like Taylor risk terrible facial scarring during every game and practice.

Vision - the ability to see the puck up, down and all around - was another reason it took more than four decades for goalies as a breed to begin to have a change of heart.

"Was it frowned upon?" said Hall of Fame Boston Bruins goaltender Gerry Cheevers, who played from 1959-80. "I don't think so, as much as we just didn't use them. No one sold us on, 'This is gonna be perfect for ya.' I don't think goalies didn't wear them because they looked chicken."

It took a trip to a Seattle optometrist in 1969 for Taylor to finally see the light.

"They told me to bring the mask, and they were going to test my peripheral vision with and without the mask," Taylor said. "And they actually showed me the results of the test, and the difference was so miniscule.

"They said, 'You're stupid. You can still see as well.' The biggest problem we, as goalies, were concerned about was we weren't going to see the puck if it was at our feet. ... Injury never really came into it to think about wearing a mask."

'White Didn't Make Sense'

By the time Taylor reached the NHL with the Philadelphia Flyers during the 1971-72 season, masks had undergone several permutations. Plante's original design was tweaked and improved upon during the next decade.

"That first Plante mask," Cheevers said, "was so heavy your head was like a bowling ball."

Plumber-turned-mask maker Ernie Higgins of Norwood, Mass., designed a mask for his son in 1965, a design that endured as an NHL staple for nearly 15 years. It's recognized, even today, as an American icon of horror: the mask of choice for mindless killer Jason Voorhees in the 1980 movie, "Friday the 13th."

It didn't take long for Higgins' design to catch the attention of Cheevers - who began to make the adjustment to mask wearing after he was drafted by Boston in 1964.

"I never got cut once in junior hockey," Cheevers said. "My first month as a pro, I must've gotten about 50 stitches."

Hence, the mask. Trouble was, Cheevers wasn't crazy about the color. And that esthetic judgment was the impetus for the creation of what arguably is the most eloquent, classic goalie mask in NHL history.

"In all honesty, it was a very stupid thing," said Cheevers, who now has a self-named Web site for a business devoted to selling merchandise designed around his famous mask. "It was a white mask. And for weeks, maybe months, I was trying to figure out what to do. There were two things on my mind most of the time: what to put on my mask and how to get out of practice.

"I would never wear white socks. I hated white. White didn't make sense to me. It was a sign of purity, and that really wasn't me."

The way Cheevers tells it, he was lounging on the training table when then-Bruins coach Harry Sinden came into the room looking for his goalie. Before Cheevers dragged himself back to the ice, trainer John "Frosty" Forristall grabbed the white Higgins model mask and drew a "tremendous stitch mark" on it where a puck had struck Cheevers in the face as he wore the mask.

"We got a chuckle out of it," Cheevers said. "Next game, I think, I got hit five times over the eye, and he'd paint more stitches on."

Eventually, the mask was covered in stitches. It became Cheevers' trademark as he helped the Bruins win the Stanley Cup in 1970 and '72.

"Kids used to write to me and say, 'How do I get a mask like that?'" Cheevers said. "I'd say, 'Send me $100 and I'll send you a Magic Marker.' But they seemed to like it.

"I think it explains the nature of hockey and goaltending. I think that's what it stands for."

A Personal Decision

The last NHL goalie to play without a mask was Andy Brown of the Pittsburgh Penguins on April 7, 1974. That same year, mask art experienced a Renaissance, of sorts.

While some goalies like the Flyers' Doug Favell and Taylor (who insists his black starburst design was the first actual paint job on an NHL mask in 1972) began to express themselves with their headgear, a Toronto artist and former college goalie - Greg Harrison - had bigger ideas.

In '74, Harrison painted red wings over the eye holes of Detroit Red Wings goalie Jim Rutherford. Three years later, Harrison became something of a sensation with the debut of his all-over paint job for Rangers goalie Gilles Gratton - who wore the ferocious lion face mask as a representation of his astrological sign, Leo.

Harrison also worked with goalie Dave Dryden in 1977 to design the precursor of the helmet-and-cage mask that has become the standard around the NHL.

Today, mask artists like Miska in Minnesota work hand-in-hand with goalies to make sure the right message comes across. Miska has created mask art for NHL starters like Eddie "the Eagle" Belfour, Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff, San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov and St. Louis' Manny Fernandez, among others.

"Everybody's got something to say," Miska said. "Especially goalies."

Sometimes, the message is poignant.

In Buffalo, goalie Ryan Miller pays tribute to his cousin Matt Schoals with a bulldog (Schoals' favorite kind of dog) and the words "Matt Man" painted on the back plate. Schoals died last month at age 18 of complications following a bone-marrow transplant.

Sometimes, the message is fun and frivolous.

In Minnesota, goalie Josh Harding asked Miska to digitally place members of the country group Rascal Flatts in Wild jerseys and insert them on the sides of his mask.

Sometimes, the message pays homage to the player's home region or hometown. Lightning goalie Marc Denis' new mask does both.

A blue alligator on top and a pirate ship on one side represent Florida and the Tampa Bay area. The other side depicts a paper mill-turned-museum known as the Pulperie of Chicoutimi, his adopted hometown in Quebec.

"I like the ones that dig in a little deeper," said Denis, whose first Lightning mask last year depicted a Zeus-like figure wielding a bolt of lightning. "I like the ones that really try to get into the history. Some guys have more a personal theme with their masks. I'm one that believes I owe it to the place where I play at to at least do a little research into the history and come up with something. That's obviously a very personal decision."

The practice has come a long way since Cheevers' $100 Magic Marker mask stitches, which were the first recorded "artwork" on an NHL goalie's mask. Few since have matched Cheevers' mask in terms of eloquence.

Still, the originator approves.

"I think they've done a terrific job with these new masks," Cheevers said. "I jokingly say that if I didn't put those stitches on mine, they'd all still be white."

Evolution Of The Goalie Mask

Jan. 7, 1930: Clint Benedict of the Montreal Maroons becomes the first NHL goalie to wear a mask after his cheek and nose are hurt by a slap shot. Benedict wears it for five games before deciding it impairs his vision too much.

1956: Delbert Louch of St. Mary's, Ontario, develops a clear plastic face shield that is distributed to NHL goalies for testing but is never used in a game.

Nov. 1, 1959: Jacques Plante of the Montreal Canadiens becomes the first NHL goalie to wear a mask regularly after catching a puck in the face from Andy Bathgate. His molded, fiberglass model is ridiculed, but Plante does not give in to long-held cultural bias against masks on goalies. (OUT FRONT)

1962: Detroit's Terry Sawchuk, the NHL shutout record holder, begins wearing a fiberglass molded mask.

1968: Boston Bruins goalie Gerry Cheevers' white fiberglass mask becomes the first mask with markings when trainer John "Frosty" Forristall draws stitches on the places struck by a puck to indicate injuries avoided by wearing the mask.

1969: Future NHL goalie Ken Dryden wears a metal frame mask with a "bone" or "pretzel" style at Cornell University.

Mid-1960s-early 1970s: The Friday the 13th "Jason Voorhees" models designed by Ernie Higgins become popular, although most remain plain white.

1972: Russian goalie Vladimir Tretiak's cage-helmet combination begins to catch on in this hemisphere after Canada/Soviet Union "Series of the Century."

1972: Flyers goalie Doug Favell's white mask is painted bright Flyers orange as part of a Halloween prank, becoming the first full-mask paint job.

1972-73: Favell and his backup, Bobby "the Chief" Taylor, have orange and black starbursts painted on their masks, the first case of artistic expression on a mask. Taylor insists his black starburst design came first.

April 7, 1974: Penguins goalie Andy Brown becomes the last mask-less goalie in NHL history. He played three more seasons in the WHL and wore a mask all three.

1974: Detroit goaltender Jim Rutherford employs artist and mask maker Greg Harrison to paint red wings above the eye holes on his otherwise white mask. This is generally acknowledged as the precursor to today's elaborate designs.

Mid-1970s: Some goaltenders begin to use elongated masks or hinged guards to protect the throat area and designs become more and more elaborate. Hall of Famer Tony Esposito adds a wire cage to his fiberglass mask to protect his eyes.

1976: Greg Harrison designs a dramatic and ferocious-looking lion-themed mask for Rangers goalie Gilles Gratton, whose astrological sign was Leo.

1977: Greg Harrison conceives and designs a hybrid mask-helmet design, the precursor to the modern mask.

1979: A career-ending eye injury is suffered by Hall of Famer Bernie Parent as he takes a stick to the eye while wearing a molded fiberglass mask. Helmet-cage combinations become widely used in the NHL, with the "cat-eye" cage style gaining popularity ahead of the "square" cage.

Mid-1980s-early 1990s: The mask-cage combination originated by goalie Dave Dryden and artist Greg Harrison becomes the preferred style. Elaborate, air-brushed artwork depicting team logos and regional themes, such as Mike Richter's famous red and blue Statue of Liberty, become commonplace.

Late 1980s-2000s: Artwork becomes more personalized and stylized, most notably for Eddie "the Eagle" Belfour and Curtis "Cujo" Joseph. Digital imagery begins to appear on masks, lending more and more realism and personalization to the artwork.

Compiled by Carter Gaddis

Reporter Carter Gaddis can be reached at (813) 259-8291 or igaddis@tampatrib.com.

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