Finally, the NHL's regular season is almost here. It is also the time of year when goalies masks and equipment for the upcoming season begin to show up. In the past I've does posts on here showing Jimmy Howard's masks, although its been quite a while now. I'd like to change that and show off his new mask for the upcoming 2019-20 season.
Howard has had some really cool masks over the years. This one is no different. It was done by his usual painter Ray Bishop of Bishop Designs. He's done virtually all of Howard's Red Wings masks. Here is a good look at the left side and the back plate.
Similar to his mask from last season, this one is non-symmetric. This has the newer Hockeytown logo as well as the team logo centered on top of the mask so it wraps from one side to the other. It also has some horizontal striping that breaks it up into several alternating sections of red and white.
Also, this is probably the largest I've seen a goalie's numbers on the side of mask. That's not a bad thing, it just doesn't seem like something many goalies do.
Here is a look at the right side of the mask. This again has the large 35 and the est. 1926 right below it. The only difference from the left side would be the Spirit of Detroit instead of the city skyline in the red stripe near the bottom.
Finally, here is a cool look at the front of the mask. Another nice touch is the old school "D" on the chin. This photo kind of reminds me of those early 90's Pinnacle mask cards. So much so that I decided to have a little fun in Inkscape and turn it into an actual Pinnacle Masks card. This was one of the easiest custom designs I've made in a while.
It was nice to find these images on the Red Wings Facebook page without the usual painters logos covering up parts of the mask design. I understand why they need to put those things on there, but this just looks so much better without it. Plus, I was able to make a custom card from it relatively easily.
There are a lot of new masks for the upcoming season, which one is your favorite?
Haven't taken the time to check out this year's masks (won't start watching Sharks hockey until the regular season begins)... but the one mask that came to mind was Kelly Hrudey's old Sharks mask from the mid 90's. Always loved that one.
ReplyDeleteHoward always has solid backplates. Cool (and oh so simple) idea to create a vintage Pinnacle card to boot. Great stuff!
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