Suiting up between the pipes for the first time when he was six, Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Joey MacDonald fell in love with the goaltending position and completely immersed himself in it.
Whether it was the poster of Brian Hayward's San Jose Sharks mask in his childhood bedroom, or the way he carefully rifled through a new pack of hockey cards to find the netminders, the youngster knew at a young age where his place was on the ice.
After wearing a player's mask for the first few years of his early career, at the age of 12 his parents bought him a proper goaltender's mask for Christmas. The present had him so excited he was stopping pucks in his sleep.
"It was just a white mask, but I think I slept with it on for like a month," said MacDonald reminiscing. "I remember taking it to school, showing all the kids. No kids had masks at that age."
"I loved everybody's mask [back then]," added the 29-year-old. "Cujo [Curtis Joseph] was one of my role models growing up, I loved watching him and he always had the cool mask he kept throughout the years. But I love goalie masks in general."
It wasn't until he reached Junior hockey that the native of Pictou, Nova Scotia finally had a chance to design a painted mask of his own as a member of the Peterborough Petes.
"I actually brought some of Nova Scotia with the East Coast theme on it. I had the lighthouses on the side," he explained.
You never forget your first, and while he still has that mask at his home, his taste in helmet art has been refined over the years.
"A lot of guys get complicated putting a lot of their own personal stuff on it, but it's a team effort and goalie is only one position, you need help. I like keeping the team profile on it and go from there.
"I love the old school look, the old school pads. That's one reason why my pads are kind of plain and simple, no streaks or anything on it. I always loved the look of the old goalie equipment," admitted MacDonald as he tried to explain the reasoning behind his most recent mask design, since joining the Leafs.
During his time with the Detroit Red Wings, MacDonald combined the team's logo on one side of the mask, while adding a wheel to represent the Motor City itself on the other. In Toronto, he chose a more historical approach.
"I wanted to bring back kind of the old style mask," he said. "When I signed here I remember sitting at home on the computer looking at all the old goalie masks. My initial reaction was to put like five or six of the old masks small little images on it. Mine was Michel "Bunny" Larocque's mask. It was one of the ones that just kind of stuck out.
"It's plain, kind of simple, but it has a flash to it too, like the way the designs come down the sides."
MacDonald points to the writing on top of his mask - "Leafs" - as one of the more unique elements he contributed. The most personalized part of his design however, is his nickname "Mac" on the chin. He used to put it on the back of his faceplate, but that area is now reserved for the names of his children.
While goalie headgear has become a canvass for artistic expression, with November 1 marking the 50th anniversary of Jacques Plante donning the first goalie mask, the protection provided by it is not lost on MacDonald.
"I don't think I'd be sitting here talking to you right now if I had never worn a mask over the last few years," he joked. "I still like watching the guys playing without the mask. It's incredible the courage they had."