TSN continues to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the debut of the goalie mask by looking at some of the more creative designs in today's NHL.
Calgary is a modern cosmopolitan city that still retains much of its traditional culture of hotel saloons and western bars. So, when Flames backup netminder Curtis McElhinney decided to move away from the western theme in the re-design of his new head protector, he was treading on thin ice.
Last season, McElhinney sported a mask that displayed disembodied skulls, fantastic fire effects and a skeleton cowboy unloading his six-shooter through the right ear hole of the helmet.
This time around, McElhinney kept the fire theme in the re-design, a tie-in to his association with the Flames, but chose to go a different direction with the look.
''This year, I wanted to get away from the cowboy theme, so we went with something from a book that I read back in collage called Dante's Inferno,'' McElhinney said of the design. ''The premise of the mask was a gentleman's journey through hell.''
The mask depicts a demon over the right eye of McElhinney, a loose interpretation of the devil, with images of flames wrapping around the mask. The side of the mask portrays hell's gate, which was created to look like the team's symbol, with soft flames providing the backdrop.
''We wanted something that kind of resembled the devil but not the typical horns and all that stuff, so we went with the demon look,'' explained McElhinney.
''On the sides of the helmet, we tried to get the gate going around the ear hole while below that, towards the chin, we had images of people trying to escape hell and this demon was more or less pulling them back in.''
In the design, McElhinney had two requests for the head plate in the back. One was to place a small star at the base, a request by his wife Ashleigh, while the second was incorporating his son Trenten's initial.
''You always have to tie the family into the helmet somehow, they'd like to have a bit of recognition, and my wife's a big fan of stars so we put a star on there. We also put an initial 'T' in the star for my little guy.''
With just 20 career NHL games under his belt and a 1-9-1 record in that span, the 6th round selection of the Flames isn't sure when he'll debut the new mask. The 26-year-old played just one game this season, a 5-2 loss to the Dallas Stars in mid-October, but was sporting his previous 'cowboy' mask in that contest.
But indications given by GM Darryl Sutter and head coach Brent Sutter prior to the start of the season was that McElhinney would play closer to 15 games this season. And with Calgary playing three games in four nights beginning Wednesday, Flames fans will likely see McElhinney's new head gear in the coming days.