2008 IIHF World Hockey Championships Part I

I have no idea who's who in International hockey, but we speak the language of masks. Unfortunately, I haven't found any great close ups on the goalies themselves. But here is alittle rundown of all 16 teams in the field and their goalies.

Canada
You have probably heard of all their goalies, and seen their masks.

Cam Ward: Wearing the "Blackbeard" Hurricanes mask, or something similar.

Pascal LeClaire: "Rebel" Blue Jackets mask

Mathieu Garon: Hasn't played yet, but I expect he's wearing his current Oilers mask


Belarus
Not alot of action here

Stepan Goryachevskikh: No picture available

Vitali Koval: Plain white

Dzmitry Milchakou: Still has yet to play


Czech Republic

Milan Hnlilicka: One of the more interesting designs that is not in the NHL (anyone know where?) (Another shot here and here)

Marek Pinc: Too far away to see any detail.

Adam Svoboda: DNP

Team Spotlight: Pittsburgh Penguins

The Penguins logo isn't very intimidating. So if "Happy Feet" and "March of the Penguins" aren't action suspense thrillers to you, how could a mask for a team called the penguins be scary?
Lets start with Ken Wregget, what penguins are famous? There's Tux, the Linux penguin. Or how about those penguins that enjoy Coke-a-Cola so much? Ken's head must have been in a comic book, cause he thought of this penguin. And that, eventually turned into this. Which morphed into this a couple years later. Ken Wregget also wore, a less intimidating, more beautiful, ice sculpture penguin, in this mask.
If you travel back a few more years, you could see the beginning of masks as a piece of artwork in this mask, worn by Michel Dion.
For a short time, the penguins had blue uniforms (which will be worn in the upcoming "Winter Classic" against the Buffalo Sabres on New Years Day, 08 (More about this later)). When they wore blue, so did the men in the crease, including Michel Plasse, seen here rocking the "Warrior" mask.
Which brings us to the man whose name was made for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Marc-Andre Fleury. He has had odd ones (what is that, a drooling fish?), ones with cartoon penguins, and even a real penguin or two.
Note to whoever will be the next goalie for the Pittsburgh Penguins, BRING BACK THE BATMAN PENGUIN!


Here are a couple "Bonus Masks"
Tom Barrasso
Another Barrasso
Patrick Lalime

In the Beginning...

Ah, time for a little background on the beloved goalie mask. To the left you see a very primitive rendition of this piece of equipment. Clint Benedict was struck in the face in a game between the Canadians and the Maroons on 1930. So Clint decided to try out a mask. Well, he found it obstructed his vision, so after 2 games, he stopped wearing it. The creation of the mask would have to wait a couple more years.
In 1959 a man by the name of Jacques Plante donned the second mask; a little more modern looking, but still a little strange, nonetheless. This was the beginning of the mask as we know it today. Plante continued to wear it even while being ridiculed, a modern-day Noah perhaps.
This is the early history of the mask. Artwork, cages, even a good design had yet to be added to the history of the goalie mask. So I thank you , Mr. Benedict, and you too Jacques, for making the game of hockey a little more colorful.