Hockey Goalie Mask

Mask decoration
With the available surface area provided by fiberglass masks, goaltenders find it fashionable to give their mask distinctive decorations. This tradition started with the earliest masks, notably by the now-retired Boston Bruins goalkeeper Gerry Cheevers, who was known for drawing stitches on his mask whenever it got hit. These stitches represented where Cheevers would have been cut had he not been wearing his mask. Jim Rutherford, a member of the Detroit Red Wings in the 1970s, was the first to put a little paint on the eyebrows of the mask which really started a trend once combo masks became popular. Modern-day masks also offer this ability, and goaltenders are well-identified with their helmet design, often transferring the motif into their new team's colors when traded or signed to a new team (for example, Patrick Lalime's Marvin the Martian theme, Felix Potvin's cat theme or Ed Belfour's eagle theme).