Hockey Goalie Mask

The advent of the goaltender mask changed the way goaltenders play, allowing them to make more saves on their knees without fear of serious head or facial injuries. Before the advent of the mask, most goaltenders stayed standing as much as possible. In the modern era, a goaltender is likely to make the majority of saves when he has one or both knees on the ice. With the technological advancement of the mask, shots hitting the head cause more temporary discomfort instead of serious concussions and lacerations; however, a mask does not guarantee avoiding injury, and goaltenders have been concussed by a shot hitting the head. Some goaltenders, like Dominik Hasek and Henrik Lundqvist, have used their heads intentionally to stop shots. Lundqvist said that his reason for this is to not obstruct his vision by placing his catching glove in front of his mask to stop the shot.
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).