two countries represented
Given the recent 4 Nations tournament that featured a heated rivalry between the US and Canadian squads, it was fun to work on this mask that highlighted two great cities, one on each side of the border.
This goalie hails from near Halifax, and was supposed to be playing for Chicago in this year’s Brick Tournament, so they wanted a little piece of each city on the mask. On one side, there’s the Peggy’s Cove lighthouse, one of the Halifax harbour bridges, Halifax City Hall, and the Dominion Public Building. On the other side, there’s the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower), the Crain Communications building, and the DuSable Bridge over the Chicago River. In the background on the Halifax side are ghosted maple leaves; on the Chicago side, American-style stars.
The top of the mask features the city flag of Chicago – I had originally pitched replacing the stars with icons from the Halifax city flag, but it was decided not to mess with the flag’s iconic design. The chin feature’s the goalie’s name in the font and style of the CCM Chicago team logo, which is displayed on the backplate, along with logos for the Sackville Minor Hockey Association and Fusion Hockey.
I will say, there’s one small secret in this mask that only the goalie knows about, a special tribute to their favourite goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury, that also ties into the Chicago theme.
This mask came together relatively quickly, to meet the timelines for the Brick tournament, and I was disappointed to hear that the roster spot was pulled at the last minute, leaving this nine-year-old goalie and his family scrambling. I hope they find a new team to play on, and perhaps we can work together again in the future on another design. I’m also a little bummed that this design won’t see a lot of ice time, or bring a smile to a goalie’s face, but I think my disappointment is outweighed a thousand times over by the disappointment this young goalie is probably feeling.
I don’t know the full story on why what was purported to be a solid roster spot was taken away, at seemingly the last minute, and reportedly not as part of tryouts or regular cuts, but I can only imagine how hard that would be for a young goalie. I know that competition at this level is fierce, but I hope that coaches and organizers keep in mind that these are kids, first and foremost, not assets to use (or not use) without consideration for the person and their families. I know some families invest large amounts of money into their kids’ hockey journeys, and you hope that the return on investment is a love of the game and the growth and development of the person they want to become, not just harsh lessons about how to handle disappointment.
Sky, I hope you find a team that appreciates you, and you get the chance to keep playing the game that you love.
