Photo credit: DaveArt
On Saturday, Capitals goaltender Michal Neuvirth took to the ice for practice wearing a new mask designed by Swedish airbrush artist David Gunnarsson, who also paints Semyon Varlamov’s masks. Neuvy is not sure if he is going to wear this mask for the rest of the season or not, but I’ll let Gunnarsson take it away.
One side is devoted to Michal’s hometown in the Czech Republic, with the fortress and the guarding lion from the Czech National Team coat of arms. The other side is devoted to his new hometown Washington and features buildings and an eagle in attack.The rest of the design is a symphony of lines and play inspired by the Caps colors and the red-white chess pattern from the Czech coat of arms.
Before I grilled him on the Caps goalie situation, I asked the soon to be 23 year-old Neuvirth about what went into the design of the bucket.
“It pretty much the same thing like this one,” he said, nodding to the mask he has worn for most of the campaign. “I put the Czech lion on the one side and the other side is about Washington, DC. … I don’t even know if I’m going to use it this year or not. I like to have a backup mask.”
When asked why all of his masks feature a picture of the Hrad Strekov castle in Usti nad Labem somewhere on the lid, he replied: “It’s the main thing in my hometown. I’m proud to be from there.”
Below, check out some more photos of the mask courtesy of DaveArt:
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