Tragically Hip frontman and Canadian musician Gord Downie has terminal brain cancer and Team Canada goalie Braden Holtby has come up with a sweet tribute.
Working with Swedish airbrush artist Dave Gunnarsson, Holtby debuted a second Team Canada mask, this time with the iconic band and several images of Downie painted on the side.
Photos via @snchrissimpson
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Holtby will also donate the mask off to the charity of Gord Downie’s choice. What a gesture.
Braden Holtby's mask that he will be auctioning off after the WCOH to support Gord Downie's charity of choice. pic.twitter.com/qiXwXm2eIr
— Scott Salmond (@SAMMYSAYS2010) September 9, 2016
Downie has glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, which is one of the most common causes of cancer death in Canadians between 40 and 60 years old.
In May, Downie made the shocking announcement that he has terminal brain cancer. Tickets for the band’s “Man Machine” summer tour, which many feared could be their last, sold out almost immediately, leading to CBC picking up a national broadcast of the final tour stop in Kingston last month. The concert quickly became a national event as millions tuned in across the country.
During that final show, Downie called out to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who attended the concert, to help fix problems in northern Canada in his last scheduled live performance with his band.
“Everyone knows the story in Canada,” Braden Holtby told Sportsnet. “It’s one of those things that has turned a positive from a negative. It’s pretty amazing kind of what Canadians do. I grew up and I can have vivid memories of listening to my first Hip songs. We even had a class in school, a little part of it that was based on (the song) ‘Wheat Kings’ – I mean you just remember it. It’s Canadian, it’s the Hip, and with me being a huge music lover (it made sense).
“This being the biggest stage for hockey and a lot of Gord’s songs have hockey in them, I mean it ties the two in and I think it’ll be very good.”
I could not agree more.
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