25 most bizarre goalie masks in NHL history
By C.L. Kohuss
No. 14: Pretzels
Pictured above is St. Louis Blues goaltender Jacques Caron. He’s wearing what’s cutely nicknamed the “Pretzel” mask. But it’s Friday the 13, and there’s no fooling us (usually). This dude has clearly been victimized by a rare form of Facehugger.
The story is that Caron, who
came back from LV-426 with the thing attached to his face
only played in 72 career NHL games, learned to live with the vile creature until it eventually removed itself 10 minutes after this photo was taken. It skittered horridly across the ice. Play resumed after a short cleaning by the zamboni. No videos have yet surfaced of the incident. Trust us, we’ve searched. There’s nothing out there.
Caron was later quoted as saying he felt “lucky” not to have fallen victim to the dreaded Chestburster afterwards. We also don’t understand how he managed that one.
Note that somewhere in the above photograph is Ridley Scott gathering ideas.
Meanwhile, many goaltenders throughout the ’70s fell victim to this disgusting life form. Oddly enough the players and coaches didn’t seem to mind too much. Then again, they threw a guy out there with rubber bands slung across his skull. Why are we shocked at this point?
But you know what? Goalies being goalies, they didn’t care either. In fact, they kept on truckin’ with them game in and game out. Must have been a fashion statement. They did eventually
get wiped out by a badass Ellen Ripley
go out of style once guys realized pieces of string don’t do much in the way of protection. Sixty years into the game. Not bad.