He gets to know his goalies and makes sure he gets their stories right." In my last year with the Devils, I was going to be 39, so we said 'let's make the moose look old.' So he did him with a loose tooth, a cane and glasses. One year in Atlanta, he made the moose into SpongeBob Squarepants as something special for my kids. "When I went to Dallas, he made the moose into a gunslinger. "I'd be like a little kid on Christmas when my new masks would arrive from David, and my kids would come running to see me open the boxes. "He's become kind of a famous guy, but he's still a very humble small-town boy who just wants every goalie to be happy with his work," Hedberg said. Hedberg was one of the first to spread the word about Gunnarsson, and more NHL goalies followed his lead. "It became a pretty regular thing that I'd be out by the red line before a game stretching, and the other goalies would be there, too, and sometimes ask me 'hey, who does your masks?' I'd say 'I have this guy in Sweden – he's unbelievable,' and they'd all want his contact information."Īs Hedberg moved on to play for various NHL teams, new teammates and fans took notice of each new mask. "So that was David's first mask in the NHL, and it was so well received that we wanted to keep the moose in some fashion for every one of my masks," said Hedberg by phone from California, where he is now the San Jose Sharks' goaltending coach. Hedberg had the option to order a new mask from Gunnarsson during that playoff run, but opted to keep wearing his lucky, well-loved Moose bucket. Hedberg captivated Penguins fans quickly as he helped backstop the team to the Eastern Conference final they'd bellow "Mooooooose!" after every big save. His new black, white and gold Pens uniform didn't match with the bright blue mask he'd worn in Manitoba – one Gunnarsson had fashioned with a big cartoon moose. Late in the 2001 season, the Swedish goalie was dealt from the Manitoba Moose of the IHL to the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins. Hedberg's big break turned into a major opportunity for Gunnarsson, too. Gunnarsson went on to work for many Swedish hockey teams, several of them with promising young goaltenders who had yet to make inroads into the NHL, such as Lundqvist and Johan Hedberg. I had an explosion of orders after that." "I put so much time into every one to make sure I created a story on every mask. I was not the first here in Sweden to paint goalie masks in that way, but I tried to think outside the box and do unique things," Gunnarsson said. "I painted them with all kinds of monsters and stuff. The budding artist, who had grown up doodling cartoons and thinking about a career in animated movies, was brimming with ideas. Gunnarsson painted his first goalie mask in 1996 when local Swedish Hockey League team HV71 asked him to paint masks for its goalies. I always have new ideas ready to be unleashed in the new hockey season." I'm a big nerd when it comes to new paint techniques and effects. "Some of the goalies come here to the barn in summer, and we drink coffee and look out at the cows and we brainstorm. "I love getting to know every goalie, and coming up with ideas about how to tell that person's story on a mask," Gunnarsson said by telephone from Sweden. Since his work first appeared on NHL ice in 2001, he's been a key trendsetter in this industry. He bedazzles masks with their wildest imaginings – everything from superheroes to rock bands, hockey legends to cartoon characters, cherished family memories to city landmarks. There are other talented mask-painters with NHL clients – many right here in North America – but it's tough to rival the number of NHL goalies Gunnarsson has as clients today. Today, the 40-year-old artist – who never actually played hockey himself – works with his clients in an effort to get inside the heads of NHL netminders such as Carey Price and Pekka Rinne, and bring their ideas to life. He spent his nights and weekends working on cartoons for local newspapers and magazines, or airbrushing custom designs for motorcycles and helmets. Gunnarsson started a small art business when he was just 16, dashing the hopes his grandfather had that he would some day take over the family farm. His talent, on display nightly at arenas around the NHL, is in creating something original for every customer. While he isn't the only mask-painter around, Gunnarsson has cornered the market of his niche business working from a studio in a barn 350 kilometres southwest of Stockholm. It's also a billboard to showcase his personality and his brand. In today's NHL, the mask does more than protect a goalie's head from flying pucks.
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