Joseph & McElhinney collaborate on Black Lives Matter-inspired mask

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Mathieu Joseph was sitting in his home in Tampa mid-afternoon during the National Hockey League pause when his phone rang.
On the other end was his teammate, Bolts goaltender Curtis McElhinney.

At the time, the country was reeling from the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers in late May, a viral video of the encounter showing one of the officers kneeling on Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds and cutting off his air supply until he was unconscious and showing no signs of life, another minority killed at the hands of the police who are duty-bound to protect all.
Joseph took to Twitter in the days that followed the incident, writing in a pinned post to his profile the event was not isolated and underscored a long-standing problem in the country that very little had been done about. Joseph also questioned the rationality of any violence that erupted from the ensuing protests that swept the nation in the following days.

"Innocent lives are being put in danger and that doesn't make sense to me," Joseph wrote. "We need to focus on the solution."
McElhinney wanted to support his teammate. But he didn't know what to say.
"I didn't really feel qualified to put it down in words," he recalled.
The goalie had another idea though.
Lying around his home in Steamboat Springs, Colo. was a blank goalie mask he'd been meaning to get painted.
He called Joseph, asked him if he'd be interested in designing something for the mask. Something to "express a little bit of the situation and the situation that's been going on in our country," McElhinney explained.
Joseph didn't hesitate.
He was in.
"This is a concrete action of doing something that is meaningful and it's definitely showing a lot of support," Joseph said. "I was really honored for him to ask me that."
Joseph checked with McElhinney if he was sure this is the action he wanted to take. Goalie masks are unique in hockey in that they allow the wearer to express their individuality in a sport where homogeny is the norm. "I feel like they're so personal for a goalie to put some design and art on your mask," Joseph said.
"Yeah, absolutely," McElhinney responded.
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Over the next two weeks, Joseph thought about what he wanted to put on the mask. At first, he wanted a couple quotes and images of people tied to social injustice. But he also remembered the New York Rangers' Alexandar Georgiev had painted a similar mask during the pause, one with a quote and picture from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"I didn't really want to copy that," Joseph said.
He started thinking about athletes that not only had an impact in their sport but were also trailblazers in the fight for equality for all. He shared his ideas with the mask's painter, David Leroux of Diel Airbrush.
"The next day, Dave's like, 'What about this? And what about this?'" Joseph said. "And then we would text here and there. I think it was an easy process, and I enjoyed the collaboration."
Instead of an image of Dr. King, the two found a quote that seemed to fit perfectly.
"Lightning makes no sound until it strikes."
The quote went on the back of the helmet above the Lightning logo
"It's a powerful quote, and also it matches the Lightning a little bit," Joseph explained.
Covering the chin is a fist flanked on both sides by the phrase "Black Lives Matter."

On the right side of the helmet are pictures of Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali. On the left is Willie O'Ree, the first black player in the NHL, Alice Coachman, the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal, and the image of Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their fists on the medal stand at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
Joseph had other images he originally wanted to include too, namely one of Jesse Owens winning four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, but the mask is only so big.
"(All these individuals) had a tough road to start in their life and they were able to help socially and as well as in their sports to make our world better," Joseph said, explaining how he settled on those particular figures.
The image of O'Ree shows him wearing his Boston uniform, the Bruins' spoked 'B' logo displayed prominently on the front of his sweater. At first, Joseph thought it might be weird to have another team's logo on a Lightning goalie mask. After all, the Bruins are a division rival of the Lightning. And Tampa Bay would end up playing the Bruins in the Second Round of the playoffs, winning the series in five games to move on to the Eastern Conference Final.
But leaving the logo could also symbolize how the current movement transcends teams and rivalries and opponents.
So it stayed.
"It just shows that it doesn't really matter what team you're playing on, we're all in this together," Joseph said. "I think he's a big figure for hockey no matter what team he played for. I was honored to put him on the helmet."
O'Ree is a fan of the mask too. The NHL contacted Leroux to let him know the hockey pioneer might like a replica.
"I thought he did a tremendous job by painting that," Joseph said of Leroux. "He put in the time and effort. I think it meant a lot to him and he was great by sharing ideas with me and Mac as well."
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The finished helmet arrived in Toronto Thursday, just ahead of the team's first practice following their Second Round win over Boston. When Joseph skated out onto the ice, he joked he thought a new goalie had joined the team. McElhinney's previous mask was a little darker than the new one, and Joseph didn't recognize him at first.
"Definitely shooting it a little lower so I don't hit him in his face now," Joseph said, laughing.
McElhinney said he left the creative process up to Joseph and Leroux and didn't give much input, trusting his teammate would come up with a design that could adequate express his support where his words had failed him previously.

"Jo was 100 percent involved with the design," McElhinney said. "To me, it was more of a surprise and it was something that I had been anticipating for a few months, ever since I proposed it. I think that the way that it turned out and the athletes that he chose and the artist chose to represent on the mask are obviously some very unique individuals across the history of sports. It's something that I'll be honored to wear, and I think it's a good representation of certain individuals who had difficult times and stood up for what they believed in and were an important voice during their careers."
McElhinney said reaction to the mask has been "all over the map" but has sparked conversation, which was his intent all along.
"There are people that are supportive. There are people that don't understand it and I think the most important thing right now is obviously as a group, we're having this conversation and it's ongoing," he said. "I hope that it leads to further education and more understanding throughout the country and for the time being, as long as it becomes a persistent issue and something that we do continue to discuss, I think there will be benefit that comes from that.
"So, for right now, it's all positive regardless if there's a little bit of negative feedback to begin with. I think it's all about understanding."