Blueger Fired from Designing DeSmith's Goalie Mask

One out of 10.
That's how Teddy Blueger would (jokingly) grade Casey DeSmith's goalie mask for the 2022.23 season.
"I actually haven't even told Casey that," Blueger said with a laugh. "He's going to find out in the article."

Last summer, Blueger was chirping DeSmith because he felt like the aesthetic was too generic, like one you see when creating a goalie in an NHL video game. So DeSmith challenged him to design a better one, giving him carte blanche in the creative process. And Blueger took his job seriously, as there was plenty of attention to detail in what he came up with.
For example, DeSmith is a huge fan of 'The Office,' so Blueger started watching the show to understand the references. Dwight Schrute became his favorite character, and when Blueger watched his Dunder Mifflin Salesman of the Year speech at the end of Season 2, that became his favorite scene. So Teddy included Dwight standing behind a podium with a Penguins logo to put a little twist of his own on Casey's favorite show.
"I thought it was awesome," Blueger said. "Honestly, when I first saw it - he sent the back of it to me last year, and it was just Dwight. I was like uh oh, this might actually turn out kind of bad (laughs). But the whole thing actually turned out pretty good."
Even though both players were happy with the final result, the mask wasn't long-lived. Like most hockey guys, DeSmith is pretty superstitious, and won't hesitate to change up his equipment whenever there's a rough stretch - like when he switched his pads last season. That applies to his helmet as well.
"I think he had a couple bad games with it, so he kind of stopped wearing it," Blueger said. "I was half expecting him to give it to me as a souvenir, but he never did."
Something else DeSmith didn't give to Blueger is another shot at designing his mask.
"He got the one mask, then he got fired," DeSmith said. "I'm a little bit particular about my masks, so he asked for one shot at it, and he got it. If he had done unbelievable, maybe I would have given him another one. But I like my masks how I like my masks."
This year's features a black stripe down the middle with Penguins logos on either side against yellow backgrounds. The back is a nod to the three pets Casey shares with his wife Mollie - hairless cat Yoda and French bulldogs Frankie and Theo.

"They get along great, actually," DeSmith said. "Yoda will try and get them to chase him. He just eggs them on all day."
It's a pretty adorable design, but Blueger is not a fan of simpler aesthetics like that.
"I guess that's just him. He's never going to learn," Blueger sighed. "Now Jars, he's had some good ones.
He had the COVID one
, Halloween… Those are creative. He has a good thing going."
Tristan Jarry's masks always feature the cartoon characters, Tom and Jerry, with the inspiration coming from his junior teammates Kristian Pelss and Martin Gernat.
"They'd always come in and say Jerry, where's your cat Tom? I had no idea what they were talking about for the longest time," Jarry laughed. "Then finally I figured out that it was a cartoon show, so I was like, that makes sense! They always called me Jerry, so I incorporated Tom and Jerry into my next helmet."
When Pelss, a 2010 draft pick of the Edmonton Oilers, tragically and accidentally drowned in his native Latvia at just 20 years old, Jarry decided to keep Tom and Jerry on his mask moving forward as a tribute to his friend.
"It's matched me well, and it's got a good story behind it," Jarry said. "So I've always kept in honor of him."
Jarry likes to put Tom and Jerry in different scenarios that usually pertain to either local or global current events, or his personal life. There was a lot happening back on the farm in Edmonton this off-season, as Tristan got married. He and his wife Hannah signed the papers, and plan to hold a full wedding next year.
Hannah loves horses, so Tristan wanted to incorporate sort of a race rodeo theme, as that's something they enjoy in the summers. He worked with his usual designer Dave Fried, a custom goalie mask painter and tattoo artist out of Alberta, to come up with a look that features Tom the cat riding a bull on one side, and Jerry the mouse riding a horse on the other side.
"My wife rides horses, and then just being surrounded by animals, I think it was something fun to incorporate into my helmet," Jarry said.