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Mask Mystery


BroadwayBlueshirt

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So I was looking through Getty archives for a picture of Mike Richter wearing the white version of the Liberty jerseys inspired by his mask, to post in the Panthers thread that turned into a discussion of Beezer's mask. But combing back through the years, I came across an odd photo from November 16, 2002.

http://tinyurl.com/c7tv6z

According to the caption, that's Richter during warm-ups of that night's game in Vancouver. I looked the next morning's article, but it gave no mention of the mask, understandably being more concerned with how much Eric Lindros and Pavel Bure sucked. (Dear lord did they suck.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/17/sports/h...ngers-lose.html

It does, however, mention that Dan Blackburn was the Rangers' goalie that night, in "his fifth consecutive start in goal in place of the injured Mike Richter." So now I'm really confused. I couldn't find a shot of Blackburn during the actual game, but in contests around that same time, he's wearing either this "Ice Man" mask or one of two regular red, white, and blue Rangers motif masks. So is caption correct, and it is a dressed but not starting Richter? And if it is, what the hell is up with the mask?

Or do we have a 3rd goaltender, backing up that day with Richter scratched? It can't be Mike Dunham, as the game took place a month before he was acquired. Johan Holmqvist is the only other goalie to see icetime for the Rangers that season, playing in one game. Aside from that, he also played 2 for the club in 2000-2001. Getty's only photos of him as a Ranger are dated January 1, 2003, but judging by the fact that they're from two different games, I'd have to conclude that they're from 2000-1. So did he switch sometime after that from his Wolfpack mask to this weird god damn gold-toothed Chester Cheeto-on-mescaline looking thing? Or is it another goalie that dressed for the Rangers, got mislabeled as Richter, and never saw the ice? And, after all this buildup, will someone quickly give an obvious answer that makes me look like an eejit? Stay tuned.

msg-117798227822.jpg

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Well, what you can see behind the mask doesn't LOOK like Mike Richter, and it appears this goalie has at the very least a 'stache, probably a beard, which I can't recall Richter ever having.
Yeah, I was thinking that myself, but didn't want to rule it out. Maybe he was still too woozy to use a razor. ^_^

msg-117798227822.jpg

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If you want, I can take this question to the GoalieStore.com board... there's lots of people over there that might be able to help.

As I said over there too, it's Jason Labarbera.

I'd wager a paycheck on it.

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The captions on Getty Images, and even more so the dates attributed to the photos, are not to be taken as gospel. The more recent ones tend to be more accurate, but with the sheer volume of photos on that site, there's many that I've found to be off.

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