Goalies are crazy, superstitious and particular. We know this. Their teammates know it. Their parents know it. Goalies themselves even know it and often wear it as a badge of pride -- kind of like the crazy Irish guy in Braveheart. (Side query: Whatever happened to Irish goalies? Are there any left? Discuss.)
In pick-up rec hockey, I've occasionally donned the pads to get some insight into what a goalie sees from shooters and why he is insane. My best guess on the latter question is it's a lot of time spent alone, by yourself, which leads to paranoia and lengthy philosophical discussions with your posts.
Anyway, last year as an Islander Yann Danis didn't strike me as particularly crazy relative to the entire asylum of goalies. But he's still a goalie. So his obsession with his mask particulars, as relayed by Devils beat man Tom Gulitti, made me chuckle:
The new mask was lost briefly last week in transit from the artist in Quebec. Danis had been wearing his old Islanders' mask -- with tape over the Islanders' logo -- throughout camp. He still had to wear that mask during the morning skate today.
"It came here today with a black cage," he said. "I've never worn a black cage in my life. I don't know why they sent it with a black cage. We had to swtich it to crome tonight before the game."
Granted, at elite levels no doubt the smallest change -- "Why does everything look black tonight?" -- can mess you up, I'm sure. Whether real or perceived, you don't want an issue like that when your job as Martin Brodeur's seat warmer is on the line. But I still like the thought of equipment managers scrambling on the night of a preseason game:
"We gotta get a chrome cage for Yann."
>>"The hell?"
"Yann never wears black."
>>"Oh. ... *sigh* ... Gonna be a long year."