José Theodore's Current Mask is Temporary

Edit: You can now find José's new mask at this post.

I actually read a comment online after Friday's game about how José put minimal effort into his Wild mask. I thought it would be obvious to folks that it was temporary, especially since the backplate is the one from his Caps mask. But I guess not. So I'll post here to make sure people realize he has a new Wild mask in the works, this is just what he's wearing in the meantime. It's simply his Caps mask with white tape covering it and the Wild decals that the other skaters use on their helmets. There was an article about it over at inGoal Magazine, calling it his mummy mask.

Halloween is still more than a week away but Jose Theodore appeared to be in the trick-or-treat mood early, making his Minnesota Wild debut Friday night in a mask that looked like it had been wrapped up mummy style.

Turns out it has.

After signing with the Wild just before the season started because scheduled backup Josh Harding tore up his knee in a preseason game, Thoedore was still waiting for his new Minnesota-themed mask to arrive from the painter.

In the meantime he has wrapped up last season’s lid from the Washington Capitals with pieces of tape and splattered it liberally with Wild stickers, creating the mummy effect that as on display against the Canucks on Friday night, complete with frayed edges where the tape wraps over the edges of the mask.

It’s easy to forgive Theodore for looking like something from the local beer league – and not just because his temporary set up is so perfectly suited to the fast-approaching candy and costumes season.

The stylish 34-year-old veteran has more than earned the benefit of the doubt for the intricate gargoyle-themed masks he wore in Montreal and Colorado before appropriately subbing in bald eagles on both sides of his mask in Washington last season.

Theodore’s helmets have long been among the more detailed paint in the NHL, with the large winged creatures on each side serving as guardians, or gatekeepers, at his first two NHL stops...

There’s no word on the incoming design for the one-year, $1.1-million contract he signed with the Wild – perhaps bears will replace the gargoyles and eagles this time – but Theodore has also typically featured an “LX” chiseled into the wall upon which the animals are perched – the Roman numeral equivalent of his No. 60, and something he also carries permanently in the form of a tattoo.

“In Montreal I used to have a mask with just with the Montreal logo that I didn’t design and then after they came up with this and I just kept it from there,” Theodore once told InGoal Magazine of his design.

The back of Thoedore’s Colorado mask featured a stylized “R” with a cross on a chain hanging from it, a tribute to young daughter Romi, his nickname “Theo” and a small elephant standing on a “33,” his lucky number growing up.

“The elephant is just a luck charm,” he said.

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And since it mentioned his tattoo...here it is: