Fleury Adds Unique Steel City Tributes to Penguins Mask
Marc-Andre Fleury asked for something “totally different” on his new mask this season, a departure from the variations of the “Angry Flower” motifs he had sported variations of for several years.
The Penguins’ top stopper also wanted his new lid to reflect Pittsburgh’s “Steel City” nickname.
Fleury’s long-time personal painter, Stephane Bergeron of Griff Airbrush, was happy to oblige. Together they came up with two new and unique representations for the city and team.
The first is the big metal penguin that appears on the right side. The second was the billet aluminum – some call it diamond plate – background that appears all over the mask, a aesthetic tip of the mask to Pittsburgh’s industrial roots.
“The main idea was to reflect the ‘Steel City.'” Bergeron wrote in an email. “He likes a vintage look on his masks so the stripes bring that look. As he likes white masks, we came up with that aluminium look that gives a really nice and clean background.”
The flower theme – Fleury’s nickname is Flower – remains on the chin, and the backplate again features his grandparents initials on one side, and on the other his frog on the “Fleur de lys,” with a maple leaf and a little Stanley Cup behind the frog.
Complete photos of the new mask are below, and you can see the evolution of Fleury’s designs with Bergeron by clicking on these links:
So, the back-plate is described but no pictures?
There is a video that has the backplate, and it can be found here from the Pens website. http://video.penguins.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=912&id=192223&cmpid=pit-fb-penguins
The backplate has some personal tributes on it
So as a tribute to the Steel City, they put aluminum all over the mask?
It does look good though.
Diamond plate is usually steel, stainless steel or aluminum
Thanks for the info. I just going on the text in the article:
“The second was the billet aluminum – some call it diamond plate – background that appears all over the mask”
I’m guessing that the artist knew, as you did, that it can be steel as well, but the author only mentioned aluminum.
well, that, and Alcoa is from Pittsburgh as well… so it still works.
Looks great. I think another nice touch would have been to make the 29 appear built from I beams.
Maybe it’s because I’m a nerd, but I think his right side image looks like Grimlock
U.S. Steel is still headquartered in Pittsburgh and is the largest domestic producer of steel. How about a little respect for “The Corporation.”