Murphy Transforms Into Robotic Dog On New Mask

Carolina Hurricanes puck-stopping prospect Mike Murphy is headed back overseas, and he’s doing it in style.

After coming back to Carolina last year following a season in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League and spending all of it with the Charlotte Checkers in the American Hockey League, Murphy has signed to play next season with the Dornbirner Eishockey Club in Austria’s top-level Erste Bank Eishockey Liga. And since the team is called the Dornbirn Bulldogs, he needed a new mask to fit.

Enter long-time personal painter Steve Nash of EyeCandyAir, who came up with a robotic cyber dog to add a modern, aggressive touch to the new lid. He even added a fresh look to the team’s Bulldog logo on the backplate to match the rest of the design.

There’s no shortage of detail on this striking Sportmask canvas, from the glaring, glowing red eyes, to the imposing teeth, to the wires running in the background along the back edges, all ensuring Murphy will be turning heads with what’s on his head in Austria.

You can check out more art from Nash, who creates all his masks by hand using only traditional methods and tools like a pencil, paintbrush and airbrush, on the official EyeCandyAir website, or follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and on Vine. In the meantime enjoy this beauty:

EyeCandyAir also posts videos of finished work on their Instagram page, including this one of Murphy’s new mask, which really shows how much the colours pop on this design: