Masked Men: Zane McIntyre

Welcome to a new spotlight blog post entitled "Masked Men". Within these threads I will be talking about various masked men around the league. In essence, a mask is a goalies identity. They can add their own personalities to their mask. A self portrait in a way. For my first Masked Men blog, we will take a look at Zane McIntyre. A rookie goaltender who is currently playing with the Boston Bruins. So first let's look at the mask. Starting with the side of it.

Wow, beautiful. That goalie on the side is none other than legendary Bruin netminder Frank Brimsek. Next to that you have the famous Leonard P.Zakim Memorial bridge. On the other side you have the TD Bank Center, Home of the Boston Bruins. In the middle you have the writing "INSANO", in reference to Captain Insano, from the Waterboy film. (Back when Adam Sandler was still funny)

But what is even more inspirational, is the back of the mask.

That is Zane's late grandmother Susie McIntyre. There is a special story behind that picture. See Zane's parents got divorced, when he was only 1 year old. (At that time he was under the name of Zane Gothberg) Him and his mom bounced around houses before settling in a trailer park within Thief River Park located in North Dakota. With Zane's mother trying to keep the family a float, Zane's grand mother was there for support. She was the person that got him into hockey, and would drive him to practice/games. Susan McIntyre was a chair of the University of North Dakota's occupational therapy department. She had ice hockey season tickets, which is how Zane got interested in the sport. In a sense, it was because of her, that he started to play hockey. Zane's grand mother passed away in 2011, and he had his name changed to McIntyre as a tribute to her. That is true love their! It is nice to see Zane honor his grandmother this way. Wearing that mask, he must feel like she is with him, watching him each match he plays, supporting him as she did in the past.

Zane McIntyre might not have a long NHL career, but he definitely will leave his mark on this league, in a very inspirational way.