Ray Emery’s Mike Tyson goalie mask had a shelf life of one NHL game.
The Senators backup goalie wore the mask in a 5-0 home loss to Boston on Monday night, then decided to drop it Tuesday.
“We didn’t ask him not to wear the mask,” Senators GM John Muckler said Tuesday. “We just had a discussion about what was right and what was wrong. He said he would take it off.”
A huge boxing fan, Emery has also had masks that featured former middleweight champ Marvin Hagler, and Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion.
“He told me the reason he put Tyson on his mask is because he was an idol of his, as a boxer,” said Muckler. “He knows now that (Tyson) he’s lost that right because of his conviction as a rapist and also as a female abuser. And he told me he would take the mask off.”
Bruins goalie Tim Thomas, presumably not wearing a mask bearing the likeness of a convicted rapist, had 44 saves, the most for any Boston netminder since Bill Ranford a billion years ago. Thomas was having a fine stretch with Boston’s AHL Providence affiliate and is now 6-1-2 in his first 9 starts for the parent club.
William Kennedy Smith of course was aquitted, which would make him a fine upstanding logo for a Bruins goalie helmet.