With Dallas Stars goalkeeper Jake Oettinger injured within minutes In Friday’s game against the Ottawa Senators, Scott Wedgewood stepped into the goal crease. In addition to stopping 25 of 27 shots to help the Stars win 5-4 over the Senators, Wedgewood debuted a special new Mario Kart goalie mask.
As Wedgewood dives for pucks, he brings out the small details of the design created by goalkeeper mask artist Dave Gunnarsson. On one hand, Wedgewood has Baby Peach as a stand-in for his unborn daughter, due next year, riding with his two dogs. (This was also something of a gender reveal, he said.) On the other hand, he included caricatures of teammates Oettinger and Jason Robertson driving in one Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Vehicle. At the bottom of the mask is the iconic Mario star – in green, the main color of the Dallas Stars. There are numerous other details scattered across the mask, such as additional stars and the black and white checkerboard banner that signals crossing the finish line.
Wedgewood said he came up with the idea after several players made a group Halloween costume: dead Mario Kart drivers who had “fallen off the track one too many times.” It also made sense to add his future daughter as Baby Peach.
“The star is obviously the gold star in Mario,” he said. “You can stick this on the mask in green and link it to the stars so that everyone understands it.”
While the rest of the team wears helmets, the goalies wear masks – and decorating them is one of the most fun traditions in hockey. There has been a lot of variety and pop culture references in goalie masks over the years Henrik Lundqvist Back to the Future mask And John Gibson’s Pac-Man. Wedgewood is no stranger to such allusions either: he has discussed masks Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well as Captain America and other Marvel characters. (Wedgewood said that the hockey connection for the TMNT mask was, of course, Casey Jones. As for the Marvel mask, he wanted the Winter Soldier arm on his glove side: “You think of your glove arm as your assault arm in front of most Goalkeeper.”)
Goalkeepers don’t have carte blanche when it comes to designing their masks; The NHL has a rule that players are not allowed to wear themed evening gear at events such as Pride events. Last month, the League threatened Minnesota Wild goaltender Marc-André Fleury fined for wearing a Native American Heritage Night mask to honor his wife’s indigenous ancestry. (He I wore it anyway.)
“We are able to support the arts with a little more of your personality and preferences,” Wedgewood added.
Video games have also given Wedgewood a new way to interact with fans. During the pandemic, while playing for the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League, he streamed video games while playing with fans. But it is also a hobby that has accompanied him since he was a child.
“I played a lot growing up,” Wedgewood told Polygon. “Because we were born in 1992, we grew up with Nintendo, Sega Genesis, GameCube, Nintendo 64 – pretty much everything.” Last Christmas my wife gave me a Nintendo Switch for the plane rides, and a few boys had them. I have a gaming monitor that I bring with me on the plane and you plug in the Switch and we had four people playing last year. We would get the games going.”
He continued: “Last year a few people brought an N64 on the street and we played old school Mario Kart. [Games] are one of my major pastimes.”
Of course he plays a lot NHL24. “It was probably my biggest game as a kid,” Wedgewood said of the EA Sports hockey series. “In 2008 I was ranked 11th in the world online.” He still plays, of course, sometimes with other star players, like defender Thomas Harley. They don’t play like themselves, he said; Instead, they play the EA Sports Hockey League mode, where you create your own players. Their Xbox handles can sometimes give away their identities, he said: “We play and get messages like: Are you really him? We should probably change our names.”
Over and beyond NHL24Wedgewood said he plays, too Apex Legends, Fortnite, and a number of other shooters. But recently he got involved Ghost of Tsushima and done Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. “If it’s not self-explanatory, I have a PS5, an Xbox, a Nintendo Switch and a gaming laptop,” Wedgewood said. “The five options, whenever I need them.”