Morning Flurries: A new mask and a new coach

Colorado Avalanche farm-hand Joe Cannata has a new mask, and it’s just as good as you’d expect from him.

Cannata has been partnering with mask artist David Gunnarsson since last season to pay tribute to a his girlfriend’s young niece Ruby, who spent last season battling cancer after being diagnosed with neuroblastoma over the summer.

As of last spring, she was declared cancer-free — but she’s not gone from his mask just yet.

Shifting his mask to a night sky greyscale, Cannata once again has the old and new Avalanche logos and holographic Sasquatch footprints covering his lid.

This year, though, he has more than just a picture of Ruby — who got to see his mask in the hospital last year. This year, she’s been depicted as Wonder Woman, which is probably the coolest thing ever.

In other awesome team uniform news, guess what they’ll be wearing for the first time this season?

If you don’t like these uniforms, we can have words. These are the best.

Of course, then there are some other team uniforms that aren’t quite as great floating around out there:

Looking around the league, it’ll probably be worth your time to check out this documentary by former NHLer Cody Hodgson. Although it’s always been a bit of a mystery why he didn’t manage to thrive after being so highly touted, the documentary will talk about how a genetic disorder hurt his chances at success. [The Province]

In bigger news — in case you missed it while you were out voting yesterday, Joel Quenneville is no longer head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks.

After a decade at the helm in the Windy City, the revered Coach Q is out and youngster Jeremy Colliton is in. Colliton, who saw concussions derail his pro career before turning to coaching, quickly made a mark with Chicago when he helped a normally-hapless Rockford roster reach the postseason in his first year behind their bench. Now, he’ll head to the NHL level, so here’s all you need to know about him. [Second City Hockey]

Over in Anaheim, by the way, here’s the convincing argument that the Ducks are in ‘stealth tank’ mode. [Anaheim Calling]

If you’d like to see another adorable cancer-fighting goalie mask, this is definitely the video for you:

Finally, if you have children in youth sports, you may have noticed the price tag going up in recent years. For families under the affluent umbrella, that’s just fine — but for lower-income families, that’s having major consequences when it comes to athletic participation. [The Atlantic]