You’ve heard of flashing the leather, but we bet you’ve never heard of flashing the mask.

In what might be the sparkliest look to ever grace the NHL, Philadelphia Flyers’ goaltender Michal Neuvirth’s new mask was debuted on Instagram on Saturday afternoon.
 

 

href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BnwZb5bhnL8/?utm_source=ig_embed_loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">#Flyers goalie Michal #Neuvirth will be sporting a flashy look this season. •• 📸: @daveart via @bardown

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The unique design was done by the NHL’s most prestigious mask artist, David Gunnarsson, and the extravagance of the glitter in the design can only fully be appreciated in this video from Gunnarsson’s Instagram.
 

 

href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BnwPshHn4nB/?utm_source=ig_embed_loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">Michal Nevirth and I have been working together for many years💪🏻. For his new Philadelphia Flyers mask we wanted to try something very unique…🤓 A classic clean layout with the team logos, built on a matte raw black base…⚫️ And the whole design is created with thousands and thousands of small dots…⚪️ And you can only see it in certain angles with the DaveArt 4-D Experience✨…:) The video shows more than the pics…📽 As the paint nerd I am it was very interesting to paint this bucket🤓. Thanks Michal! I love to be your painter! 🙏🏻🎨😊 #neuvirth @philadelphiaflyers @nhl @daveart #DaveArtTheCradleOfCreativity #DaveArtThePaintNerd

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Gunnarsson is the artistic mastermind behind many of the most creative masks in the NHL, including John Gibson’s latest Ducks mask,  and Anton Forsberg’s Avicii tribute mask. 
 

 


While this design could be a sneaky technique to blind potential shooters with the reflection of the sparkles, some hockey fans have jumped on Twitter to voice suspicions that the outlandish gold design could be a foreshadowing of a move this upcoming season.
 

 


It’s definitely a stretch, but the glittering gold of the mask totally screams Vegas. Interestingly enough, it’s the Golden Knights that the Flyers host in their home opener on October 4th.

We’ll have to wait until then to see if our ‘blind the enemy’ technique is what Neuvirth really has up his sleeve.

 

H/T: NBC Sports Philadelphia