Happy 4th!

I suppose I could have done the same for Canada Day, but I had a surprising lack of maple leaf content in the old mask binder. Even then, most of the ones that were there had already been posted. So, for no other reason that it gives me an excuse to dig through the binder, here are some of my favourite USA-themed masks.

I'll open with an interesting entry from this year's Pipes set. I find it interesting when players from outside of the States work in US themes in their mask. When your team is the Tri-City Americans, you pretty much need to go all star-spangled with your mask or go plane. Eric Comrie worked around that with a Captain America mask. Crafty!

Now, a couple of World Junior cards from 1993-1994 Pinnacle. Simple, but still effective. Neither player ever made it to the pro, and only had USA Juniors themed cards from this season to their credit. Toby Kvalevog's now working as a fishing guide.

I could have posted nothing but Rick DiPietro cards for this, as all his masks have had US themes to them. I'll give the nod to his POW mask seen here.

You pretty much knew I'd have to put at least one Washington Capital card here. So, I elected on posting a classic from Don Beaupre. Much like with Comrie, it's another case of a Canadian sporting a US themed mask, although this one can be more tied to the city than the country.

But, if you'd rather have an American from the Capitals sporting something patriotic, here's Jim Carey.

And to wrap things up, here's another classic from the 90s.

The back is even better.

Enjoy the day, American card-collecting brethren. And remember, if you reach a point where you are considering busting some 1990 Topps just to find out what the gum tastes like today - you've had a few too  many.