Ducks goalie honors late grandmother, cancer fighters with emotional mask

The Anaheim Ducks are finishing up their first month of the season and are ready to take on November.

Before the Ducks lineup across from the Ottawa Senators on Sunday, the team revealed the special mask that goalie Lukas Dostal will wear for the rest of the month, as the league kicks off it’s “Hockey Fights Cancer Month.”

Dostal will be wearing a purple mask that features the Ducks logo, and as well as some pictures of family members and friends who have been affected by cancer.

“I’m going to be wearing this mask for basically every single game in November. Then we’re going to auction it and we’re going to put it to the [Children’s Hospitals of Orange County],” Dostal said. “Obviously the battle with the cancer, it’s very important to me. Sometimes it means more than the hockey.”

Dostal’s helmet features a picture of his grandmother, who passed away from pancreatic cancer when he was a teenager.

On the back of the helmet is a pink ribbon that features the names of people in the Ducks organization that have battled cancer. Below is is a quoute that reads, “nothing is impossible.”

“It’s kind of my motto,” Dostal said.

On the left side of the mask is a photo of Dostal and Ducks director of goaltending, Sudarshan Maharaj, who is a survivor of pancreatic cancer.

“That’s a really massive achievement and I’m really happy he can be still here with us,” Dostal said.

Below the photo of Maharaj, is a photo of Dostal and former collegiate goale, Paddy O’Donnell, who passed away at 23-years old due to brain cancer.

“I met [an] amazing human being; he was just unbelievable, and it was my pleasure to get to know him,” Dostal said.

On the other side of the helmet is him and his grandma, and a woman named Veronika that he met this past summer who was making a movie for the Czech women’s national team, doing it while she was battling cervical cancer.

“She’s super inspirational and became a very important person to me this summer,” Dostal said.

The Ducks and Dostal are a year removed from making it past the second round of the NHL playoffs and have the same goals this season.

The Ducks finished last month with a 5-7-1 record, scoring 11 points, and are looking to turn it around this month.