The Vancouver Canucks goalie debuted his new look against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday, but the pattern was a familiar to Nilsson, who wore it when he was 14-years-old.
"They were a Brian's Beast. I found them online. I had a Brian's Beast blocker and pads and then I had a TPS glove, all matching colors," Nilsson said. "But those pads were unreal. I loved the design. I know Garth Snow had them here."
Re-creating the look was easy for Brian's Custom Sports, a company well known in the goalie community for its custom-stitched graphics, especially since Nilsson still had the originals back in Sweden.
He sent Brian's a photo of the old pads, and asked them to replicate the graphics on his second set for this season of their new G-NETik IV line, which he switched to during the summer.
"I saved them so they have been lying around my parent's cottage storage," Nilsson said. "So when I knew I was switching to Brian's in the summer I knew had to do it. I showed them that design with the photo and told them I wanted more white and Vancouver colors and this is what they came up with that, and I love it. I think it's unreal."
