 Hockey art may share more in common with the great oral epic The Iliad than with the Mona Lisa. How so? According to communication scholar Walter Ong, one of the most important functions of words in an oral culture is to preserve collective memory. As Ong famously stated, you know what you can recall. Since oral cultures lack the means to record information in written form, they must rely on spoken words to retain and transmit important information. To do so, oral cultures use spoken words and formulaic phrases and statements to transmit key information. Lefty Lucy, righty tidy, is a current example of how such a formulaic phrase can help someone easily recall important information, even when they find themselves upside down trying to fix something. Although Walter Ong does not discuss visual communication, certainly memory aids need not be restricted to words. Images help us to remember important events and people, perhaps even more easily than linguistic statements. I believe much of hockey art functions as an important memory function. In this way hockey art helps preserve the larger cultural history of hockey. When I began researching this topic, I called my father, a former hockey goalie, and asked whether he had any suggestions about where to start. He responded with one word, masks. He then proceeded to sketch the history of the goalie mask from Jack Plant to Ken Dryden, adding his own personal experiences of playing hockey as he told the story. After our conversation, I came across a painting by Glenn Green entitled Legends of the Mask. It was a realistic depiction of five legendary goalie masks suspended against a black background. Looking into those masks, I couldn't help but recall my father's story. My father's history of the mask could not be separated from his experience of wearing a mask. Just as my knowledge of that larger hockey history from Plant to Dryden spoken to me by my father was now recalled by the image created by Glenn Green. In February 2011, the Montreal Canadiens played the Calgary Flames in an outdoor heritage classic game. The goaltender for Montreal, Kerry Price, commissioned a special mask for the event. The mask depicted Jack Plant wearing his mask. As Price explained in an interview, the eyes and mouth on the front of the mask were Plant's features. But the ears and wisps of hair on the side of the mask were Price's. This mask on top of a mask literally put Price into the place of Plant. In doing so, the mask recalled the memory of Plant in the lived experience of Price. Those watching Price play while wearing the Plant mask were not only reminded of one of Canadian's most revered players but also of the sports history. This way, hockey art bridges personal experience and cultural knowledge. It reminds us of something we already know rather than telling something new. Just as the audiences of the Iliad knew the story but listened to remember it more fully.