Remove This!!! US Goalies Masks Not Liked By IOC

((HT: Fanhouse/Reuters))

When you watch the stars and bars play hockey during this five-ringed event in Vancouver, you'll notice the goalies have had to play with their masks and their paint jobs a little bit...

Okay, a lot...

The Buffalo Sabres Ryan Miller has to either cover up or remove two things: His "Miller Time" script and a "Matt Man" dedication ((pictured on the back of Miller's noggin, thanks Matt Slocum/AP)). Jonathan Quick of the LA Kings has to do the same with a "Support Our Troops" dedication.

Szymon Szemberg, spokesman for the IIHF, said both players will be told to take those messages off their equipment because it's the USOC's ((or USA Hockey's or both)) task to enforce IOC rule No. 51 that bars what they term "advertising, demonstrations and propaganda."

Szymon szays szo it muszt be true, right...???

Miller gets the "Miller Time" objection...

"Just having fun," Miller said with a wink.

But he's gonna have at it about the other one... the words "Matt Man" on his helmet pay tribute to a cousin, Matt Schoals, who died of cancer.

"My aunt and uncle and my family, it’s important to them. It’s important to me. I'm going to stand up for that." Miller vowed.

But what about Quick's statement...? It could be construed as either moral support or propaganda...???

"If we go too hard on that we could be seen as insensitive," said Szemberg.

You got that right... and Miller's mask side view above ((pictured, as Uncle Sam readies to kick ass, thanks WGRZ-TV)) works...??? The Boston Bruins' Tim Thomas has had to go only with his kids names on his gear... "Kit, Kot, and Kat" - according to Reuters...

It gets better...

The goaltender for the Canadian women's team, Shannon Szabados, was ordered earlier in the Olympics to remove her own name from her mask, but she was allowed to keep "FLM" on it, according to The Vancouver Sun. The letters stood for "Fight Like Matt," a tribute to a 22-year-old named Matt Cook who is battling cancer.

So, at least, we know how the IOC stands on this issue...
Kinda like a flag in the breeze...

Here is a story from WIVB-TV in Buffalo on Miller's selection to the Olympic Team.