Categories: Sports

Battle of the beards

Who scores the highest for their playoff scruff? You get to decide in our 2009 NHL Playoff Poll.

by macleans.ca on Thursday, June 4, 2009 4:34pm - 5 Comments

Along with the overtime sessions that stretch well into the early morning hours, the murky injury reports, and the constant reminders a Canadian team hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1993, the playoff beard ranks among the most persistent playoff hockey traditions. While the young guns can barely muster a few whiskers of peach fuzz, the grizzled vets are expected to end their playoff run looking like Captain Caveman. To celebrate this year’s Stanley Cup final, Macleans.ca wants you to vote for your favourite playoff beard from the nominees below (CLICK ON EACH IMAGE TO ENLARGE):

: Bill Guerin

: Henrik Zetterberg

: Daniel Cleary

: Sidney Crosby

: Marc-Andre Fleury

: Tomas Holmstrom

: Hal Gill

: Johan Franzen

Tags: nhl playoffs, playoff beards

Andrea

I hate the playoff beard "tradition" and I've been arguing against it for years. Why would you want to go down in history looking like Neanderthal Man on what is arguably one of the happiest days of your life? Some of the guys are hardly recognizable. And if you look back at all the years of Stanley Cup photos, the vast majority are clean-shaven and you can actually tell who they are. Continued…
Andrea

I try to explain that the unkempt beard looks awful and in most cases the attempts at growing facial hair look even worse. A few years ago I decided to prove this my own way. I work for a hockey team, so when playoffs roll around and the players stop shaving their faces, I stop shaving my legs. The last two years, we didn't go very far in the playoffs so nothing much came of the whole situation, but this year we won. Four rounds of playoffs, a tournament and three months later, my legs have more hair on them than some of those attempts at growing facial hair that I mentioned earlier. And I definitely get my point across when someone tries to tell me the beards look great. I just roll up my pants and get a stunned "EEEEWWWWW!!! That's gross!" All I say is, "That's my point, exactly!"