Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik scratches his playoff beard as he answers a question during a news conference at the NHL hockey Stanley Cup finals in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, June 3, 2009. The Penguins beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-2 Tuesday. The Red Wings lead the series 2-1. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
AP
“So how’s your playoff beard doing?”
You can file that one away under “questions a hockey fan asks” and not get a funny look for doing so. Every April it’s the playoffs rite of passage and it’s something that’s solely unique to hockey. Seeing the beards grow in as the playoffs wear on is always a point of interest and sometimes mockery if you’re a certain captain of the defending Cup champions. Even playoff stalwarts like Martin Brodeur, who have previously gone sans coif in the playoffs, are growing one out this year. The beard is all the rage now and you don’t even need to be an annoying hipster to do it either.
Thankfully, Pittsburgh’s Seth Rorabaugh has all fans in mind when he crafted his Playoff Beard Preview for Empty Netters and some of the sights are truly incredible. If you’re looking for a reason to root for Buffalo, might I suggest Raffi Torres’ beard potential. If we can get something like what Torres had for Edmonton back in 2006, and have him go up against, say, Kris Draper and his beard for Detroit, we could have the ultimate shockingly red beard-off in the Finals.
With all that aside, the beard phenomenon is something teams have rushed to embrace. Pittsburgh, Washington, San Jose, Colorado and others are all doing their part to raise money for charity by having fans let their facial hair fly for the playoffs and if there’s anything anyone can get behind, it’s helping out for charity. Then again, you could just pull a nutty and make like Patrick Kane and opt to go for dirty hair in a different way by letting his inner Joe Dirt out and growing the all-time king of hockey hair: the mullet.