LA Kings, San Jose Sharks series has hairy look

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Kings' first-round series with the San Jose Sharks features Stanley Cup level facial hair.

For San Jose, there’s Joe Thornton and Brent Burns, who’ve kept their faces at playoff beard level all season.

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On the Kings, defensemen Jake Muzzin and Drew Doughty have also kept grizzly level portions of hair on their faces. This was a fascination the morning of Game 1 since it was clear all four players weren’t about to shave their facial hair to start the playoff run fresh and anew.

Burns’ face, and his beard, graced the cover of The Hockey News’ playoff preview. Overall Burns has embraced this look saying people get mad if he shaves the beard. At the 2016 NHL All-Star Game he dressed as Chewbacca during the skills competition. 

Sharks coach Peter DeBoer coached four-plus seasons with the New Jersey Devils and then team GM Lou Lamoriello held a strict policy on facial hair. He was asked about Burns, Thornton and how the players got the playoff beard look going early this year.

“I worked for Lou Lamoriello and you know his feeling, and it doesn’t bother me as much as it bothers Lou,” DeBoer said. “We were sitting for a team picture about three weeks ago. Burns was in front of me. He had the beard. He had the hair in a ponytail and I just said to (Danius Zubrus) who was standing beside me and asked, ‘What do you think Lou would do right now?'”

Said Kings defenseman Rob Scuderi to the Los Angeles Times, “It’s impressive. When I first got back here, I thought (Muzzin) and (Doughty) were from the cast of 'The Revenant.'”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper