You’ve Heard of a Face-Off But NHL Star Actually Had His Beard Ripped Off

When it comes to sports played by real men, the pansies and prima donnas of the NFL have nothing on the National Hockey League.

Thanks to the work of mealy-mouthed militant Colin Kaepernick, the NFL has been exposed as a bunch of tough-talking social justice warrior sissies the likes of who wouldn’t have lasted ten minutes back in the day when legends stalked the field. Just imagine the likes of Kaepernick, Michael Bennett or Rishard Matthews pulling their crap in front of Mean Joe Greene, Jack Lambert, Dick Butkus or Ray Nitschke. Two words come to mind and they are – GAME OVER!

Under the lamentable tenure of Commissioner Roger Goodell, pro football has not only lost its allure of a violent and warlike weekly series of tribal warfare tests in which endurance and toughness was a badge of honor but also a haven for thin-skinned crybabies like Kaepernick and his minions.

These are some of the reasons why professional hockey and other contact sports are gaining fans while the NFL and the loopy Goodell are hemorrhaging ratings.

Even though most of the really good fighting has been discouraged in the NHL, there are still moments when the memories of legendary badasses like Gordie Howe can be seen on the ice.

Such was an incident on Thursday night in the game between the San Jose Sharks and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Longtime Sharks fixture Joe Thornton – a man who happens to boast one of the finest beards in all of sports – mixed it up with Toronto tough guy Nazem Kadri and during the action, actually had a piece of his beard ripped out by the roots.

Via The Associated Press “Sharks’ Joe Thornton loses chunk of mountain-man beard during fight”:

Nazem Kadri was an assist short of a bizarre Gordie Howe hat trick.

Kadri ripped out part of Joe Thornton’s mountain-man beard in a fight off the opening faceoff and scored in regulation in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 3-2 shootout victory over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.

Thornton and Kadri dropping the gloves just two seconds after being tossed out of the opening faceoff for slashing each other like manic lumberjacks. The 38-year-old Thornton’s beard took a beating in the scrap, thanks to Kadri hanging on to the beard rather than his jersey as he was twirled around by the bigger Shark. A hunk of Thornton’s facial hair was left on the ice like a mini-tumbleweed.

“I ended up with a piece of it in my hand,” Kadri said. “I have no idea how that happened

“I thought I was a hockey player not a barber. I didn’t mean to grab him there. I mean he’s a big boy. I couldn’t reach all the way across his shoulder. I felt like I just grabbed him in the middle of his jersey and just came down with a handful of his hair.”

Thornton didn’t comment after the game.

Here are some shots of the fight and tearing off of part of Thornton’s beard:

Hockey fans have all heard of a face-off but this may be the first “beard-off” ever. You would hate to be in Kadri’s skates the next time that these two teams drop the puck in the heat of battle.