EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsBushy beards are a storied Stanley Cup playoffs tradition. At least for those who can actually grow them."My beard is ... it's not very good. I'm not going to lie," Carolina Hurricanes forward Jackson Blake said Monday.There is some semblance of a beard on the 22-year-old's face. It's a collection of scraggly follicles separated by large blank spaces.On Stanley Cup Final media day, Blake was seated next to teammate Jalen Chatfield, whose beard puts the Brawny paper towel man's to shame"Mine doesn't look like that right now," said Blake, glancing at his teammate.While his teammates give Blake an "A" for effort, they also acknowledge that his might be the worst playoff beard on the Hurricanes."Sometimes it's in your genes, whether you can grow a beard or not. It's nothing you can really do about it," said winger Taylor Hall, sporting a full playoff beard with flecks of gray in it.Hall hit on something many of the Hurricanes acknowledged: Having blond hair, as Blake does, isn't helping a sparse playoff beard."I mean it's blond too, so you can't really see it very well, but he's trying," Hall said."He's got some stuff there," Hurricanes forward Mark Jankowski said. "But I think it hurt him a little bit that he's blond, so it's harder to see."Blake acknowledged that his hair color does not do his playoff beard any favors: "I don't know. If we get the right lighting, maybe it'd be a little better."He said his teammates haven't razzed him too much about his playoff beard."They've been pretty nice actually to me for that. They haven't really said anything about it, but, I mean, I see myself every day and I know what it looks like," Blake said. "I'm not very confident in it. But it's a tradition, so I'm going to let it go."Obviously, his teammates are more focused on his play on the ice than the whiskers that aren't on his face. Blake is second on the Hurricanes in scoring with 15 points (five goals and 10 assists) while skating on one of the postseason's most dominant lines with Hall and center Logan Stankoven.This was Blake's second full NHL season and the second time he has reached at least the conference final. After last postseason, the bar for his playoff beard was set at "grow something at least," which he cleared."Last year I did it, but nothing really grew in. This year, I've got a little more," he said. "I'm just letting it do its thing. Whatever happens to my face, happens. Then after the season's over, right away, I'm shaving it."
