EAST MEADOW, N.Y. (AP) — Images from the New York Islanders’ annual charity golf outing last month on social media went viral because something was very different about some of the familiar faces fans have seen for years. Many had beards on them. Facial hair is back in style on Long Island in the post-Lou […]
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Beards are back for the New York Islanders after old-school executive Lou Lamoriello’s departure
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EAST MEADOW, N.Y. (AP) — Images from the New York Islanders’ annual charity golf outing last month on social media went viral because something was very different about some of the familiar faces fans have seen for years.
Many had beards on them.
Facial hair is back in style on Long Island in the post-Lou Lamoriello era. The old-school hockey executive during his seven years in charge had a policy, much like late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, requiring players, coaches and staff to be clean shaven.
Lamoriello’s contract was not renewed last spring, and the beards have returned for coach Patrick Roy and many of the Islanders. Goaltender Ilya Sorokin even has one for the first time in his NHL career.
“It’s one less thing to worry about when you come to the rink,” forward and beard aficionado Kyle Palmieri said. “I think it was part of our team standard to be clean-shaven, and I had no issues with it other than having to go through a lot of razors.”
Those razors shelved for now for some, players are quick to praise Lamoriello, a three-time Stanley Cup-winning general manager in New Jersey who also spent time in Toronto and brought with him a level of decorum and class that they appreciated.
“We all respected Lou’s rules in here, and rules are rules,” defenseman Ryan Pulock said. “Guys look presentable at all times when we were clean-shaven.”
Fourth-liner Casey Cizikas is the organization’s longest-tenured player and has run the gamut from stubble and full beards to a Movember mustache. He put the razor away and let his next beard start growing as soon as last season ended.
“I shaved once throughout the summer,” Cizikas said on the first day of training camp. “But (I am) just going in, seeing how it looked and here we are.”
There are a lot of fresh faces around this fall who were brought in by new GM Mathieu Darche, a retired player with a pair of championship rings from his time in Tampa Bay’s front office. Darche considers himself lucky to arrive after the Islanders won the draft lottery for the No. 1 pick and the chance to select defenseman Matthew Schaefer, who has already made a strong impression and on Thursday night became the youngest player in league history to record a point in his debut.
Schaefer, for what it’s worth, just turned 18 and is clean-shaven. Maybe he’ll follow Sidney Crosby’s lead and keep the facial hair to a minimum well into his 30s.
Now he has the option, which many of the veterans around him have embraced.
“When the rule was dropped here, I think some guys just mixed it up a little bit,” Pulock said. “I kind of started letting it grow: something different that I haven’t had in a while. It’s something I have right now. It doesn’t mean it’ll stay.”
Palmieri similarly did not commit to keeping his beard, which is now full and thick with the season underway. The 34-year-old felt weird not shaving even after Lamoriello was gone.
“Over the course of the summer, you just get lazy and forget to shave, forget to shave and then all of a sudden you have a beard,” Palmieri said. “Could wake up tomorrow and shave it off.”
Or that could wait until April if the Islanders exceed expectations to finish among the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference. Then a whole set of playoff beards would be in order.
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