It's Tradition!

So the Wings have made it through two rounds of the playoffs now, which means that for the first time in a few years we're seeing the boys with some real scruff going on. And thus, I'm taking a page out of Sherry's book and documenting just what we've ended up with since I've got nothing better to do during these days of hockey drought. I really never knew we had so many redheads on the team.

Captain Nick Lidstrom sticks with just a bit of scruff - but you can't argue just how appealing it is. And those eyes? Is it me or has he gotten even nicer looking as the season's gone on? And that play the other day? If you didn't see it, you owe it to yourself as a hockey fan to click that link and pull up 30 seconds into that video. Even Hasek appreciated it:

"I bought him a few beers last night, so we're all right now, we are even," said Hasek, smiling after the team plane landed Tuesday evening at Metro Airport. "The puck would have definitely been in the net (if it weren't for Lidstrom). I made a mistake trying to help Nick."

Kris Draper looks less beat-up than usual by this point in the season...but I can't decide if the beard makes him look more or less like a monkey.

Brett Lebda, I know you got hurt ($*@#&#* Langkow!), and I know you were gone for a while, and I know that you came back maybe a little sooner than you intended thanks to a little heart-to-heart with Schneider...but really, you can do better. I know you can.

Even the little rookies Kyle Quincey and the recently called up Derek Meech are getting in on the playoff beard fun. Unlike my favorite rookie Hudler and his former Money Line counterpart Filppula who appear to not even be attempting - come on guys, you can do it! You're not the Penguins!

There's something vaguely creepy about Todd Bertuzzi (who's rocking a pretty good playoff beard) in this picture...but then I think about him tossing that little stuffed octopus at Ozzie and I feel a little better.

I think Dan Cleary's gotten cuter this season too - but maybe it's just that insane breakout he had earlier on. In any case I think he's trying to out-red Draper.

This isn't the most recent of Robert Lang playoff beard shots, but it was the best I could find. The most disconcerting thing to me isn't the lack of attempt at scruff so much as the fact that it looks like he just walked out of a salon after a nice mid-day wax, but that could just be me...

Personally I think Henrik Zetterberg looks like a completely different person when he's got the beard going on. Fortunately he plays the same absolutely stunning hockey and is just as delicious either way. He also plays soccer and is adorable.

Other noteable beards include Matheiu Schneider, who's unfortunately done for the season, and Tomas Holmstrom, while Chris Chelios, Pavel Datsyuk and Dom Hasek, among others, have chosen to keep it clean.

Two days to go; my roommate and a bunch of friends are firing off the conference finals Friday night with a pre-game barbeque - they shot down my idea that we should grill some Duck, but it's happening in my heart, I promise. I'm naming my dinner Chris Pronger. GO WINGS!