TORONTO — Joe Thornton’s mountain-man beard was an early casualty Thursday night as the San Jose Sharks visited the Toronto Maple Leafs.
It was a frigid -26 C with the wind chill outside but it was hot from the get-go inside the Air Canada Centre with Thornton and Toronto’s Nazem Kadri dropping the gloves two seconds in after slashing each other at the opening faceoff like manic lumberjacks.
The 38-year-old Thornton lost part of his impressive beard during the scrap, thanks to Kadri hanging on to his beard rather than his jersey as he was twirled around by the bigger Shark.
A hunk of Thornton’s beard was left on the ice, ultimately finding its way to the glove of backup goalie Aaron Dell on the San Jose bench.