Young Tigers team working overtime to don playoff beards
By JAMES TUBB on March 31, 2023.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb There is a good chance the Medicine Hat Tigers will trail their competition throughout the postseason in beard length. The tradition of playoff beards in hockey started in the 1980s with the New York Islanders, who won four straight Stanley Cup championships sporting long, fuzzy beards. Ever since then the playoff beard has continued on and made its way into nearly all North American Hockey league playoffs, including the Western Hockey League. With the youthfulness of the Tigers, there are a few players who will be able to don beards but most Tabbies may have to settle for scruff on their chins. The News polled members of the Tigers on who will have success at growing out their beards and who will have difficulties. Here are their answers. Beckett Langkow, 19-year-old “I’ll be struggling for sure, some guys have some good ones but not me.” “The top three would be, (Kurtis) Smythe, (Brayden) Boehmer can get a lot of hair going but it doesn’t look good, and (Tyler) Mackenzie can get a pretty good one.” Kurtis Smythe, 20-year-old “I always have like a little bit of stubble so I probably just won’t shave now, I’ll clean it up a little.” “My D-partner JVM (Josh Van Mulligen) started one a week ago and it’s not bad. JV is the next best and the worst, may be Tomas Mrsic, my roommate. He can’t really grow it out that good but he’s also 16 years old.” Dallon Melin, 21-year-old “We’re going to have to go pretty deep (for his beard to show), right now this is sitting around a week so by the end of the weekend, you’ll be able to see it in the right light ,but it’ll take a while to get it really going.” “Neiler (Owen MacNeil) has the worst, he’s just has a little chin stuff, it’s brutal. Neiler is probably the worst. T-Mac and Pash (Pasha Bocharov) have some good facial hair. Owen MacNeil, 19-year-old “(Rhett) Parsons can get a pretty good one going. A lot of our guys had one going during the regular season, so it’s kind of up in arms a little I suspect so we’ll see. But it’s definitely not me, I’ll do what I can, but it’s nothing special.” Tyler MacKenzie, 19-year-old “Once I get mine going, I usually shave every week, so once I actually got one going it’s good.” “We’ll go with Gav (McKenna), I don’t know if he has hair anywhere else. “ The 15-year-old McKenna was down the hall from MacKenzie during his interview. “You can’t grow a beard can you, Gav?” “Not really no,” McKenna said. 23-22
