Insider
Craig Custance, ESPN Senior Writer 8y

Five keys to the Stanley Cup finals

PITTSBURGH – The annual media day before the Stanley Cup finals is always an entertaining time. It’s the day players are loose, excited to be there and not in a huge rush to get on a plane or out of a locker room.

It leads to fun exchanges like the ever-smiling Tomas Hertl interviewing teammate Tommy Wingels. Or when Sharks coach Peter DeBoer was instructed to sit in the seat behind a giant placard with his name on it, the former Kitchener coach deadpanning that OHL guys, in fact, do know how to read.

But nothing beat the exchange with Joe Thornton when the questions turned to his outstanding beard.

First, he was asked the secret to his beard.

“With beards, you’ve just got to the start ‘em," he said, referencing teammate Brent Burns. "Usually, they get big. What me and Burnsy did, we just started them and haven’t shaved."

Ah, so you just grow it and that’s it?

“There’s a lot of work, oh yeah,” he said. “There’s oil. It’s combing. There’s a lot of maintenance to it."

After that, the conversation shifted to losing food in the beard.

“Sometimes. Milk is the worst, probably,” he said. “But yeah, you’ve got to take care of it.”

He’d been growing it since November and revealed that his daughter loves is. His wife Tabea, not so much.

“She hates it, don’t worry about her,” Thornton said smiling. “My 5-year-old loves it.”

Media day is a good time, but it’s not all laughs. It is also a time to tap into the insight of the players and get their thoughts on the keys emerging from this series with a Stanley Cup. Here are five keys from Sunday conversations:

^ Back to Top ^