From Playoff Beard to Playoff Stubble: The Hawks' Short Journey through the Playoffs?

How thick will the Hawks' beards get this year? Beard season starts today.

Everyone who knows me knows I don't follow much hockey, but there's one thing that I love about hockey: the playoff beard. Last year's Hawks squad had a variety of playoff beards growing throughout their Stanley Cup run:

One of the thicker beards last year, as worn by Adam Burish

This beard, proudly worn by Antti Niemi

 
And then, there are the not-so-pretty beards:

My cousin Tony grew better facial hair at the age of 12 than Kane did at 21.
$20 says Kaner punched the cabbie because cabbie said Kane's beard looked like "my wife's lower region".

I guess being talented and having a good beard don't go hand in hand.

From what I hear about the Hawks' inconsistency this year, fans of childish beards grown by adult men will be disappointed when Kane and Toews (among others) get eliminated early by the President Trophy-winning Vancouver Canucks.

The one thing I do know about hockey (and baseball) compared to basketball is that playoff series are a lot more unpredictable and home ice/field does not mean as much when compared to NBA. Seems like every year or every other year, a 1 seed loses to an 8 seed in hockey in at least one of the conferences. The Ducks almost won the Cup less than ten years ago as an 8 seed and the Flyers made it all the way to the Cup as a 7 seed last year against the Hawks.

Also, if history is any indicator, making the playoffs in the last week/game isn't necessarily a bad sign for the Hawks. Some recent sports examples of teams who squeaked into postseason play:

NHL- Flyers (2010): made the playoffs in the last day of the season last year and were two games away from winning the Stanley Cup.

MLB- San Francisco Giants (2010): They squeaked into the playoffs after winning in game 162 (last game of the regular season) vs. the Padres, who helped the Giants get back into the NL West race by losing 10 straight games in September. The Giants went on to win the World Series after besting the Braves, Phillies and Rangers in October.

NFL- Green Bay (2010-11): won their last two regular season games, including an ugly affair against the Bears on the 2nd day of the year, then won the Super Bowl after winning three straight games on the road, including at Chicago.

NCAAB- Butler/VCU (2011): Some say that Butler may not have made the tournament if they did not win their conference tourney; everyone said that VCU did not deserve to be in the play-in game of the newly-expanded 68-team NCAA tournament. Both teams made the most of their opportunities. Butler won a pair of last second victories in the first two rounds, then proceeded to the Final Four after victories against Wisconsin and Florida. Meanwhile, VCU was the first team to need 5 wins to advance to the final weekend, capping off their amazing run by dominating against highly-touted and top-ranked Kansas. While Butler (who beat VCU in the national semis) ended up looking terrible against Uconn, they definitely went further than 99.999% of people thought they would.

So will the Hawks (or another team) join this list? It's much more possible in NHL than NBA. Whereas I could name the 5 teams that even have a shot at the NBA title (no particular order: Lakers, Celtics, Bulls, Heat, Spurs), hockey always presents series upsets that allow for any and all teams to have a shot at the title.

Good luck to the Hawks to advance beyond the playoff stubble stage. From what I hear, they'll need all the luck they can get.