On April 14th the Sharks began their playoff run, and I began growing my playoff beard – a recent tradition among athletes and fans that I began doing during the Sharks short-lived playoff run last year. The gist of the playoff beard is, when your team enters the playoffs you shave, and you don’t shave again until your team wins the championship, or is eliminated. This postseason, teams had a “beard-a-thon” where fans could make donations sponsoring the beard of a player or a fan, and the proceeds would benefit a local charity. I found growing a beard for charity to be a kind of silly, so I didn’t enter, but surprisingly, Sharks fans raised over $10,000 for the Sharks Foundation.

For 40 days the Sharks fought their way past Colorado, and Detroit, all the while my beard grew along with my excitement that this could very well be the year. Then came Chicago.

Sadly, I was camping when the Sharks were eliminated, so the beard stayed a few extra days until I learned of the loss. At that point I went into mourning, and my sadness and lazyness caused the beard to stick around a few extra days, until last Saturday when it met with the razor.

For funsies, I took this opportunity to see how I looked with different kinds of facial hair, so I had Chrystie take the following mug shots, which I’m sure will come back to haunt me someday. Here is how I look with…

Mutton Chops:

Goatee:

The ‘stache: