Grabing the beard? Check the rule book
Toronto centre Nazem Kadri may have got o lightly for grabbing Joe Thornton’s beard in Thursday night’s shootout win over the San Jose Sharks.
For one, he survived a tilt with a much bigger man with only some facial swelling. But he also escaped further punishment for getting his hand tangled in ornton’s mountain-man beard, pulling out a chunk of hair in the process.
On the plus side for ornton, the Sharks star would have had to shave before ghting had he been in the UFC.
Asked whether the rule book covered beard-pulling, the NHL pointed to Rule 75.2 (ii) which says: “Any player who is guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct including, but not limited to hairpulling, biting, grabbing hold of a face mask, etc. If warranted, and speci cally when injury results, the referee may apply Rule 21 — Match Penalties.”
Both combatants only got ghting majors.
It appears the referees decided the beard interaction was unintentional. Or perhaps, like everyone else watching, it just took a while to gure out what had just happened.
e ght occurred two seconds into the game. Kadri said ornton challenged him after the two were tossing out of the opening faceo following a nasty slashing exchange.
Kadri, who was giving up at least four inches and 30 pounds to the 38-year-old ornton, appeared to be trying to grab a handful of his sweater but got beard instead — unintentionally, he said later.
“I mean he’s a big boy,” he said of the six-foot-four Shark. “I couldn’t reach all the way across his shoulder. I felt like I just grabbed him in the middle of his jersey and just came down with a handful of his hair.”
“I thought I was a hockey player not a barber,” he added with a chuckle
The damage appeared to be done as ornton lost his balance and went down, with Kadri still attached to his beard.
e dislodged hair landed on the ice and the mini-tumbleweed was eventually handed over to the Sharks bench, presumably for safe-keeping.
Thornton, who didn’t speak after the game, has been in beard brouhahas before.
In the 2015-16 playo s, he and St. Louis centre David Backes each grabbed the other’s beard during an altercation that saw no punches thrown.
“Just seeing if it was glued on well. It checked out,” Backes said later.
ornton has been in 29 ghts in his 21-year career, according to hockey ghts.com. Kadri has been involved in six during his nine years in the league.
Other leagues also have hairrelated rules.
The CFL essentially adopted the 2003 NFL rule, inspired by running back Ricky Williams and his dreads, that long hair is an extension of the uniform and thus OK to grab while making tackle.
But just like a player without the ball can’t be held by the jersey, they can’t be held by the hair.
In 2013, Arizona Cardinals running back Andre Ellington had some of his dreadlocks pulled out when tackled by Jacksonville defensive end Jason Babin. ere was no ag on the play.
Some combative sports governing bodies require fighters to get rid of their beards. The Ontario Athletic Commission ordered Emil Meek to trim his beard to a length where it could not be grabbed ahead of his UFC 206 matchup with Canadian Jordan Mein in December 2016.
“As much as I want to keep my beard, I want to ght more,” tweeted the Norwegian, who reduced the size of the beard before winning by decision.