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The playoff beard and why guys with them are hot!
by Toni Aleo

That’s Shea Weber.

That’s the start of his gorgeous playoff beard.

I don’t know where my lusty needs for beards come from but I have them. My husband has never been able to grow a beard but he has his sexy mustache and I love it. I do. But when playoff season comes around and all my hot hockey players look like woodsy, mountain men, my heart goes into over drive.

Maybe that’s why the playoffs are the most exciting time ever to me. Maybe it’s the lusty needs in me to see a man skating around with his massive Sasquatch beard, knocking people around and scoring goals. I don’t know. But it’s hot. Before we go into the hotness that is the playoff beard, let’s discuss why my hot hockey boys grow them. 
 According to Wikipedia, the tradition started in the 1980s by the New York Islanders. Once in the playoff, the guys don’t shave until their team is eliminated. If they lose a game during their seven game series, some guys are known to trim it up just to see if it changes their luck. It is practiced throughout all the NHL, NCAA, and the minor leagues. It has also spread to the hockey leagues in Europe. Even fans are known to grow their beards out to give their team luck. Great things have come from this tradition, one being the Bread-A-Thon campaign. It has raised over one million dollars for NHL charities. No one knows if it is just superstition or if it really does help the guys win, all that is known, is that everyone grows a beard at the start of the playoffs.

Now that we have a history, we can discuss the different kinds of beards. Shea Weber is known for his Sasquatch beard. Opponents on the ice are generally scared crapless when Shea comes towards them with his massive beard and scary eyes. I am not scared and I usually run towards him. He is gorgeous without the beard, but with it, it’s pure magic. It makes me want to run up and rub my nose all throughout it!

Just like Shea, Joe Thornton, from the San Jose Sharks has a Sasquatch kinda beard. It’s fuzzy and big, and I, for one, dig it. Doesn’t it just make you want to run your fingers and nose through it? Or is that just me?
Todd Bertuzzi, Patrick Sharpe, and Henrick Zetterberg all do the cleaned up kind of beard. I don’t feel they really follow the tradition since they are known to cut and clean up their beards. I like my beard wild and scary but these guys do the beard justice.

There is also the neck beard. Its weird and I don’t understand it, but 
Tyler Seaguin from the Boston Bruins is scrumptious with it!

Then you have the cutie patootie guys, the young bucks, that can’t grow themselves hot beards. So this happens. Jonathan Ericsson is a beautiful man, and I, for one, love that this happens instead of a big scary beard. 
Some of the guys don’t think that the playoff beard is enough. Kevin Klein decided her was going to do a Mohawk too. Funny thing is, he started a trend and now almost all the Nashville Predators have Mohawks. 

While I love the playoff beard, sometimes they can go horribly wrong and this happens. This is when playoff beards are not hot and no matter how much you think it will help you win, please help us little people and shave that mess!

So really, after reading this, you have to admit, you like guys with beards too. So why don’t you go to your couch, turn on your TV to NBC sports and check out some hot hockey guys with beards. 
Believe me, you won’t regret it.
GO PREDS!
Audrey Parker was in a horrible place.
She hated her job, her sister was getting married and moving out, but worst of all, she was in love with a total jerk. No matter what she did, every guy she met hurt her. All she wanted was her happily ever after. Her Prince Charming. Her Lucas Brooks! She didn’t know how to change her life but she knew she needed too.
Feeling like she was about to hit rock bottom, Audrey wakes up next to Tate Odder.

Tate Odder had lost everything.
After being brought up from the Assassins’ farm team, the Florida Rays to the Nashville Assassins, Tate hopes he’ll forget everything he has lost. He doesn’t. Each day gets harder to live in a place he doesn’t know. Even being the first rookie goalie to shut out an opposing team three times during the Lord Stanley Cup Finals, he still felt empty. With the loss of his parents and sister still heavy on his heart, Tate isn’t sure how to live like everything is okay.

But when he wakes up beside Audrey Parker, things start to change. She turns his life upside down with her kooky sense of humor and her bright clothing. She is intelligent and beautiful, and for once, he doesn’t feel empty.
Will Audrey be the person to fill the holes in Tate’s heart, making him whole again?
Or will another player ruin everything, leaving him feeling forever like an empty net?Definition of an Empty Net: When a team pulls the goalie for an extra attacker, desperately seeking a goal.

Photobucket

EMPTY NET Blog Tour Schedule:
9/10/12  Nose In A Book 
9/12/12 – Harlie’s Books 
9/17/12 – Rumor Has It
9/18/12 – Ravishing Romance

9/19/12 – My Secret Romance
9/20/12 – Reviews by Molly
9/21/12 – My Odd Little World

Ms. Aleo is giving away one of her Assassin books to one of the UTC maidens.  To be entered for this giveaway, please leave a comment below and be sure to leave your email address.

But wait there’s more…

GRAND PRIZE!! You can win all three Assassins books and a swag pack by entering the form below.

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Books have the power to unite people and that is exactly what happened with us! Our love for books have brought us together and we’ve become good friends in a short amount of time. We “met” online through Goodreads and decided to share our passion of books with fellow book lovers. And that is how Under the Covers came to be.

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23 Comments

  1. Congrats on the new release. Empty Net sounds fantastic. Can’t wait to read it. *hangs head in shame* I have never really noticed the “playoff beard”. I’m going to have to check them out. Thanks for the great post.

    e.balinski(at)att(dot)net

    Reply

  6. I think Blogger ate my comment, so I hope this isn’t a double post! Anyway, I appreciate your giving props to Joe’s playoff beard. I enjoy the NCAA Frozen Four playoff beards best…it’s so funny to see all the fresh-faced college boys look like Muppet Vikings for a weekend. (A couple of years ago, the winning team–I forgot which one–changed it up by having all the guys bleach their hair instead. It was cute, but a lot of them clearly damaged their hair badly…)

    vitajex(at)aol(dot)com

    Reply

  8. That was a great post my son follows hockey although we live in Texas he likes the Flyers, he’s 15 I don’t question him right now, lol!! I love to watch it gets your blood really going and I have always wondered about the beard I though it was because it was cold, glad you cleared that up!! I’m a goatee person, nice trimmed goatee yep gets me every time!!! Yummy;)

    Reply

  9. That was a great post my son follows hockey although we live in Texas he likes the Flyers, he’s 15 I don’t question him right now, lol!! I love to watch it gets your blood really going and I have always wondered about the beard I though it was because it was cold, glad you cleared that up!! I’m a goatee person, nice trimmed goatee yep gets me every time!!! Yummy;)

    Reply

  12. My hubby has had a beard every day of our married life. Some years it’s been a very full beard, and others it’s been more of a goatee. It hides the fact that he has a weak chin! LOL.
    catherinelee100 at gmail dot com

    Reply

  13. I really enjoy sports oriented stories & a series is even better!
    The beards are great, tho I do admit that I prefer them to be neatly trimmed rather than scraggly.

    sallans d at yahoo dot com

    Reply

  16. I love hockey although I’m not a fan of beards. I don’t know why, I’m just not a fan of facial hair of any kind.
    booksniffersanonymous at gmail dot com

    Reply