“These Dudes Were Bears”

A report on the Bruins, Sexual Coding and Playoff Beards. Money quote:

Bears tend not to be all, “I’m a bear, yo.” The literal thing is that the Bruins literally looked like bears. The padding of the uniforms provided those extra plies of huskiness and, in Tim Thomas’ case, of squatness. It’s possible only one sort of bear crossed the player’s minds as they clawed their way through the playoffs.

It’s also possible that at some point, maybe after flying to Vancouver for the start of the finals, a player walked into the locker room, and said, “Guys, you know what we look like, don’t you?” Hockey might actually be the one professional sport where not only could someone wonder that aloud but where someone else really might know the answer. Perhaps that someone else could have been the coach, Claude Julien, whose face could use the cheesy pizzazz of a goatee or a soul patch.

They also did a very Bear-like thing: turned their facial hair into a charity.