“You know what, with beards, you just gotta start ‘em," the Sharks center said on Sunday at Media Day for the Stanley Cup Final. “And usually, they’ll get big.”
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Thornton hasn’t shaved since November, and thus looks insane. Sporting News can confirm that the beard is even more glorious in person. There’s even more … coloration going on than we initially thought.
The look came out of nowhere; we all expect it from Brent Burns. Less so with Thornton — at some point in February, it seems that everyone simultaneously realized that he looked like a Civil War re-enactor.
Thornton’s getting tips from “two mentors: his older brother John, who normally has a beard, and Burns, who is an actual Wookiee.
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“Burnsie, he really actually helps me. He gets me all the oils, the combs,” Thornton said. “In the morning you get up, you gotta oil a little bit, comb it a little bit, and then at night, you’ve got to take care of it. … It looks pretty but it’s hard work.”
Everyone laughed at the last line, including Thornton, who barely seems to like it himself.
“We got a new cat recently, and she loves putting her paws in it. Other than that, I don’t think it’s very nice, personally.”
Thornton is 1-for-2 where it counts: “Well, my young lady loves it. My five-year-old loves it. But my – I don’t think she wants me to tell how old she is, she hates it.”
The beard’s future: Unknowable. Thornton said he could shave tomorrow, but …
“It’s day-to-day. I could come back 10 years from now and still have it.”
