Heading into their three-game trip to Minnesota, Winnipeg, and Chicago from November 17-20, they told the players if they got two out of three, they would grow mustaches and keep them until Christmas. If they got three out of three, they would keep them until the Winter Classic on Jan. 2.
"We'll do anything for a winning streak," head coach Mike Sullivan smiled. "We were trying to think of some ways to lighten the atmosphere a little bit, and provide some incentive for our guys, maybe some added incentive to find ways to win games."
"We weren't gonna say no to that," captain Sidney Crosby said with a grin.
After a hard-fought 6-4 victory against the Wild, the Penguins shut out the Jets two nights later. As goaltender Tristan Jarry donned the postgame victory helmet, he called out:
"Let's hope the coaches grow 'em a little longer!"
And with their emotional win over Chicago the following night in Evgeni Malkin's 1,000th game, the coaches' fate was sealed.
"I think it was cool that all the coaches did that," goaltender Casey DeSmith said. "The best part is we had to win to get it, and we did. So it was kind of like a double bonus. It was a couple of wins and a couple mustaches."
It's actually been the entire coaching staff who has grown them: Sullivan, associate coach Todd Reirden (who's gone with the Fu Manchu), assistant coach Mike Vellucci, assistant coach Ty Hennes, goaltending coach Andy Chiodo, video coach Madison Nikkel, and assistant video coach CJ D'Alimonte.
Sullivan will be the first one to tell you that his is the worst, and you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who disagrees. "It just looks very unnatural," Teddy Blueger said with a laugh. "I mean, I guess we've kind of gotten used to it now."
"The phase that they're in now, they're a little better than they were a couple of weeks ago," agreed Crosby.
While none of them are really all that great, Chiodo, who typically shaves his head, gets the most credit for the fact that he's also growing his hair out as well.
"The mustaches, they kind of brought it up themselves. But Chico was like a little separate negotiation with the hair," Blueger said. "He's so self-conscious about it, and I don't know why. Chico's hair looks great."
While the coaches may get the razors out the second that the final buzzer sounds after the matchup with Boston at Fenway Park, hopefully Crosby's mustache remains.
He kept his Movember mustache for reasons somewhat unknown, as he hasn't really been on any super long point streaks … but Crosby has been incredibly consistent for a long time now, as has the team, so it may be a bigger-picture sort of 'stache.
"I'm sure it's superstition, just like everything else he does," DeSmith said with a laugh. "I think it's pretty easy to figure that out. He keeps scoring, so it's gotta stay. It's going to be pretty funny if he keeps going until June."
