Lanny McDonald: Contestant No. 1 for Best Hockey Mustache

Welcome back to the Shakedown!

With “Mustache May” coming to an end, it’s a sad time of the year for the “Monthly Mustache Shakedown.” But we must move forward, and this week we begin a new Shakedown with a look at the “Best Hockey Mustache.”

For those who understand the hockey mustache discipline, in and out of hockey circles there is only one place to start—a man who once did this commercial for Apollo Mufflers which included him spinning, dancing, and snapping his fingers.

Yes, we speak of none other than the godfather of hockey mustaches: Lanny McDonald.

After playing his junior hockey for the Medicine Hat Tigers (sadly, not kidding here), McDonald’s mustache was selected fourth overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1973 NHL Amateur Draft. His professional career lasted until 1989 during which time he played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Colorado Rockies, and Calgary Flames.

Lanny personified the Mustached American spirit and grit, as he once scored an overtime goal with both a fractured wrist and broken nose for the Maple Leafs during the 1978 playoffs that eliminated the New York Islanders from the quarterfinals.  And in 1983, he battled Wayne Gretzky for the scoring title for a substantial part of the season, finishing with 66 goals that season.

McDonald is of course best-recognized for his iconic red walrus mustache, often caricatured in Dave Elston’s hockey cartoons in the Calgary Sun, a newspaper in communist Canada.

So there it is—your first candidate for the the “Best Hockey Mustache” as part of our latest and greatest “Monthly Mustache Shakedown.” We of course now ask for your suggestions on our final three candidates, as JSF is only as good as the quality of your semi-worthless suggestions.

Bring it.