Filip Hronek’s face turned heads at Tuesday’s morning skate, and not because the Vancouver Canucks were unveiling a new top-pairing defenceman. With Movember underway, Hronek arrived looking like a different player altogether, ditching the full beard that has long been part of his image for a huge moustache.
The change was enough to make him nearly unrecognizable. What he’s wearing now is less a classic handlebar and more a horseshoe moustache, the kind you’d expect to see on a biker more than an NHL blue-liner. Hronek has been so closely identified with his beard for years that seeing his chin again feels like a throwback.
Even back in his rookie season, he wasn’t exactly clean-shaven. By his sophomore year with the Detroit Red Wings, the full beard was already in place, and it became the look that stuck.
On the ice, though, Hronek has been doing far more than changing his appearance. After a slow start to the season, he’s put together a five-game point streak with a goal and five assists. He’s also shouldering a massive workload for Vancouver, averaging nearly 26 minutes per game, which ranks ninth among NHL defencemen in average ice time.
That kind of responsibility matters on a Canucks team that doesn’t have much margin for error and is expected to spend plenty of time in its own end. Hronek’s steady play helps stabilize a young defence group, and head coach Manny Malhotra pointed to that consistency as a key part of what the team needs.
“When it comes from your leadership, and they’re providing that consistency - that’s a word we keep using around here,” said head coach Manny Malhotra. “It’s just the consistency of playing good hockey, and making your breakout passes, and killing plays down low, and just being consistent in that regard.
“We don’t ask Fil to be dynamic and carry the team on his back, but his continued consistent play is definitely a bonus for us. That’s the messaging for the group: just be consistent.”
So while Hronek’s beard may be gone for now, the rest of his game has been remarkably steady. Ironically, the most inconsistent thing about him at the moment is the one part of his look that used to never change.
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