Joe Thornton Sharks
Joe Thornton sports one of the NHL's most glorious beards.  USATSI

Thursday night's Sharks-Maple Leafs game in Toronto got off to a rather interesting (and hairy) start.

Prior to the game's opening faceoff, San Jose center Joe Thornton and Leafs center Nazem Kadri lined up at the dot and got into a little skirmish. It appears both of them were feeling quite irritable heading into the game, for whatever reason.

They were both thrown out of the faceoff, but things didn't end there. After the puck was dropped, Thornton and Kadri squared up to chuck some knucks. As the two players wildly swung at each other, Kadri attempted to grab onto Thornton's jersey collar, as is pretty standard practice in a hockey fight.

Unfortunately for Thornton, who sports a very glorious beard, his facial hair got in the way of Kadri's grip. As a result, a portion of the beard was ripped straight out of his face.

One would imagine that didn't exactly feel great for the 38-year-old Thornton, but it's quite funny to see Kadri casually drop a handful of beard to the ice like he accidentally found a very large dust bunny.

The hair eventually found its ways over to the Sharks bench, where it was gawked at and preserved as a souvenir.

Poor Jumbo Joe. On the bright side, there's still plenty more where that came from.