Winning the Stanley Cup takes commitment and sacrifice, much like the sweat-soaked chin curtains hanging from the tired faces of your hockey heroes.

The playoff beard is like a badge of honor. Almost every player left standing at the end has gone months without shaving or even trimming their facial hair, resulting in various degrees of success.

So who did it best this year?

Because the Penguins and Predators spent the longest amount of time growing them out, we’ll limit our focus to those two teams.

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There’s one caveat when undertaking the noble task of ranking another man’s facial hair, however. For a player to be in the running for best playoff beard, he has to start from a relatively fresh face. So everyday beard-wearers like Ryan Ellis, Ian Cole and Nick Bonino are not included. We’re talking zero to 100. There is some wiggle room, but it has to be within reason.

With all that said, here’s the unofficial ranking of the best beards from the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs, beginning with the worst.

Best of the bad

Olli Maatta

View photos Olli Maatta during Game 1 against the Blue Jackets (Joe Sargent/Getty) vs. Olli Maatta during Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final (Joe Sargent/Getty). More

That stache is trash, which is what makes it so great. Credit to Maatta for walking around for weeks with that thing on his lip.

Jake Guentzel

View photos Jake Guentzel during Game 2 against the Blue Jackets (Jeanine Leech/Getty) vs. Jake Guentzel during Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final (Joe Sargent/Getty). More

This is about what you’d expect from a rosy-cheeked 22-year-old.

Evgeni Malkin

View photos Evgeni Malkin during Game 1 against the Blackhawks (Joe Sargent/Getty) vs. Evgeni Malkin after Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final (Justin K. Aller/Getty). More

Evgeni Malkin’s Lenin with sideburns look never fails to disappoint. He should rock this full-time.

Sidney Crosby

View photos Sidney Crosby during Game 2 against the Blue Jackets (Gene J. Puskar/AP) vs. Sidney Crosby after Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final (Mark Humphrey/AP). More

There’s not many things Sidney Crosby has failed to achieve in his hockey career. Growing a decent beard is one of them.

Strong effort

Pekka Rinne

View photos Pekka Rinne during Game 1 against the Blackhawks (Jonathan Daniel/Getty) vs. Pekka Rinne after Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final (Bruce Bennett/Getty). More

Pekka Rinne struggled to fill in the cheeks, but perhaps no player had a closer shave to start the playoffs.

Pontus Aberg

View photos Pontus Aberg during Game 4 against the Blackhawks (Mark Humphrey/AP) vs. Pontus Aberg during Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final (Gregory Shamus/Getty). More

Not a bad debut for one of the youngest guys on the list.

Carter Rowney

Story continues