Dumoulin crowned 'Mustache Boy' for April

CRANBERRY, Pa. -- It looks like the Penguins' "Mustache Boy" shootout drill is back and here to stay.

Bryan Rust has been sporting a mustache for the last two weeks after losing a shootout drill at the end of a practice during the Penguins' road trip in New Jersey, and he's been looking forward to the end of his sentence ever since.

"The mustache is staying for the designated time period, and then it will be gone," he said last week, adding that his wife laughs at the mustache.

When Dan Bylsma implemented the drill back when he was head coach, the Penguins would hold the shootout drill at the end of every month to crown a new mustache boy for the following month.

With Wednesday being the last practice for the month of March, the Penguins concluded practice with a shootout drill, and Brian Dumoulin lost. He'll be sporting a mustache for April as a result.

With Tristan Jarry absent from practice with an upper-body injury, Casey DeSmith and Max Lagace were the two goaltenders in the drill. The Penguins' skaters lined up along the boards and went two at a time, each shooting at one of the two goaltenders. When a player scored, they moved to the right of the line and took a knee to indicate that they were safe and out of the running for the mustache boy title. If a player missed or was stopped, he got back in line to get ready for the next round.

Rust was one of the early players to score when he beat DeSmith with a backhand shot, and he raised his arms and dropped to a knee and pumped his fist, thrilled that he wouldn't have to keep the mustache for a second month.

As the number of players still in the competition dwindled, the remaining shooters began to feel the threat of a potential mustache.

"I went twice," Mike Matheson said. "Then I came back to the line, all of the sudden there were like eight guys left, so you're getting pretty nervous."

The final four who had yet to score were Jason Zucker, Evan Rodrigues, Anthony Angello, and Dumoulin. 

Zucker and Rodrigues scored on their next attempts, and it came down to either Angello or Dumoulin.

"Me, being in the final two against Dumo today, quite frankly I was a little bit nervous," Angello said. 

Dumoulin was stopped on his next attempt.

Angello went next and beat Lagace glove-side to hand Dumoulin the loss, and his teammates erupted in cheers.

"It's honestly pretty fun to keep things light," Angello said. 

"It's a lot of fun to play a game like that," Matheson said. "You see a lot of laughs throughout the team."

Apparently not everyone sees a mustache as punishment, anyway. Kris Letang showed up to practice with his beard shaved into just a mustache:

Letang wasn't one of the players made available to speak after practice, so his reasoning will likely remain a mystery. Matheson said that he has "no idea" why Letang did it, which means that it wasn't a result of some team-wide drill or competition. If it was a personal choice, it wasn't one that everyone agrees with.

"I hope it wasn't because he thought it looked good," Matheson quipped.