As each Capitals player filed off the bench and skated one-by-one out to the far blue line, a once familiar sight appeared. A year after becoming a national sensation, Justin Williams and his fabled poof of hair re-emerged from the locker room. He was joined on the ice by an even poofier and more lopsided head of hair.
22-year-old Swede Andre Burakovsky imitated the three-time Stanley Cup champion’s look, appearing to be Williams’ real-life brother.
We now present over two minutes of @JustinWilliams talking about his hair. You're welcome. #RockTheRed #CapsPictureDay pic.twitter.com/1tliRvR5Wh
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 27, 2017
“Picture day, we stand up there for fifteen minutes, our legs get tired, everyone filters in, we take pictures, and we all look the same,” Williams said. “So, it’s fine to have someone say, ‘oh look at that guy’ and [me and Andre] can be that guy.’
The two teammates were inspired by the movie Step Brothers, which co-starred Will Ferrell (Brennan) and John C. Reilly (Dale). In the fall, Burakovsky and neighbor Tom Wilson dressed up as the duo for the Caps players’ annual Halloween party. Wilson was Brennan while Burakovsky was Dale. (No, not that Dale)
“There’s something in that for sure,” Williams said. “I mean, Burkie’s nickname is sometimes ‘Dale’ so, there’s a little something to that, yeah.”
Burakovsky’s hair was already ridiculously long due to an unknown bet he’s conducting with Marcus Johansson.
“Me and Jojo made a little deal at midseason that I’m not allowed to cut my hair,” Burakovsky explained. “My hair doesn’t get long. It gets big. We just talked about that so we save (our hair) until we’re done for the season.”
Williams approached the curly-fro’d Burracuda about the idea at the beginning of March and Andre was happy to go along with it.
“Justin just came up to me a couple weeks ago and was like ‘Hey, we need to do this together. It’s gonna be awesome if we sit next to each other,'” Burakovsky said. “So yeah, we went for it.”
The bit went viral in hockey circles, eliciting several tweets from the NHL’s Twitter account. Even Caps owner Ted Leonsis got in on the fun, taking selfies with the players and posting them on Twitter.
Good bad hair day pic.twitter.com/NHhanpU9Cg
— Ted Leonsis (@TedLeonsis) March 27, 2017
Big hair day!! pic.twitter.com/hOWMlCriQY
— Ted Leonsis (@TedLeonsis) March 27, 2017
Williams told the media that he first came up with the idea while with his former team, but not to the same effect.
“I did it in Los Angeles one year,” Williams said. “It certainly didn’t get the attention that it’s gotten here.”
But a year later, Williams was able to somehow make his photo day ridiculousness even more legendary.
“I was happy to have [Andre] on board,” Williams said smiling.
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