Islanders have strict policy that doesn't allow beards, mustaches or long hair during regular season

And then there was one.

Now that the Yankees have rescinded their no-beard policy, there is one New York team that does not allow its players to sport facial hair.

Lou Lamoriello’s Islanders.

Lamoriello, as has been his practice on every NHL team he has run, does not allow the Islanders to grow beards or mustaches or have long hair during the regular season.

The ban is lifted during the Stanley Cup playoffs — which makes sense, given that it was the Islanders just before the glory days of the 1980s who started the NHL’s postseason beard tradition.

Today’s Islanders are clean-cut and clean-shaven. That had been true of the Yankees before Friday, when owner Hal Steinbrenner took a scissors to that policy by announcing the club will allow “well-groomed beards.”

It’s not unusual for professional teams to have various policies about dress codes and appearance for players and staff. But the Yankees’ was the most well-known policy since it was introduced by George Steinbrenner in 1976.

Lamoriello declined to comment on the Islanders’ facial-hair policy earlier this week.

One of his players, Bo Horvat, told Newsday he thinks the policy “sets us apart — in a good way.”

“I think it holds guys accountable,” Horvat said. “I think just to have that clean, professional look and kind of have everybody equal and on the same page, and everybody dialed into the team aspect of things, I think is great. It doesn’t bother me any. If anything, it made me look better, a little more clean-cut. I grew a crappy beard, anyway.

“If that’s the only thing that he’s going to ask is for us to look presentable and come and play hard and just be a professional every single day, how can you complain about that? Guys respect the rule. When they come in here, it’s not even like they need to be told. I think that’s a special thing to have in our locker room.”

Cal Clutterbuck, the retired Islander who is now a (fully bearded) commentator on MSG, said he didn’t have to be told what to expect when Lamoriello was named the Islanders’ president in May 2018.

“I knew the minute I was going to go in and meet him for the first time I should probably be clean-shaven,” Clutterbuck told Newsday on Friday in a phone interview. “That’s a no-brainer. It wouldn’t have been the wisest career move to go in there with a full beard.”

Of the Yankees’ change of heart, Clutterbuck said: “I am a little surprised. I guess it’s just a sign of the times and evolution. Evolution or revolution, I don’t know.”

Lamoriello was close to the late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who started the Yankees’ policy a few years after he bought the club in 1973. Lamoriello was a Yankees minority owner and worked for Steinbrenner when the Yankees’ owner took control of the New Jersey Nets and Devils from 2000-04. Lamoriello was the Devils’ general manager.

In the wake of the Yankees’ move, does Clutterbuck think Lamoriello will change his policy?

“No chance,” he said.

 With Andrew Gross

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.