This date in hockey history, December 1, 1924, The Boston Bruins played their first game in the NHL and the first NHL game ever played in the United States, defeating the Montreal Maroons 2-1 at the Boston Arena.

This date in hockey history, December 1, 1938, Frank Brimsek made his debut in the nets for the Boston Bruins, losing 2-0 to the Montreal Canadiens. But Brimsek recovered nicely, earning shutouts in six of his next seven games which earned him the nickname “Mister Zero”.

This date in hockey history, December 1, 1940, Max Bentley scored his first NHL goal with the Chicago Black Hawks during a 4-1 home ice victory against the New York Rangers.

This date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 1, 1949, Conn Smythe benched his starting goalie Turk Broda for being overweight . Gil Mayer made his only start of the season for the Leafs who lost 2-0 to the Detroit Red Wngs. Broda was back in the nets for the next game after he lost enough weight to satisfy Smythe and the Leafs defeated the New York Rangers 2-0.

This date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 1, 1967, Jim McKenny was born in Ottawa Ontario. “Howie” played 594 games with Toronto primarily from 1969 to 1977 scoring 327 points as a puck rushing defenseman. While playing with Toronto's American league affiliate the Rochester Americans, Mckenny's rooomate was Donald S. Cherry. McKenny famously said of hockey that “Half the game is mental. The other half is being mental.”

This date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 1, 1957, Frank Mahovlich
was in his rookie season and scored a hat trick during a Leafs 7-2 victory against the Chicago Black Hawks at Chicago stadium. Mahovlich went 20-16-36 in 1957-58, winning the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year over Bobby Hull. His rookie card pictured below is valued at $500.

On this date in hockey history, December 1, 1940, four pairs of brothers played in one NHL game. The Chicago Black Hawks defeated the New York Rangers 4-1. Max and Doug Bentley along with Bob and Bill Carse suited up for the Hawks while Neil and Mac Colville and Lynn and Muzz Patrick played for the Rangers.

On this date in hockey history, December 2, 1909, the National Hockey Association (NHA) was established in Montreal consisting of the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers and Renfrew Creamery Kings. The NHA would later evolve into the NHL. Renfrew was a small mining town in northern Ontario which prospered during the silver mining boom years. M.J. O'Brien and son Ambrose were the owners of the Renfrew team in the semi professional Federal Hockey League and sought to enter the new Canadien Hockey Association (CHA) but were turned down. So they created their own league the NHA. Renfrew boasted the legendary Frank Patrick and Fred “Cyclone” Taylor and Newsy Lalonde the NHA's first scoring champion and finished 8-3-1 that first season. They slipped to 8-8 next season. The Renfrew team folded after two seasons. The CHA folded after 8 weeks.

On this date in hockey history, December 2, 1925, the New York Americans played their first NHL game in Pittsburgh, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-1. Billy Burch scored the first goal with Charlie Langlois netting the winner in overtime.

On this date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 4, 1980, Jim Rutherford was acquired by the Leafs from Detroit for Mark Kirton who had been their first round draft pick in 1980. Rutherford was an Ontario boy from Beeton less than an hours drive from Toronto so his first game played for the Red Wings at Maple Leafs Gardens on January 2, 1971 was an emotional moment. Unfortunately for the rookie Rutherford and the Wings, the game was full of bad memories as the Leafs hammered the Wings 13-0. Rutherford gave up three in the first period, then spent the rest of the game on the bench and saw Torotno score three more in the second and seven goals in the third.

Rutherford played 18 game with the Leafs going 4-10-2 with a 5.12 GAA before Toronto traded him to the Los Angeles Kings. With that trade, Rutherford became the first NHL goalie to play for three teams in the same season.

On this date in hockey history, December 3, 1970, Frank Mahovlich of the Detroit Red Wings scored his 400th career goal, becoming the sixth NHL player to reach that milestone. Mahovlich found great individual success in Detroit enjoying his freedom after escaping the Toronto Maple Leafs and Punch Imlach with fellow Leafs refugees Bob Baun and Carl Brewer, scoring a career high 49 goals in 1967-68 and 38 goals in 1968-69, more than he scored in 11 of his 12 seasons with the Leafs.

On this date in Buffalo Sabres history, December 4th 1978, General Manager Punch Imlach was fired along with Coach Marcel Pronovost. Billy Inglis was hired to replace Pronovost.

On this date in hockey history, December 4, 1909, the Montreal Canadiens were founded as the “Club de Hockey Canadien” by J. Ambrose O'Brien and Jack Laviolette. Originally members of the National Hockey Association, the Canadiens were stocked with francophone players to represent Montreal's francophone community. They finished in last place in their first season but won their first Stanley Cup in the 1915-16 season. In 1917, the National Hockey Association (NHA) became ethe NHL. With Howie Morenz leading the way, the NHL Canadiens won their first Stanley Cup in the 1923-24 season.

This day in hockey history, December 4th 1963, the Boston Bruins tied the Chicago Black Hawks 2-2 with Boston’s Andy Hebenton playing in his 581st consecutive game setting a new NHL record breaking the mark held by John Wilson. That was the equivalent of playing seven seasons without taking a night (or afternoon) off. Hebenton’s record was eventually broken by Doug Jarvis, who played in 964 consecutive games.

This day in hockey history, December 4th1987, the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Chicago Blackhawks.12-0. Chicago had only 19 shots on goal. The Red Wings were led by Tim Higgins who scored his only NHL hat trick and Steve Yzerman had two goals and two assists.

This day in hockey history, December 4th 1988, the Edmonton Oilers defeated the New York Rangers 10-6 with Jimmy Carson scoring three goals and an assist to become only the third player to score a hattrick six times before age of 21. Carson was part of the trade package for Wayne Gretzky who

And he did it without the aforementioned Edmonton legend, who was traded to the Kings in the previous offseason, so he was not only following in his footsteps but also trying to fill the shoes that made those prints as well. If you can’t figure it out, I’m talking about Gretzky, who scored more than six hat tricks before hitting age 21. Want to make it even weirder? Carson was actually involved in that trade that sent The Great One to LA! And, believe it or not, Carson actually beat Gretzky at something – he scored more goals as a teenager than any other player: 92! That’s incredible! (And, just to make it weirder, 92 is the record for goals by one player in a single season, set by Gretzky!) The only player to have reached the 100-goal milestone at a younger age than Carson, who hit that mark at 20 years and 116 days? Gretzky, who was 20 years and 40 days old. And Carson himself was aware of his situation, too, as the pressure of being expected to replace Gretzky became too much and he demanded a trade. His wishes were met, and he was traded to Detroit after just four games in 1989 (one goal), and although his expectations were gone, so was his talent: he’d score just 133 more goals in seven NHL seasons.





This day in hockey history, December 4th 1996, the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Edmonton Oilers 2-0 with Patrick Roy blocking 36 shots for his fifth shutout of the season and 35th of his career.

On this date in hockey history December 5, 1939, Eddie Shore played his last game a Boston Bruin in a 2-1 victory over the New York Americans at the Boston Garden.

On this date in hockey history, December 5 1943, Bill Cowley and Herb Cain both scored three points on a goal and two assists when the Boston Bruins defeated the Montreal Canadiens and rookie goaltender Bill Durnan. This was Durnans first loss after a record 12-0-2 streak to start his NHL career.

On this date in hockey history, December 5 1983, Wayne Gretzky had three assists during a 4-2 victory at Pittsburgh. This gave Gretzky 1,400 points in 580 games, joining Gordie Howe, Stan Mikita, Phil Espsoito and Marcel Dionne in that exclusive club.

On this date in hockey history, December 5,1968, the Montreal Canadiens debuted a future Hall of Fame goaltender when Tony Esposito against the Boston Bruins and their future Hall of Famer Phil Esposito, Tony's brother. Phil scored twice against his brother in a 2-2 tie.

On this date in hockey history, December 5 1987 , Goalie Darcy Wakaluk shot and scored a goal into an empty net at 19:59 of the third period to give the AHL Rochester Americans a 5-2 win over Utica Devils. Three days later Philadelphia's Ron Hextall repeated the feat, only this time in the NHL.

On this date in hockey history, December 5 1988 , Detroit's Steve Yzerman set a new team record with a goal in his ninth straight game, a 7-2 Red Wings' loss at Montreal. Yzerman broke the team record of goals in eight straight games set by Gordie Howe in 1952.


On this date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 6, 1947, the Leafs hammered the Chicago Black Hawks 12-5 with Max Bentley and Harry Watson scoring hat tricks. The 1947-48 Leafs finished on top of the NHL standings and won their second Stanley Cup in a string of three consecutive championships in 1947, 1948 and 1949.

On this date in hockey history, December 6, 1987, Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers had a hat trick in the first period against the Minnesota North Stars for his 43rd career hat trick. Then he added two more goals and an assist for a six point game in a 10-4 victory. The five goal game was the fifth of Gretzky's career.

On this date in hockey history, Greg Millen recorded his third consecutive shutout 3-0 over the Minnesota North Stars. Millen finished the season with a 3.38 GAA , six shutouts and a save percentage of .880

On this date in hockey history, December 6, 1929, the Toronto Maple Leafs signed Harvey “Busher” Jackson. He made his debut at age 18 against the Montreal Canadiens and announced his arrival by knocking down his idol Howie Morenz.

On this date in hockey history, December 6, 1959, Bobby Hull of the Chicago Black Hawks notched his first hat trick in the NHL in a 6-3 victory by the Chicago Black hawks over the Boston Bruins.

On this date in hockey history, December 6, 1995, a monumental trade took place which altered the competitive balance of the NHL when the Montreal Canadiens sent Patrick Roy and Mike Keane to the Colorado Avalanche for a package of Martin Rucinsky, Andrei Kovalenko and goaltender Jocelyn Thibault. Montreal coach Mario Trembaly and Roy didn't get along when they had played together and their frayed relationship reached it's breaking point when the Detroit Red Wings came to town for a game on December 2nd. Roy had run into Red Wings goalie Mike Vernon that morning at breakfast and Roy had confided that the pressure from the media and fans in Montreal had really gotten to him and he was even considering retirement. Vernon told him that he needed to get traded, that a trade from Calgary had relieved Vernon from the pressure of playing for his hometown team that had been unable to repeat their 1989 Stanley Cup championship. Later that evening, Tremblay left Roy in nets as he endured brutal booing from the fans while the Red Wings piled up a 9-1 lead. Roy pulled himself from the game and stormed past Tremblay over to Canadiens President Ronald Corey and told him he had played his last game for Montreal. Four days later the games greatest goaltender was on his way to Denver where he led the Avalanche to a pair of Stanley Cup championships. Montreal has not been in the finals since the end of the Roy era. Vernon's contribution to this saga is largely unknown but was likely the impetus for this monumental moment in NHL history.

On this date in hockey history, December 6, 1989, Mario Lemieux passed Jean Pronovost as the Pittsburgh Penguins all time goal scoring leader with his 317th goal in his 395th career game. Lemieux's goal helped the Penguins defeat the Washington Capitals 5-3.

This day in hockey history, December 6th 1980, the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Chicago Blackhawks 6-4 with George Ferguson and Greg Malone scoring in the first 29 seconds of the game to set an NHL record for the fastest two goals to start the game by a single team.

This day in hockey history, December 6th 1990, the NHL announced that two cities would be receiving NHL franchises: Ottawa and Tampa Bay. The Lightning and Senators would begin play in 1992. It would be the first time Ottawa hosted an NHL game since 1934.

This day in hockey history, December 6th 1999, the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 with Steve Thomas scoring the game winning goal in overtime winner to set an NHL record for the most regular season overtime goals, with 10.




Since then 19 players have tied or broken that record Jaromír Jágr has the current record with 18 regular season overtime winners. The leader in playoff OT winners is Joe Sakic with eight. Jagr has four. For now.








On this date in hockey history, December 7, 1977, Gordie Howe of the WHA New England Whalers scored his 1,000 career professional goal in a 6-3 victory over the Birmingham Bulls. Howe beat goalie John Garrett at 11:36 of the first period ending a scoreless drought of 11 games. It took Howe 30 seasons to score his 1,000th goal and it included all NHL and WHA regular season and playoff games.

On this date in hockey history, December 7, 1919, the Toronto Arenas changed their name to the Toronto St. Patrick's. In 1926-27 they changed their name to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

On this date in hockey history, December 7, 1961, Jean Beliveau played his first game as the Captain of the Montreal Canadiens. leading the Habs to a 4-1 victory the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Forum.

On this date in hockey history, December 7, 1975, Johnny Bucyk of the Boston Bruins tied Jean Beliveau of the Montreal Canadiens for sixth place in career NHL scoring when he tallied his 507th goal.

On this date in hockey history, December 7, 1940, Gerry Cheevers was born in St. Catharines, Ontario. Cheevers was one of the great “money” goaltenders of all time, winning two Stanley Cups with the Boston Bruins in 1970 and 1972. Cheevers is also famous for his stitch covered face mask which originated after he was hit in the face with a puck during practice. Feigning injury, Cheeevrs went to the locker room where coach Harry Sinden found him smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. As a joke, Bruins trainer “Frosty” Forristall drew a stitch on his mask. A new stich mark was added every time he was struck in the mask and the legndary mask was created. The Hockey News tallied votes for the best mask design ever and Cheevers mask won in a landslide with 221 votes to 66 for Gilles Gratton's lions face mask. Ron Hextall the former Flyers goalie and current Flyers general manager called Cheevers mask the “greatest piece of sports memorabilia ever.”

Cheevers developed an unconventional style of play as a flopping goalie which he learned with the Rochester Americans where his coach made him practice without a stick. In 1965, Cheevers set the AHL record for most victories in a single season by a goalie with 48. even so, he was hardly an overnight success in the NHL which consisted of only six teams at that time. Cheevers developed his style during six seasons in the minor leagues before becoming a full time goalie with Boston in 1967. In 1972 He went undefeated for 32 consecutive games which is an NHL record.

On this date in hockey history, December 7, 1982, the Edmonton Oilers defeated the St. Louis Blues 3-2 with Wayne Gretzky scoring his 23rd goal of the season at 6:23 of the second period at the Northlands Coliseum. That game marked the end of a 30 game scoring streak for Gretzky during which he collected an amazing 76 points on 24 goals and 54 assists.

On this date in hockey history, December 7th 1966, Henri Richard joined his brother Maurice “The Rocket” to become the first pair of brothers to each score 250 career NHL goals as the Canadiens defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3. “The Pocket Rocket” was the seventh player in franchise history with 250 career goals.

On this date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 7th, 1929, Harvey “Busher” Jackson played his first game as a Leaf. At age 18, he was the youngest player in the NHL. Jackson played ten years with the Leafs and holds the team recordd for most first team all star selections with four. He played on the famous “Kid Line” with Joe Primeau and Charlie Conacher and was part of the Leafs 1932 cup winning team.

On this date in hockey history, December 7th 1967, during a 2-2 tie between the Montreal Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings John Ferguson became the first player to be assessed a triple minor penalty.

On this date in hockey history, December 8th 1967, two months into their first NHL season, the California Seals officially changed their name to the Oakland Seals.

This day in Philadelphia Flyers history, December 8th 1967, Doug Favell blocked 24 shots while the Flyers scored three times on 19 shots in a 3-0 win over the Los Angeles Kings at the Fabulous Forum in LA. Claude Laforge scored in the first period then set up Pat Hannigan for a second period goal followed by Gary Dornhoefer. There was only one penalty for the whole game, this was a few years before the Broad Street Bully era.

This day in Philadelphia Flyers history, December 8th 1973, the Flyers Bernie Parent stops 31 shots in a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens. Tom Bladon, Bob Kelly and Rick MacLiesh scored for the Flyers. Dave Schultz fought Toronto’s Lanny McDonald (Kurt Walker the Leafs needed you that night) and invited the Leafs bench to tangle but there were no takers.

This day in Buffalo Sabres history, December 8th 1974, the Sabrea defeated the Minnesota North Stars 5-0 with Gary “Bones” Bromley blocking 14 shots for the shutout. Bromley earned his nickname because he stood 5’10” and weighed only 149 pounds.

This day in Philadelphia Flyers history, December 8th 1977, the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the New York Rangers 7-4 at the Spectrum. Trailing by a 2-1 score after two periods, the Flyers scored six goals in the third period. Don "Big Bird" Saleski, Ross Lonsberry and Reggie "the Rifle" Leach each scored twice while Bobby Clarke had a goal and an assist.

Happy birthday to Red Berenson hockey’s “Red Baron” born on December 8th 1939. The St. Louis Blues gave Red a birthday present of sorts when they hired him as coach on December 8th 1979, replacing Barclay Plager.

This day in hockey history, December 8th 1993, the Los Angeles Kings' lost to the Florida Panthers 5-3 with Jari Kurri scoring his 1,223rd career NHL point to become the highest scoring European player passing Peter Stastny who had retired with 1,222 points.

This day in hockey history, December 8th1995 , Montreal named Pierre Turgeon as their new team captain, replacing Mike Keane (who had been traded). Turgeon became the 22nd captain in Montreal Canadiens' history. Turgeon played only 104 games for Montreal before being traded to St Louis despite scoring an impressive 137 points in those 104 games. . He only served 65 games as captain. Apparently his hockey and leadership skills were not highly values by Montreal’s management.




On this date in hockey history, December 8th 1987, Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers became the first NHL goalie to actually shoot and score a goal. Here is his recollection of that game as told to Philadelphia Business Journal: “Scoring a goal was not high on my list of wanna-does,” he said. “The fans were on me to shoot, not only that night, but in prior games too. The media kept asking me questions about it. I said it would have to be the right opportunity, and if I had the right opportunity I’d take a shot. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Then I scored and our whole team came off the bench and guys were hooting and hollering almost like we won a playoff series. That’s what made it special to me, that my teammates were all there celebrating with me. It made it a bigger deal than I ever envisioned it would be. When I think back, I have fond memories of it.” Hextall's puckhandling ability became a major asset for the Flyers' defense. The team's defensemen certainly appreciated the goalie's ability not only to stop the puck behind the cage but to take it himself and pass it to safety. "Hexy really was like a third defenseman out there for us," Mark Howe recalled in a 2009 interview. "He saved me a lot of wear and tear."

On this date in hockey history, December 8, 1984, the Buffalo Sabres efeated the Boston Bruins 3-1 at Boston Gardens to give coach Scotty Bowman his 692nd career win to tie Dick Irvin for most victories by an NHL coach. Bowman coached for another 13 seasons and finished within 1,248 wins. Al Arbour is second with 782 victories. Scotty's nine Stanley Cups are also the most by any NHL coach. He also won five Stanley Cups as an executive, with Pittsburgh as Director Of Player Development in 1991, another with Detroit in 2008 as a Special Advisor, and threee more with Chicago as Senior Advisor of hockey Operation for a career total of 14, second only to Jean Beliveau's 17.

This day in Philadelphia Flyers history, December 8th 1984, the Flyers defeated their arch rivals the New York Rangers 4-2 at the Spectrum. Peter Zezel had a goal and two assists and Brian Propp has a goal and an assist. Mark Howe has an assist on defense partner's Brad McCrimmon's goal to open the scoring and the pair was plus three for the game with 32 minutes of ice time. Subbing for Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Pelle Lindbergh, backup netminder Bob Froese, a resident of Clarence NY had 32 saves on 34 shots to outduel John Vanbiesbrouck who stopped 32 of 36 shots.

On this date in hockey history, December 9, 1924, the Toronto St. Patrick's signed a pharmacy student from the University of Toronto to play left wing. He moved to defense and played for the St. Pats/Maple Leafs until 1937, 11 years as team captain. His name was Clarence “Hap” Day.

On this date in hockey history, December 9, 1979, the Edmonton Oilers rookie goaltender Eddie Mio recorded the first shutout in the Oilers NHL history. Mio stopped 30 shots for his first career shutout while Wayne Gretzky and Pat Price each added a goal and an assist.

On this date in hockey history, December 9, 1954, the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-0 at the Montreal Forum. The game featured a brawl where the teams combined for 36 penalties and 15 misconducts, setting a record for most penalties at that time.

On this date in hockey history, December 9 1976, the Philadelphia Flyers played the Boston Bruins at the Boston Gardens winning 3-1. this was the fourth consecutive season in which the Flyers and Bruins played on December 9th. Rick MacLiesh, Gary Dornhoefer on the power play and Bobby Clarke with a shortie into the empty net handled the scoring while Bernie Parent stopped 17 shots.

Hubert Jacques "Pit" Martin was born on this date, December 9th in 1943. He was the captain for the Chicago Black Hawks 1975 to 1977. He was an NHL All-Star and Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy winner. Martin played seventeen seasons in the NHL for the Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks and Vancouver Canucks.

Martin was nicknamed Pit after a comic strip character in a French newspaper, Martin was scouted by former NHL goaltender Wilf Cude and was the 1962 MVP and first all star team center of the Ontario Hockey Associations Jr. A league.

He was involved in one of the most one sided trades in history. In May 1967, Martin, along with Gilles Marotte and Jack Norris, was traded from Boston to Chicago for Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, and Fred Stanfield, who would become core elements of future Boston powerhouse teams. Martin himself was a bright spot of the trade for the Black Hawks, starring for them for ten seasons as a skilled two way center and being named to play in the NHL All-Star Game in four straight seasons.

Martin played 1101 career NHL games from 1961–62 to 1978–79 scoring 324 goals and 485 assists for 809 points. His best statistical season was 1972–73 when he had a career best 61 assists and 90 points, adding ten goals in the playoffs as the Hawks made it to the Stanley Cup finals. He wore number 7.

This date in hockey history, December 10, 1970, the Boston Bruins peppered Buffalo Sabres goaltender Joe Daley with 72 shots. Daley stopped 64 shots in an 8-0 loss. The 64 saves in one game are a Sabres record. The 72 shots were the most by an NHL team since 1943.

On this date in hockey history, December 10, 1924, the Montreal Maroons played the Montreal Canadiens in the first all Montreal game NHL game. The Canadiens won 5-0 with Auriel Joliet scoring four goals and Georges Vezina picking up the shutout. The Candiens won that game and also won the war as the Maroons folded in 1938.


On this date in hockey history, December 10, 1986, Wayne Gretzky had three goals in a 7-4 Edmonton Oilers victory over the Winnipeg Jets. This was Gretzky's 40th career hat trick. That's right – 40 hat tricks by age 25. On December 10, 1989 Gretzky tallied his 1,900th point in only his 803rd NHL game, an 8-4 victory for the los Angeles Kings over the Quebec Nordiques.

On this date in hockey history, December 10, 1975, The Montreal Canadiens retired jersey number 16 which had been worn by Henri Richard and Elmer Lach prior to a game against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs. The game ended in a 3-3- tie.

On this date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 10, 1969, Johnny Bower played his final game for the Leafs, retiring from the NHL at age 45. He only played one game in that 1969-70 season, losing 6-3 to the Montreal Canadiens. His career record with Toronto was 22—161-79 with a 2.49 GAA. He returned to the Leafs as an assistant coach for the 1976-77 and 1977-78 seasons.


On this date in hockey history, December 11, 1982, the Hartford Whalers defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 7-4. this became known as the “First Cooperall Game” because both teams wore the long pants style popularized with the introduction of the Cooperall uniform system. Actually both teams wore CCM pants but the Cooperall name has become synonymous with the long pants look. The NHL banned the use of the long pants for safety reasons. The fabric was a sleek nylon like the short pants which created little friction when players slid on the ice as compared to the knit fabric of the hockey sock which acted more like a braking mechanism when players slid. As a result, players wearing the long pants tended to slide faster into the boards raising concerns about an increase in the number and severity of injuries resulting from their use.

On this date in hockey history, December 11, 1985, the Chicago Black Hawks scored nine goals in a single game. And lost. Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers scored 12 goals in a 12-9 victory over Chicago. The Hawks held Gretzky scoreless but he tied an NHL record with seven assists in one game while linemates Jari Kuri and Glenn Anderson each had a hat trick. Chicago outshot Edmonton 46 to 44 and both teams pulled their starting goalies with Murray Bannerman and Bob Suave sharing the net for Chicago while Andy Moog and Grant Fuhr split goaltending duties for the Oilers. The Oilers did not score on their one power play opportunity while the Hawks scored three times on four power plays. The 21 goals tied an NHL record for most total goals in a single game. Here is the game summary:

First Period
1 - EDM : Glenn Anderson 21 (Wayne Gretzky, Randy Gregg) (EV) 1:35
2 - EDM : Dave Lumley 5 (Billy Carroll, Kevin Lowe) (EV) 3:19
3 - EDM : Dave Semenko 5 (Craig MacTavish, Mark Napier) (EV) 4:58
4 - EDM : Marty McSorley 4 (Wayne Gretzky, Don Jackson) (EV) 13:24
Second Period
10 - CHI : Bill Watson 4 (Ken Yaremchuk, Jerry Dupont) (EV) 7:11
11 - CHI : Troy Murray 14 (Behn Wilson, Keith Brown) (PP) 9:36
12 - CHI : Jack O'Callahan 1 (Jerry Dupont, Troy Murray) (EV) 11:36

13 - EDM : Jari Kurri 20 (Wayne Gretzky, Glenn Anderson) (EV) 14:52
14 - CHI : Keith Brown 3 (Ed Olczyk) (EV) 16:07
15 - EDM : Marty McSorley 5 (Lee Fogolin Jr., Kevin McClelland) (EV) 18:58
16 - EDM : Glenn Anderson 23 (Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey) (EV) 19:50
5 - EDM : Glenn Anderson 22 (Don Jackson, Wayne Gretzky) (EV) 1:20
6 - EDM : Kevin McClelland 5 (Marty McSorley, Raimo Summanen) (EV) 3:08
7 - CHI : Denis Savard 15 (Steve Larmer, Al Secord) (PP) 5:38
8 - EDM : Lee Fogolin Jr. 2 (Kevin McClelland, Raimo Summanen) (EV) 6:11
9 - CHI : Curt Fraser 14 (Troy Murray, Doug Wilson) (EV) 6:38
Third Period
17 - CHI : Troy Murray 15 (Ed Olczyk, Keith Brown) (PP) 13:22
18 - EDM : Jari Kurri 21 (Wayne Gretzky, Glenn Anderson) (EV) 15:34
19 - CHI : Ken Yaremchuk 5 (Bill Gardner, Behn Wilson) (EV) 17:59
20 - EDM : Jari Kurri 22 (Wayne Gretzky, Glenn Anderson) (EV) 19:24
21 - CHI : Ken Yaremchuk 6 (Tom Lysiak, Bill Gardner) (EV) 19:37

On this date in hockey history, December 11th 1982, the Quebec Nordiques defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 7-4. Peter Stastny scored three goals and had three helpers while his brother Marian had two goals and three assists for an 11 point night by the Stastny's. Peter Stastny would finish the season with 124 points, second in NHL scoring only to Wayne Gretzky's 196 points.




On this date in hockey history, December 11th 1943, the Boston Bruins defeated the New York Rangers 9-6 dropping the Rangers record to 0-41-1. It was the worst start in NHL history.

On this date in hockey history, December 11th 1973,the Los Angeles lost 6-3 to the Minnesota North Stars with Kings rookie Phil Hoene goal against Cesare Maniago made him the second player in NHL history to score his first goal on a penalty shot. Minnesota’s win improved their undefeated streak against Los Angeles to 21 games! With a record of 17-0-4.

On this date in hockey history, December 11th 1988, the Vancouver Canucks lost 8-6 to the Winnipeg Jets as Winnipeg’s Brent Ashton scored on a penalty shot for his 200th career goal and Winnpeg’s first successful penalty shot in their nine year NHL franchise history.





On this date in hockey history, December 11th1955 , Detroit Red Wings rookie John Bucyk scored the first goal of his NHL career. during the Red Wings' 2-0 win over the New York Rangers. It was Bucyk's only goal in the 38 games he played during the 1955-56 season. Big things were ahead for Mr. Bucyk.

On this date in Buffalo Sabres history, December 11th1991, John Muckler was named the new head coach, replacing Rick Dudley, who was fired after a 6-3 loss to St. Louis.





On this day in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 11th 1934, Charlie Conacher took the first penalty shot ever awarded to the Leafs. He was unsuccessful against New York Rangers goalie Andy Aitkenhead. In his career with Toronto Conacher was awarded four penalty shots scoring only once.

On this date in hockey history, December 12, 1970, Orland Kurtenbach scored the first hat trick in Vancouver Canucks history. This was Kurtenbach's pnly NHL career hat trick and he added an assist in the Canucks 5-2 win over the Oakland Seals. Kurtenbach finished the season with 21-32-53 totals in only 52 games. He was well known to old time hockey fans in vancouver having played for the WHL Vancouver Canucks during the the 1957-58, 1959-60 and 1960-61 seasons.

On this date in hockey history, December 12th 1971, Brad Park scored three goals and an assist for the New York Rangers in a 6-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Park was the first Rangers defenseman to score a hat trick. He finished the 1971-72 season with 24-59-73 totals and 130 penalty minutes.

On this date in hockey history, December 12th 1981, Ian Turnbull became the first defenseman in Kings history to score a hat trick (the second of his career) as the Kings won 7-5 over the Canucks. Turnbull finished the game with four goals.

On this date in hockey history, December 12th 1963, the Montreal Canadiens defeated the New York Rangers 6-4 with the two teams setting an NHL record for fastest 3 goals. Montreal's Dave Balon and Gilles Tremblay, and Rangers' Camille Henry scored within a span of 18 seconds early in the first period to set the record.


Happy Birthday to Dan Bouchard born on this day in 1950 in Val D'or Quebec.

On this day in hockey history, December 12th 1971, Phil Esposito scored his 300th career NHL goal as the California Golden Seals defeated the Boston Bruins 4-2. loss to the Oakland Seals. Espo was the 16th player to reach that milestone. I can't believe the Bruins lost to the Seals!

On this day in Buffalo Sabres history, December 13th 1972: The Sabres defeated the Boston Bruins in the now legendary game where Jim Schoenfeld ran Wayne Cashman through the Zamboni doors and fought him off the ice. The Sabres won the game 7-3, piling up 76 penalty minutes to the Bruins 78. The game was played at Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium although history suggests that it was actually played in Orchard Park at then Rich Stadium as the leagues first outdoor game because approximately 75,000 people claim to have been at the game and only the football stadium could hold that many.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTzbVjjOG7o




On this day in hockey history, December 12, 1933 The Toronto Maple Leafs were playing in Boston against the Bruins. Early in the second period the Leafs were two men short and coach Dick Irvin dispatched his penalty killers, Frank “King” Clancy with Red Horner on defense with Irvine “Ace” Bailey at forward. Bailey proceeded to put on a penalty killing clinic ragging the puck using his exceptional stickhandling skills. Finally, Boston's Hall of Fame defenseman, Eddie Shore gathered the puck in and carried the play into the Toronto zone where he was hip checked by Horner.

Shore was dazed by the hit and sought his revenge. He skated after Ace Bailey perhaps thinking he was Horner. Shore caught Bailey with a viscious check flipping him in the air. Bailey hit the ice head first and went into convulsions, bleeding from a head wound. Horner went after Shore and punched him, knocking him unconscious. Both Bailey and Shore had to be carried of the ice.

While Shore had a small cut on his head, Bailey's injury was far more serious and he was taken to the Bruins dressing room where the Bruins team doctors examined his wound. Shore had regained consciousness and went to Bailey to apologize. Bailey told Shore “It's all part of the game”, before he slipped back into unconsciousness.

Bailey was hospitalized with a cerebral hemmorhage and his death seemed imminent. In the event of Bailey's death, homicide detectives were prepared to charge Shore with manslaughter. Bailey's father travelled to Boston with a pistol intent on avenging his sons injury against Shore but Boston police interceeded and convinced him to abandon his plan.

Bailey underwent two operations after which his death seemed imminent. A priest was summoned to administer the last rites. But by morning his prospects had improved. Within two weeks it was clear that Bailey would survive but would never be able to play again. The Bruins donated $8,000 to Bailey and his family and the NHL held a special game to benefit Bailey and his family, featuring the Toronto Maple Leafs playing at Maple Leaf Gardens against a group of star players selected from other NHL teams. The benefit game raised $20,000 for Bailey. This was the forerunner of what would become the Anuual NHL all star game.

As the all star players skated onto the ice they wore their individual teams jerseys and were then presented with their all star game jersey. The first player onto the ice was goaltender Charlie Gardiner who was given his jersey with number one. When Shore skated onto the ice in his Boston Bruins uniform, he was greeeted at center ice by Ace Bailey in street clothes. Bailey handed Shore his number 2 game jersey and extended his hand. When Shore clasped and shook Bailey's hand the Gardens crowd roared it's approval.

Shore was suspended for 16 games as a result of the incident. Bailey remained in the Leafs organization, serving as the timekeeper at Leafs games from 1938 until 1984. He passed away in 1992 at age 89.


On this date in hockey history, December 11, 1977, the Philadelphia Flyers just destroyed the Cleveland Barons 11-1. In that game Flyers defenseman Tom Bladon scored four goals and four assists for eight points, setting an NHL record for most points scored by a defenseman in a single game. Bladon was also a plus 10 for that game. Despite the eight points, Bladon finished the season with only 35 points.




On this day in Buffalo Sabres history, December 12th 2000, J.P. Dumont scored every goal scored in the game, a hat trick as the Sabres beat the Boston Bruins 3-0. He had also scored the Sabres previous two goals as well, meaning he scored five consecutive Buffalo Sabres goals.

On this day in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 13th 1919, the Toronto Arenas hockey club was purchased by a group of investors including Fred Hambly, Percy Hambly, Paul Ciceri, Charlie Querrie and Richard Greer. These men were connected to an amateur team named the St. Patrick's and they renamed their new team after the St. Patrick's with the hope of attracting Toronto's large Irish population. The NHL franchise's nickname remained the St. Patrick's or St. Pats until February of 1927 when they became the Maple Leafs.

This day in hockey history, December 13th 1971, the St. Louis Blues traded Jimmy Roberts to Montreal in exchange for Phil Roberto.

On this day in hockey history, December 13th 1979, the Philadelphia Flyers extended their unbeaten streak to 25 games (18-0-7) with a 6-4 win at the Spectrum over the Quebec Nordiques. Two goals apiece by Bill Barber and Reggie Leach led the way for the Flyers, with Dennis Ververgaert and Al Hill (empty net) adding singles.

Apparently Wayne Gretzky liked playing on December 13th. Here are some of his career highlights from that date;




December 13th 1983 Gretzky scores his 300th career goal in only his 350th game, an 8-5 Oilers loss to the New York Islanders. That's nearly a goal per game!




December 13th 1985, Wayne scored two goals and added two assists, giving him 1,200 career points in only his 504th game during a 6-5 Oilers victory against the Winnipeg Jets. That's 2.38 points per game.




December 13th, 1989, he picked up an assist for the Los Angeles Kings during a 5-2 victory over the Hartford Whalers to extend his team record assist streak to 17 games. He had 35 assist in the streak, better than two per game.




On this date in hockey history, December 13, 1987, rookie Joe Nieuwendyk of the Calgary Flames scored four goals against the Buffalo Sabres. He became the first rookie in the modern NHL (post red line) to have two four goal games. Cully Wilson had a pair of four goal games duirng his initial NHL season in 1919-20 although he was hardly a true “rookie” having played three seasons in the NHA (NHL's predecessor league) and four seasons with the Seattle Metropolitans of the PCHA.

On this date in On this day in hockey history, December 13th 1992, Manon Rheaume played five minutes and 49 seconds for the Atlanta Knights, becoming the first woman to play in a pro hockey game. She stopped three of four shots as the Salt Lake Golden Eagles defeated the Atlanta Knights 4-1. She had previously played in a preseason game for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

On this day in hockey history, December 13th 1992, after 535 games over 67 years the New York Rangers finally put up double digits against the Montreal Canadiens with a 10-5 victory.




On this day in hockey history, December 13th 1995, the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 with Paul Coffey becoming the first NHL defenseman with 1,000 career assists. Coffey was just the fourth player l to record 1,000 assists preceded by Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, and Marcel Dionne had done it before. Coffey ended his career with the most points at 1,531, but was eventually passed by Ray Bourque who finished his acreer with 1,579 points.





On this day in hockey history, December 14th 1926, rookie coach David Gill guided the Ottawa Senators to a 2-0 victory over the New York Americans giving Gill a 9-0-1 record, the best ever start to an NHL coaching career.

This day in hockey history, December 14, 1929, Harold “Baldy” Cotton spoiled a history making appearance by the New York Rangers at Toronto's Mutual Street Arena by scoring a pair of overtime goals in Toronto's 7-6 victory. This was possible because overtime was a ten minute period played in it's entriety, ie not sudden death. But the history making event was that the Rangers became the first team to travel to their game by airplane.

On this date in hockey history, December 14, 1974, the New York Rangers Greg Polis set a team record for most penalty minutes in one game with 33. The St. Louis Blues won the game 6-2. The two teams combined for 256 penalty minutes

On this date in hockey history, December 14, 1933, Howie Morenz of the Montreal Canadiens scored his 247th goal, making him the NHL's career goal scoring leader as he passed Cy Denneny. Denneny had 245 goals in his first 259 games before finishing his career with only four goals in his final 66 games.

On this date in hockey history, December 14 1943, Boston's Bill Cowley had a goal and two assists to become the NHL's all-time leader in assists. He scored #258 to pass New York's Frank Boucher in a 4-3 win over Chicago. Cowley retired 4 years later with a record 353 career assists.

On this date in hockey history, December 14 1968, Bobby Orr scored his first NHL hat trick at Boston Garden during a 10-5 victory over the Chicago Black Hawks.

On this day in hockey history, December 14th 1985 Ron Wicks officiated a 6-6 tie between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Minnesota North Stars. This was his 1,034th regular season game, and he passed Bruce Hood for the all-time lead in games officiated by a referee.

On this date in hockey history, December 15, 1917, the first NHL game was played between the Montreal Canadiens and Montreal Wanderers. This was an exhibition game to benefit the victims of the Halifax Explosion in which a munitions ship exploded in Halifax harbor Over 1,950 were killed, more than 9,000 were wounded. Every building within a ten mile radius, 12,000 in all, were destroyed. Thirty one thousand people were left homeless or lacking adequate housing. A 1994 study of major non nuclear explosions concluded that "Halifax Harbour remains unchallenged in overall magnitude as long as five criteria are considered together: number of casualties, force of blast, radius of devastation, quantity of explosive material and total value of property destroyed."


This date in hockey history, December 15 1983, the Philadelphia Flyers scored an NHL record three shorthanded goals in one period during a 9-4 victory over the Washington Capitals. Mark Howe, Ilka Sinisalo and Miroslave Dvorak each scored a shortie during the second period.

On this date in hockey history, December 15, 1915, Art Jackson was born in Toronto, Ontario. Art was the younger brother of Toronto Maple Leafs Hall of Famer Harvey “Busher” Jackson. Art played with his brother on the Leafs from the 1934-35 season to 1936-37. He played for the New York Americans in 1937-38, then the Boston Bruins from 1939-40 to 1940-45 before finishing his career back with the Leafs in 1945-46 where he played on a Stanley Cup winner for his hometown team. He also won a Stanley Cup with Boston in 1941. Art centered the Leafs “Cyclone Line” with Nick Metz and Bob Davidson.

Happy birthday to the NHL's offside rule, drafted on this date in hockey history, December 16, 1929. Hockey had originally been played like rugby with no forward passing allowed anywhere on the playing surface forcing players to caary the puck in order to move it forward. In 1905 the Ontario Hockey Association began allowing defensemen to play the puck forward from rebounds within three feet of the goaltender. Some ice surfaces had a black line painted on the ice at the three foot distance. To promote scoring, the NHL allowed forward passing in the defensive and neutral zones in 1927 but scoring remained low. In 1928-29 the NHL allowed forward passing in the attacking zone and scoring doubled almost immediately as players would position themselves in front of the opposition goal and wait until a teamamte stickhandled over the offensive blue line then passed the puck down low to the player at the net. The league decided that too much scoring was undesireable and instituted the new rule during the season to cut down on these “easier” goals.

On this date in hockey history, December 16, 1950, the Montreal Canadiens debuted two future Hall Of Fame players Jean Beliveau and Bernie Geoffrion in a 1-1 tie with the New York Rangers with Geoffrion scoring Montreal's only goal in his NHL debut.

On this date in hockey history, December 16, 1981, Dave Lumley of the Edmonton Oilers scored a goal in his 12th consecutive game going 2-2-4 during a 7-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies. Lumley scored 15 goals during the streak. This was one game fewer than the NHL record at the time held by Charlie Simmer (13 games) as Lumley filled in as a winger on Wayne Gretzky's line.

On this date in hockey history, December 17, 1977, rookie defenseman Barry Beck of the Colorado Rockies scored a hat trick and added an assist in a 5-1 victory over the Minnesota North Stars. He scored 22 goals and 38 assists for 60 points as a rookie, including a stretch of six consecutive games with a goal. The 22 goals was a rookie record for defensemen until Brian Leetch scored 23 in 1988-89.

On this date in hockey history, December 17, 1977, the Hartford Whalers defeated the Winnipeg Jets 2-0 for their first NHL shutout away from home. Mike Veisor earned the shutout.

On this date in hockey history, December 17, 1977, Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Quebec Nordiques 8-1. Gretzky scored one goal and adding five assists for six points in his 352nd career game. These included his 500th assist and 800th point, an amazing pace of 2.27 points per game.

On this date in Buffalo Sabres history, December 17, 1990, the struggling Sabres (10-15-7) traded Mike Foligno to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Brian Curran and Lou Franschetti. Foligno played 663 games over ten seasons with the Sabres and became a fan favorite scoring 247 goals and 511 points. He earned a reputation as a player who stood up for himself and his teammates, piling up a then team record 1,450 penalty minutes for the blue and gold. Foligno was the team captain when he was traded, having been named captain on February 15, 1989. Foligno only scored 27 goals for Toronto in 129 games but scored twice against the Sabres at Maple Leaf Gardens on January 14, 1991. I wonder if Leafs fans found it as unusual watching Rick Vaive playing for Buffalo that bnight as it looked to see Foligno in a Maple Leafs uniform.

On this date in hockey history, December 18, 1983, Wayne Gretzky had a pair of goals to go along with two assists in an Edmonton Oilers 7-5 victory against the Winnipeg Jets. That sounds like just another day at the office for Wayne as he hit 100 points for the season in his 34th game. That's right, 100 points in only 34 games. In todays NHL standings there are only two teams with 100 goals, Montreal with 101 in 33 games and Dallas with 108 in 32 games.

On this date in hockey history, December 18, 1952, Jean Beliveau and Bernie Geoffrion each scored a ht trick at the Montreal Forum during Montreal's 6-2 victory over the New York Rangers. This was Beliveau's first three goal game, and Geoffrion's second.





On this date in hockey history, Maurice “The Rocket” Richard scored his 400th career goal in a 4-2 victory over the Chicago Black Hawks He was the first NHL player to reach that milestone.
On this date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 18, 1965, Bob Pulford and Dave Keon each scored three goals in an 8-4 victory over the New York Rangers. This was the first and only time two Maple Leaf players had hat tricks in the same game.




On this date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 18, 1971, the Leafs signed free agent goalie Gord McRae. McRae had played three seasons at Michigan Tech from 1967-68 to 1969-70. He worked his way up from the EHL to the AHL Providence Reds before settling in with Toronto's CHL farm team the Tulsa Oilers. He played a total of 71 games in the NHL from 1972-73 to 1977-78, all with the Leafs as he was yanked up and down from the minors. His biggest impact in the NHL was in the 1974-75 season when he played 20 games with a 3.29 GAA going 13-3-6 and 2-5 with a 2.86 GAA in the playoffs including a first round upset over the Los Angeles Kings who had finished the regulat season with 105 points, 27 more than the Leafs 78. When McRae posed for the 1977-78 team picture with a beard, the Leafs owner Harold Ballard had McRae's head removed from the picture and replaced with Gord Shervens clean shaven head from the previous season.

On this date in hockey history, December 19, 1984, Scotty Bowman was behind the bench when the Buffalo Sabres defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 6-3 to set a record for most victories by a coach with his 691st win. Of course that record was broken by Scotty Bowman himself who finished his career with 1,248 victories.

On this date in hockey history, December 19, 1984, Wayne Gretzky reached 1,000 career points with a six point game on home ice against the Los Angeles Kings, going 2-4-6. He set a record by accumulating 1,000 career points in only 424 games, breaking Guy Lafleur's previous mark by 296 games. Lafleur had reached 1,000 points in 724 games.

On this date in hockey history, December 19, 1967, Gary “Suitcase” Smith was beaten for two goals by his brother Brian Smith who led the Los Angeles Kings to a 3-1 victory over the Oakland Seals. While at first glance, Gary Smith is the more familiar player to most, Brian smith was a significant figure in 1960's hockey and his tragic end was shocking.

Smith played for the Memorial Cup in 1960 with the Brockville Canadiens and played in the EPHL from 1960-63 with the Hull-Ottawa Canadiens. When he was acquired by the Springfield Indians in 1963 he refused to report because of coach Eddie Shore's reputation for poor treatment of his players. Smith played in Austria but was suspended by the IIHF beacsue he hadn't obtained a release. So he was forced to play for Springfiled from 1964-67 where he and Bill White started Alan Eagleson on his career in hockey by strking against Shore in 1966 with Eagleson representing the players.

Shore was forced to sell the team to Jack Kent Cooke the owner of the expansion Los Angeles Kings and Smith suited up in 1967 as one of the original Kings. He played for Phoenix in the WHL then with the Minnesota North Stars in 1968-69 and finished his playing career with the WHA Houston Aeros in 1972-73. Smith then became a sports broadcaster with CJOH TV in Ottawa where he anchored the 6 PM news until 1995.

On August 1 1985 Smith was shot in the station parking lot by a paranoid schizophrenic who believed that the station had been broadcasting messages in his head.. Smith's death stunned the community. He was honored by the Ottawa Senators who renamed the press box at their home rink Canadien Tire Center the “Brian 'Smitty' Smith Press Box” and the team wore a memorial patch honoring Smith during the 1995-96 season.

On this date in hockey history, December 19, 1985, Larry Robinson scored the only hat trick of his NHL career during a 5-4 Montreal Canadiens loss to the Quebec Nordiques.

n this day in hockey history, December 19th 1917, the NHL kicked off it's inaugural season with it's first two games as the Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators 7-4, and the Montreal Wanderers defeated Toronto 10-9.
The first goal in NHL history was scored by Wanderers' defenseman Dave Ritchie one minute into the NHL's first game. Montreal's Joe Malone scored five goals and an assist as the Canadiens defeated the Senators 7-4.
The Toronto team played without a nickname that season but became known as the Arenas in the because they were operated by the Toronto Arena Company operators of the Toronto Arena Gardens which also served as their home rink for two years until they were sold and renamed the St. Pats for the 1919-20 season.
Ironically the Toronto Arena was built and operated by the principals of the Canadian Arena Company, who also owned the Montreal Arena the home rink of the Montreal Canadiens. William Northey of the Montreal group and other would later build the Montreal Forum and found the Forums original NHL tenant the Montreal Maroons, eventually also owning the Canadiens. Joe Malone scored five goals and an assist for the Montreal Canadiens including Montreal's first ever NHL goal in a 7-4 win over the Ottawa Senators in the other opening day game.

On this day in hockey history, December 20th 1964, Bobby Hull was on a goal a game pace after he scored during the Black Hawks 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins to give him 28 goals in 28 games Hull continued his hot streak with 32 goals in 35 games but slowed down by injuries he only scored 4 goals in his remaining 26 games and finished with 39 goals in 61 games.




On this day in hockey history, December 20th 1983, Guy Lafleur became the third player in franchise history to score 500 goals as a member of the Montreal Canadiens when he notches a single tally in the Habs 6-0 victoryat the Meadowlands against the New Jersey Devils. Steve Shutt scored his 400th goal as a Hab in the same game.
On this day in hockey history, December 20th 1987 - Dale Hawerchuk of the Winnipeg Jets became the 25th player in NHL history to play in 400 straight games when he stepped into the ice during Winnipeg's 4-1 win over the new Jersey Devils.. Since his rookie season of 1981-82, he had missed only one game, that due to an ankle injury.


On this day in hockey history, December 20th 1981, Doug Smail set an NHL record for fastest goal from the start of a game, with a goal just five seconds into the Winnipeg Jets' 5-4 victory over the St. Louis Blues. This record was later tied by Bryan Trottier and Alex Mogilny.


Back when goal scoring in the NHL was encouraged, on December 20th 1985, Jari Kurri scored four goals with Wayne Gretzky getting six helpers in a 9-4 Edmonton Oilers' victory against the Los Angeles Kings at Northlands Coliseum.
One year later back in Edmonton, December 20th 1986, Bernie Nicholls scores the tying goal with 34 seconds remaining and the goalie pulled for a sixth attacker as the Kings rallied from a four-goal deficit in the final 9:14 of the third period to earn an 8-8 tie.

On this day in hockey history, December 20th 1979, the Los Angeles Kings lost 5-3 to the Buffalo Sabres at the Aud in Buffalo. Charlie Simmer scored for the Kings for the 11th straight game, setting a new modern NHL record. He finished his streak with goals in 13 consecutive games. Punch Broadbent
had goals in 16 straight games in 1922 but Simmers record was accomplished in the post red line era, considered the "Modern NHL."

On this day in hockey history, December 20th December 20 1979, Behn Wilson scored the tying goal with 4:08 remaining as the Flyers tied the Pittsburgh Penguins 1-1 for their 28th straight game without a loss (19-0-9), matching the record for the longest undefeated streak of all time. The Flyers extended the record to 35 games (25-0-10)




This day in hockey history, December 21st 1937, the Chicago Blackhawks' lost 2-1 to the Boston Bruins at Boston Garden. Paul Thompson became the first player in NHL history to score a goal against his brother, when he scored on Bruins' goalie Cecil "Tiny" Thompson, at 19:51 of the third period.

This day in hockey history, December 21st 1929, the NHL implemented the new offside rule for the first time in league play. Forward passing would now be permitted inside all three zones, but not across the blue lines.

The league also instituted in the new rules the standard dimensions for ice hockey rinks, that of 200 feet (61m) × 85 feet (26m). The already built Boston Garden 191 feet (58 m) × 88 feet (27 m) and the soon-to-be-open Chicago Stadium 188 feet (57 m) × 85 feet (26 m), which were smaller were exempt from the new rule.

The off sides rules were rewritten to bring more offense into the game. In the previous season every team in the league had a GAA under 2.00 and only one team scored more than two goals per game, Boston with 89 goals in 44 games a 2.02 GPG average. Ace Bailey led the league in scoring with a paltry 32 points. Forward passing had been legalized across the blue line into the attacking zone but not inside that zone and players were not allowed to enter the zone ahead of the puck.

Players were now allowed forward passing in the offensive zone, instead of only in the defensive and neutral zones. Players were now allowed to enter the offensive zone before the puck. The only off side rule left was that passing was not allowed from one zone to another. So players had to stickhandle over the lines to move the puck from one zone to the next. Under the new liberal offiside rule, players like Boston’s Cooney Weiland would simply stand in front of opponents net and wait for a teammate to stickhandle across the line before passing to the unguarded Weiland in front of the net. Weiland finished with 43 goals in the 44 game schedule. Teammate Dit Clapper had 41 goals and Howie Morenz of the Montreal Canadiens had 40. The league decided there was now too much offense so the rule was changed in mid season and players were no longer allowed to enter the offensive zone before the puck.

On this day in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 21st 1974, the Lefas defeated the Boston Bruins 8-4 as Inge Hammarstrom scored three goals for his only hat trick as a Leaf, helping the Leafs to double the Bruins 8-4.




Hammarstrom and Borje Salming had come to Toronto from Sweden in 1973. While Salming became an NHL all star and fan favorite at Maple Leaf Gardens, Hammarstrom's career was not so glorious.




Leaf owner Harold Ballard once said of Hammarstrom that he "could go into the corner with six eggs in his pocket and not break one of them."




Inge was traded to the St. Louis Blues on November 1st 1977 for Jerry Butler. Inge played 292 games for Toronto scoring 85 goals and 82 assists and went 31-41-72 for St. Louis in 135 games over two seasons before returning to Sweden.




On this day in hockey history, December 21st 1977, Butch Goring received a minor penalty for slashing during an 8-1 victory by the Los Angeles Kings over the Minnesota North Stars.
This was his first and only penalty of the 80 games he played that season. And it's not like he was avoiding the action as he tallied 37 goals and 36 assists for 73 points.
And that wasn't unusual for Goring as he tallied only a single minor penalty for the Kings for three consecutive seasons, 1971-72, 1972-73 and 1973-74.
Those were wild seasons for Goring compared to his 1980-81 season when he had exactly zero penalty minutes in 80 games for the New York Islanders while tallying 60 points on 23 goals and 37 assists.
Goring played 1107 NHL games with only 102 penalty minutes, an average of .092 penalty minutes per game. Only Dave Keon posted a cleaner record of penalty free play with 1296 games with only 117 penalty minutes for .0903 penalty minutes per game.

Below is a chart of Goring career statistics. Please note the many single digit numbers in the PIM column.
                                          GP G A PTS PIM
1966-67 Winnipeg Rangers MJHL 0 35 31 66 2
1967-68 Canadian National Team 0 0 0 0 0
1967-68 Canadian National Team 0 0 0 0 0
1968-69 Winnipeg Jets WCHL 36 42 33 75 0
1969-70 Springfield Kings AHL 19 13 7 20 0
1969-70 Los Angeles Kings NHL 59 13 23 36 8
1970-71 Los Angeles Kings NHL 19 2 5 7 2
1970-71 Los Angeles Kings NHL 19 2 5 7 2
1971-72 Los Angeles Kings NHL 74 21 29 50 2
1972-73 Los Angeles Kings NHL 67 28 31 59 2-
1973-74 Los Angeles Kings NHL 70 28 33 61 2
1974-75 Los Angeles Kings NHL 60 27 33 60 6
1975-76 Los Angeles Kings NHL 80 33 40 73 8
1976-77 Los Angeles Kings NHL 78 30 55 85 6
1977-78 Los Angeles Kings NHL 80 37 36 73 2
1978-79 Los Angeles Kings NHL 80 36 51 87 16
1979-80 Los Angeles Kings NHL 69 20 48 68 12 

1979-80 New York Islanders NHL 12 6 5 11 2
1980-81 New York Islanders NHL 78 23 37 60 0
1981-82 New York Islanders NHL 67 15 17 32 10
1982-83 New York Islanders NHL 75 19 20 39 8
1983-84 New York Islanders NHL 71 22 24 46 8
1984-85 New York Islanders NHL 29 2 5 7 2
1984-85 Boston Bruins NHL        39 13 21 34 6 
1986-87 Nova Scotia Oilers AHL  10  3    5 8  2

On this day in hockey history, December 21st 1979, Garry Unger's NHL record for consecutive games played streak ended at 914, as his Atlanta Flames lost 5-1 to the St. Louis Blues at the arena in St. Louis.

Unger had been prepared for the end of his streak by his coach, AI McNeil. “It's the coach's decision,” said Unger. “We haven't been playing well. The coach felt the game was more important than the streak, and do I. It's difficult to play hurt, in fact, it's difficult enough to play when you're healthy."
Unger had played 622 games of that streak with St. Louis. He had played sparingly for the Flames since suffering a dislocated shoulder against the Winnipeg Jets on December 9th.but took the ice for at least one shift in the four games since then, keeping the streak alive. Unger had stood up twice in the last minute of the game as if he were ready to get on the ice. At one point Guy Chouinard skated to the bench yelling Ungie", "Ungie" for Unger to replace him. as Unger stood up it appeared that he was restrained by coach Al McNeil who appeared to reach out and grab Unger's jersey to keep him on the bench. Ungers streak had begun February 24th 1968 as a Toronto Maple Leaf.








On this day in hockey history, December 21st 1972 Boston's Bobby Orr set a new NHL record for career points by a defenseman in his 423rd game with an assist for his 541st point in 8-1 win over Detroit Red Wings. Doug Harvey held the previous record, with 540 points in 1,113 games. Orr averaged 1.3 PPG, Harvey averaged 0.5 PPG





On this day in Buffalo Sabres history, December 21st 1975, the Sabres set a team record for most goals in a single game while handing the Washington Capitals the worst beating in team history in a 14-2 victory at the Aud in Buffalo. The Sabres doubled their scoring in each period, with a pair of goals in the first period, four in the second and eight in the third. Gilbert Perreault started the assault at 2:57 of the first period. The Sabres outshot the Caps 10-4 in the first, and held a 2-0 lead going into the second Tony White scored for Washington at the 23-second mark to halve the Buffalo lead. But Buffalo
scored three more times before the Caps notched their second goal. The Sabres outshot the Caps 18-9 in the second. Things really got ugly in the third. Craig Ramsay’s goal at the 56-second mark gave Buffalo a 7-2 lead. It was the first of six goals the Sabres would score in a span of 8:42. Included in that spree were Rick Martin’s third and fourth goals of the game. Fred Stanfield closed out the scoring at 18:11 with his third  goal of the game, thus marking the first time the Capitals had permitted a pair of hat tricks in the same game. Buffalo outshot Washington 22-3 in the third and 50-16 for the game. Only
three of the 17 Buffalo skaters who dressed failed to record a point that night. Apparently the beat down was so discouraging to Tommy Williams of the Capitals that he retired three days later.

This day in hockey history, December 22 1920, Babe Dye scored twice and Howie Lockhart recorded the only shutout of his career as the Hamilton Tigers became the only NHL team to post a shutout in it's debut, when the Tigers beat the visiting Montreal Canadiens 5-0.

This day in hockey history, December 22 1954, Milt Schmidt retired as a player and was named the new coach of the Boston Bruins.

This day in hockey history, December 22 1964, the New York Rangers traded Dick Duff to the Montreal in exchange for Bill Hicke.

This day in hockey history, December 22 1971, the Chicago Black Hawks defeated the Oakland Seals 4-1 as Bobby Hull scored his last NHL hat trick, his 28th. Hull was the first NHL player to score 28 hat tricks.



This day in hockey history, December 22 1974, Phil Esposito scored twice in the second period for the Boston Bruins in a 5-4 victory against the Detroit Red Wings at Boston Garden to become the sixth player to score 500 career goals. Esposito scored a shorthanded goal at 4:46 and a power-play goal at 6:49 of the second period to join Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Maurice Richard, Frank Mahovlich and Jean Beliveau in that exclusive club.





This day in hockey history, December 22 1979, the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Boston Bruins 5-2 at the Boston Garden to extend their undefeated streak to an NHL-record 29 games (20-0-9). With the win the Flyers bettered the previous recorded of 28 games without a loss set by the 1977-78 Montreal Canadiens. They extended their streak to 35 games (25-0-10) before losing to the Minnesota North Stars on January 7 1980.





This day in hockey history, December 22 1990, the Pittsburgh Penguins defeat the New York Islanders 4-3 at Nassau Coliseum as Paul Coffey picks up an assist to become the second defenseman with 1,000 career points.

This day in hockey history, December 22 1990, the St. Louis Blues defeated the Los Angeles Kings 7-4 with Brett Hull scoring three times to join his father Bobby as the first father son pair to score 500 career goals.




It looked like Brett got his 500th goal 20 seconds into the third period, but it's taken away about five minutes later when video shows the puck actually goes into the net off the leg of teammate Stephane Matteau. So he beat goalie Stephane Fiset at 10:25 to complete his hat trick and become the 24th player in NHL history to score 500 goals. Brett Hull's milestone goal comes exactly 25 years to the day his father scored his 28th and final NHL hat trick.




This day in hockey history, December 22 1993, Dean Evason scored a shorthanded goal at 3:20 of overtime to give the Dallas Stars a 3-2 win at Anaheim. It was the first shorthanded overtime goal since the NHL adopted the five minute overtime period in 1983.

This day in hockey history, December 22 1996, the New York Rangers defeated the Florida Panthers 7-3 at Madison Square Garden as Mark Messier scored two goals and added two assists to become the 5th player in NHL history to register 1,500 career points.

This day in hockey history, December 22 1997, the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Boston Bruins 4-2 in Boston with Scotty Bowman becoming the first coach in NHL history to win 200 games with three different teams, when Bowman had previously won 200+ games with Montreal and Buffalo.

With Detroit, Bowman finished with a 410-193-88 record a .655 winning percentage. With Montreal he went 419-110-103 .744. In Buffalo his record was 210-134-60 and a .594 winning %. In pittsburgh he was 95-53-16 .628 and in St Louis he went 110-83-45 for a .557 winning %.




On this day in Buffalo Sabres history, December 22, 1974, Don Luce had a four point night with three goals and an assist during in a 4-0 win at Washington. Luce scored his hat trick in 3:49 including two shorthanded goals. Luce set a Sabres team record for most shorties in one season, eight in 1974-75 which was the NHL record at the time.




Several players have scored twice on the same penalty kill including Rod Brind'Amourt on April 26, 1997 against the Pittsburgh Penguins in a playoff game, Petr Svoboda took a penalty at 16:50 of the 1st period and Brind'Amour scored at 17:38 and 18:32 to give Philadelphia a 3-2 lead...the goal that gave Pittsburgh the 2-1 lead was the last goal by Mario Lemieux before his 1st retirement. Theo Fleury also had two shorties on one penalty kill and also holds the NHL for most shorties in one game, three set March 9, 1991 during an 8-4 loss to the St. Louis Blues.




On this day in Buffalo Sabres history, December 22nd 1977, the Sabres defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 at Chicago Stadium with Rene Robert scoring the 2,000th goal in franchise history.


Happy Birthday to Ron Greschner,





Happy birthday to Ian Turnbull





This day in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 22nd 1917, the Toronto Arenas defeated the Ottawa Senators 11-4 with three different Toronto players scoring hat tricks, Corb Denneny, Reg Noble, and Harry Meeking. The arenas eventually became the St. Pats in 1919 and then the Maple Leafs in 1927.





This day in hockey history, December 23rd 1978, Bryan Trottier scored an NHL record six points in one period during a 9-4 victory against the New York Rangers. He had three goals and three assists in the second period and added a pair of goals for a five goal eight point game. Linemate Mike Bossy added a pair of goals and three assists for a five point game. The win extended the Islanders home undefeated streak to 16 games (12-0-4).





This day in hockey history, December 23rd 1978, Bryan Trottier scored an NHL record six points in one period during a 9-4 victory against the New York Rangers. He had three goals and three assists in the second period and added a pair of goals for a five goal eight point game. Linemate Mike Bossy added a pair of goals and three assists for a five point game. The win extended the Islanders home undefeated streak to 16 games (12-0-4).





This day in Buffalo Sabres history, December 23rd 1987, the Sabres beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-2 with Tom Barrasso picking up his 100th win in the nets, making him the youngest player to reach that milestone at just 22 years and 9 months. He was able to accumulate so many victories at such a young age because he began his NHL career at age 18 winning the Calder and Vezina Trophies in his first season, unthinkable today!





This day in hockey history, December 23rd 1988, the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 at the Pacific Coliseum with Wayne Gretzky scoring an unusual pair of goals, both into the empty net with the goalie pulled for an extra attacker. Gretzky also had two assists for a four point game. The goals gave Gretzky 611 for his career to pass Bobby Hull into fourth place among NHL career goal scoring leaders.

This day in hockey history, December 23rd 1996, two of the all time best net minders dueled to a 0-0 tie as Buffalo’s Dominik Hasek recorded his 20th career shutout and New Jersey Devil’s Martin Brodeur recorded his 15th career shutout.

This day in hockey history, December 23rd 1933, Howie Morenz became the NHL's all time goal scoring leader passing Cy Denneny with has 249th career goal in Montreal's 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.























On this day in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 24th 1969 , Mike "Shakey" Walton picks up four assists as the Maple Leafs defeated the Los Angeles Kings 8-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Walton was known as "Shakey" a nickname that he inherited after his father, a hockey star in his own right back in England who would shake his head to deke out an opponent.

This day in New York Rangers history, December 24th 1972, the Rangers defeated the Detroit Red Wings 5-0 at Madison Square Garden with Ed Giacomin picking up his 40th career shutout matching Dave Kerr's team record, and Peter Stemkowski picking up four assists.

On this day in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 24th 1979, the Leafs executed another in a series of bad trades which deconstructed the strong Leafs team of the late 1970's. Punch Imlach who was back for his second stint with the Leafs, shipped scrappy winger Pat Boutette to the Hartford Whalers for Bob Stephenson who played only 14 games for Toronto. With the Whalers Boutette joined another ex Leaf Blaine Stoughton and center Mike Rogers to form the high scoring Stash Dash and Bash line. In 1979-80 Boutette was the Whalers second leading scorer with career high 27-52-80 totals.





This day in hockey history, December 26th 1991, Three Pittsburgh Penguins had six points or more as the Pens pounded the Toronto Maple Leafs 12-1. Joe Mullen had his second consecutive four goal game and added two helpers for six points. Mario Lemieux add two goals and five assists for seven points. Kevin Stevens had six points with a pair of goals and four assists.




This day in hockey history, December 26th December 26, 1991, the Washington Capitals took a 6-0 first period lead helped by Michael Pivonka's hat trick over the New York Rangers but the Rangers scored the next eight goals to win 8-6. Trailing 6-1 after one, the Rangers added seven goals in the comeback.




New York began the comeback on John Ogrodnick's goal with one-tenth of a second left in the first period.




John Vanbiesbrouck replaced Mike Richter in goal for the Rangers at the start of the middle frame and shut out the Capitals the rest of the way. The Rangers, who were out shot 18-15 the first period, held a 31- 7 advantage in shots-on-goal the rest of the game. The Rangers out shot Washington 46-25 for the contest.




Joey Kocur scored the only goal of the second period to pull the Rangers to within 6-3. Darren Turcotte made it a two-goal deficit early in the third, and Paul Broten scored short-handed to make it a one-goal game.




Kris King finally tied the score 6-6 at 11:07 of the final period, before Gartner scored off a two-on-one just one minute later to give New York its first lead of the game. Sergei Nemchinov capped the comeback with an empty-net goal in the final minute.




The Capitals scored six times on 18 first-period shots. Dimitri Khristich had two goals and an assist. Khristich, Pivonka and Randy Burridge scored for the Capitals during a five-minute major penalty in the first period, and Pivonka completed his hat trick with a short- handed goal.




On this date in Buffalo Sabres history, December 26, 1988, Phil Housley downs the Boston Bruins with a pair of goals in a 2-1 victory at Buffalo's War Memorial Auditorium. With the victory, the Sabres improved to 15-17-4 on the season.

On December 26, 1998, Dominik Hasek picked up his 39th shutout as a Buffalo Sabres as he denied 34 New Jersey Devils shots in a 2-0 victory at the Medowlands.










On this day in Buffalo Sabres history, December 27th 1973, the Buffalo Sabres traded John Gould and Tracy Pratt to Vancouver in exchange for defenseman Jerry "King Kong" Korab.




On this day in Philadelphia Flyers history, December 27th 1982, Bobby Clarke scored three goals for his fifth and final hat trick. He added two assists for a five point games as the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Red Wings 8-4 at Detroit.







This day in hockey history, December 27th 1897, In the only Stanley Cup challenge of the season, the defending champion Montreal Victorias turned back the Ottawa Capitals 15-2 to retain their champion status.




During the period from 1893 to 1914, the Stanley Cup was a "challenge trophy"; the champions held onto the Cup until they either lost their league title to another club, or a champion from another league issued a formal challenge and subsequently defeated the reigning Cup champion in a special game or series. The playoff format for each challenge varied depending on what the two competing clubs agreed to.




Before 1912, challenges could take place at any time, given the appropriate rink conditions, and it was common for teams to defend the Cup numerous times during the year. In 1912, the Cup's trustees declared that the Cup was only to be defended at the end of the champion team's regular season.







This day in Montreal Canadiens history, December 27th 1942, the Canadiens defeated the Boston Bruins Boston 4-2 in Montreal, but lost rookie Maurice Richard, who suffered a broken leg just above the right ankle after being checked by the Bruins' Jack Crawford.




On this date in Montreal Canadiens history, December 28, 1944, Maurice “Rocket” Richard scored five goals and three assists during a 9-1 Montreal victory over the Detroit Red Wings. In so doing, Richard became the first NHL player to score eight points in one game.




On this day in hockey history, December 28th 1960, Ray Bourque was born in Montreal, Quebec. Happy birthday Ray !




On this date in hockey history, December 28, 1975, the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in a cold war which lasted from 1947 to 1991. Into this historical context came the so called “Super Series” where two Soviet hockey teams played friendly's against NHL teams in North America.




The New York Rangers were the first team to host the Soviet's when they faced the powerful Central Red Army Sports Club at Madison Square Garden. Red Army defeated the Rangers 7-3 and then went on to tie the Montreal Canadiens 3-3 in he fabled new years eve game.




Red Army went on to defeat the Boston Bruins 5-2 and lose to the two time defending Stanley Cup champion Philadelphia 4-1, finishing 2-1-1. The Soviet Wings lost to the Buffalo Sabres 12-6 while defeating Pittsburgh 7-4, Chicago 4-2 and the New York Islanders 2-1, finishing 3-1.




While the Soviets record was an impressive 5-2-1 they did not defeat any of the NHL's top three teams, even with the Soviet lineups dotted with roster upgrades from other teams. The Wings team which played Buffalo wore blue helmets and uniforms but had seven players in the lineup with red CCCP helmets showing they were “ringers” from the national team added to strengthen their lineup that game but they couldn't stop the Sabres impressive 12 goal onslaught.




On this date in hockey history, December 28, 1977, Curt Ridley shutout the Moscow Spartak with Rick Blight scoring twice in the Vancouver Canucks 2-0 victory. In so doing, Curt Ridley became the first NHL goaltender to shutout a touring Soviet team.












Happy birthday to the vertical striped referee jerseys. On December 29th 1955 in a game between the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs, NHL officials wore new vertically striped black and white sweaters for the first time. The Canadiens won the game 5-2.

This day in New York Rangers history, December 24th 1987, the Rangers named Kelly Kisio the 24th captain in team history.

This day in New York Rangers history, December 24th 1950, the Rangers defetaed the Chicago Blackhawks 6-1 at Madison Square Garden with Nick Mickoski leading the attack with four goals and an assist.










A sad day in Toronto Maple Leafs history on December 29th 1979, as GM 

Punch Imlach's escalating feud with Darryl Sittler precipitated his trade of 

Lanny McDonald and Joel Quenneville to the Colorado Rockies in exchange 

for Pat Hickey and Wilf Paiement. While Hickey and Paiement were good 

players, Lanny was beloved by the Leafs fans and a close friend of Sittler and winger on his line. This trade marked the beginning of the end of a strong 

Leafs team in the late 1970's.





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey






This day in hockey history, December 29th 1992, the Los Angeles Kings took

a 2-0 lead against the Philadelphia Flyers, then the Flyers scored 10 unanswered goals to win 10-2 Rod Brind’Amour had three goals and three assists for six

points and his first NHL hattrick.





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey

















This day in hockey history, December 29th 1945, Maurice Richard scored 

twice in a 5-4 loss to the Black Hawks to record his 100th career goal. And he reached the mark in just 145 games, the fastest in history. That mark has since

been broken by Mike Bossy, who reached 100 goals in 129 games. Wayne 

Gretzky missed out on this record as did Teemu Selanne, who scored 76 goals 

in his rookie season (84 games), but had just 25 in 56 games in his sophomore season.





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey









On this day in hockey history, December 29th 1984, the Edmonton Oilers 

defeated the Detroit Red Wings 6-3 with Wayne Gretzky scoring his 32nd 

career hat trick and and three assists for six pointys, he was in on every Oilers

goal, reach 100 points in only his 35th game. But this was only the second 

fastest 100 points in NHL history because Wayne did it in only 34 games in 

the previous season. Of course this was back when scoring goals, not blocking shots, was the leagues primary form of entertainment.





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey


















This day in World Junior Hockey Championship history, December 30th 1992, Peter Forsberg set a tournament record with 10 points in a single game during

a 20-1 victory by Sweden against Japan. Japan was outscored 83 to 9 in seven games. Forsberg ended the tournament with a record 31 points in seven games

but Sweden only finished second.





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey














​This Date In Hockey History - December

This date in hockey history, December 1, 1924, The Boston Bruins played their first game in the NHL and the first NHL game ever played in the United States, defeating the Montreal Maroons 2-1 at the Boston Arena.

This date in hockey history, December 1, 1938, Frank Brimsek made his debut in the nets for the Boston Bruins, losing 2-0 to the Montreal Canadiens. But Brimsek recovered nicely, earning shutouts in six of his next seven games which earned him the nickname “Mister Zero”.

This date in hockey history, December 1, 1940, Max Bentley scored his first NHL goal with the Chicago Black Hawks during a 4-1 home ice victory against the New York Rangers.





This date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 1, 1949, Conn Smythe benched his starting goalie Turk Broda for being overweight . Gil Mayer made his only start of the season for the Leafs who lost 2-0 to the Detroit Red Wngs. Broda was back in the nets for the next game after he lost enough weight to satisfy Smythe and the Leafs defeated the New York Rangers 2-0.

































This date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 1, 1967, Jim McKenny was born in Ottawa Ontario. “Howie” played 594 games with Toronto primarily from 1969 to 1977 scoring 327 points as a puck rushing defenseman. While playing with Toronto's American league affiliate the Rochester Americans, Mckenny's rooomate was Donald S. Cherry. McKenny famously said of hockey that “Half the game is mental. The other half is being mental.”

This date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 1, 1957, Frank Mahovlich
was in his rookie season and scored a hat trick during a Leafs 7-2 victory against the Chicago Black Hawks at Chicago stadium. Mahovlich went 20-16-36 in 1957-58, winning the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year over Bobby Hull. His rookie card pictured below is valued at $500.

On this date in hockey history, December 1, 1940, four pairs of brothers played in one NHL game. The Chicago Black Hawks defeated the New York Rangers 4-1. Max and Doug Bentley along with Bob and Bill Carse suited up for the Hawks while Neil and Mac Colville and Lynn and Muzz Patrick played for the Rangers.

On this date in hockey history, December 2, 1909, the National Hockey Association (NHA) was established in Montreal consisting of the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers and Renfrew Creamery Kings. The NHA would later evolve into the NHL. Renfrew was a small mining town in northern Ontario which prospered during the silver mining boom years. M.J. O'Brien and son Ambrose were the owners of the Renfrew team in the semi professional Federal Hockey League and sought to enter the new Canadien Hockey Association (CHA) but were turned down. So they created their own league the NHA. Renfrew boasted the legendary Frank Patrick and Fred “Cyclone” Taylor and Newsy Lalonde the NHA's first scoring champion and finished 8-3-1 that first season. They slipped to 8-8 next season. The Renfrew team folded after two seasons. The CHA folded after 8 weeks.

On this date in hockey history, December 2, 1925, the New York Americans played their first NHL game in Pittsburgh, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-1. Billy Burch scored the first goal with Charlie Langlois netting the winner in overtime.





On this date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 4, 1980, Jim Rutherford was acquired by the Leafs from Detroit for Mark Kirton who had been their first round draft pick in 1980. Rutherford was an Ontario boy from Beeton less than an hours drive from Toronto so his first game played for the Red Wings at Maple Leafs Gardens on January 2, 1971 was an emotional moment. Unfortunately for the rookie Rutherford and the Wings, the game was full of bad memories as the Leafs hammered the Wings 13-0. Rutherford gave up three in the first period, then spent the rest of the game on the bench and saw Torotno score three more in the second and seven goals in the third.

Rutherford played 18 game with the Leafs going 4-10-2 with a 5.12 GAA before Toronto traded him to the Los Angeles Kings. With that trade, Rutherford became the first NHL goalie to play for three teams in the same season.

On this date in hockey history, December 3, 1970, Frank Mahovlich of the Detroit Red Wings scored his 400th career goal, becoming the sixth NHL player to reach that milestone. Mahovlich found great individual success in Detroit enjoying his freedom after escaping the Toronto Maple Leafs and Punch Imlach with fellow Leafs refugees Bob Baun and Carl Brewer, scoring a career high 49 goals in 1967-68 and 38 goals in 1968-69, more than he scored in 11 of his 12 seasons with the Leafs.





On this date in Buffalo Sabres history, December 4th 1978, General Manager Punch Imlach was fired along with Coach Marcel Pronovost. Billy Inglis was hired to replace Pronovost.

On this date in hockey history, December 4, 1909, the Montreal Canadiens were founded as the “Club de Hockey Canadien” by J. Ambrose O'Brien and Jack Laviolette. Originally members of the National Hockey Association, the Canadiens were stocked with francophone players to represent Montreal's francophone community. They finished in last place in their first season but won their first Stanley Cup in the 1915-16 season. In 1917, the National Hockey Association (NHA) became ethe NHL. With Howie Morenz leading the way, the NHL Canadiens won their first Stanley Cup in the 1923-24 season.

This day in hockey history, December 4th 1963, the Boston Bruins tied the Chicago Black Hawks 2-2 with Boston’s Andy Hebenton playing in his 581st consecutive game setting a new NHL record breaking the mark held by John Wilson. That was the equivalent of playing seven seasons without taking a night (or afternoon) off. Hebenton’s record was eventually broken by Doug Jarvis, who played in 964 consecutive games.

This day in hockey history, December 4th1987, the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Chicago Blackhawks.12-0. Chicago had only 19 shots on goal. The Red Wings were led by Tim Higgins who scored his only NHL hat trick and Steve Yzerman had two goals and two assists.

This day in hockey history, December 4th 1988, the Edmonton Oilers defeated the New York Rangers 10-6 with Jimmy Carson scoring three goals and an assist to become only the third player to score a hattrick six times before age of 21. Carson was part of the trade package for Wayne Gretzky who




And he did it without the aforementioned Edmonton legend, who was traded to the Kings in the previous offseason, so he was not only following in his footsteps but also trying to fill the shoes that made those prints as well. If you can’t figure it out, I’m talking about Gretzky, who scored more than six hat tricks before hitting age 21. Want to make it even weirder? Carson was actually involved in that trade that sent The Great One to LA! And, believe it or not, Carson actually beat Gretzky at something – he scored more goals as a teenager than any other player: 92! That’s incredible! (And, just to make it weirder, 92 is the record for goals by one player in a single season, set by Gretzky!) The only player to have reached the 100-goal milestone at a younger age than Carson, who hit that mark at 20 years and 116 days? Gretzky, who was 20 years and 40 days old. And Carson himself was aware of his situation, too, as the pressure of being expected to replace Gretzky became too much and he demanded a trade. His wishes were met, and he was traded to Detroit after just four games in 1989 (one goal), and although his expectations were gone, so was his talent: he’d score just 133 more goals in seven NHL seasons.







This day in hockey history, December 4th 1996, the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Edmonton Oilers 2-0 with Patrick Roy blocking 36 shots for his fifth shutout of the season and 35th of his career.






On this date in hockey history December 5, 1939, Eddie Shore played his last game a Boston Bruin in a 2-1 victory over the New York Americans at the Boston Garden.

On this date in hockey history, December 5 1943, Bill Cowley and Herb Cain both scored three points on a goal and two assists when the Boston Bruins defeated the Montreal Canadiens and rookie goaltender Bill Durnan. This was Durnans first loss after a record 12-0-2 streak to start his NHL career.

On this date in hockey history, December 5 1983, Wayne Gretzky had three assists during a 4-2 victory at Pittsburgh. This gave Gretzky 1,400 points in 580 games, joining Gordie Howe, Stan Mikita, Phil Espsoito and Marcel Dionne in that exclusive club.

On this date in hockey history, December 5,1968, the Montreal Canadiens debuted a future Hall of Fame goaltender when Tony Esposito against the Boston Bruins and their future Hall of Famer Phil Esposito, Tony's brother. Phil scored twice against his brother in a 2-2 tie.

On this date in hockey history, December 5 1987 , Goalie Darcy Wakaluk shot and scored a goal into an empty net at 19:59 of the third period to give the AHL Rochester Americans a 5-2 win over Utica Devils. Three days later Philadelphia's Ron Hextall repeated the feat, only this time in the NHL.

On this date in hockey history, December 5 1988 , Detroit's Steve Yzerman set a new team record with a goal in his ninth straight game, a 7-2 Red Wings' loss at Montreal. Yzerman broke the team record of goals in eight straight games set by Gordie Howe in 1952.


On this date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 6, 1947, the Leafs hammered the Chicago Black Hawks 12-5 with Max Bentley and Harry Watson scoring hat tricks. The 1947-48 Leafs finished on top of the NHL standings and won their second Stanley Cup in a string of three consecutive championships in 1947, 1948 and 1949.

On this date in hockey history, December 6, 1987, Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers had a hat trick in the first period against the Minnesota North Stars for his 43rd career hat trick. Then he added two more goals and an assist for a six point game in a 10-4 victory. The five goal game was the fifth of Gretzky's career.

On this date in hockey history, Greg Millen recorded his third consecutive shutout 3-0 over the Minnesota North Stars. Millen finished the season with a 3.38 GAA , six shutouts and a save percentage of .880

On this date in hockey history, December 6, 1929, the Toronto Maple Leafs signed Harvey “Busher” Jackson. He made his debut at age 18 against the Montreal Canadiens and announced his arrival by knocking down his idol Howie Morenz.

On this date in hockey history, December 6, 1959, Bobby Hull of the Chicago Black Hawks notched his first hat trick in the NHL in a 6-3 victory by the Chicago Black hawks over the Boston Bruins.

On this date in hockey history, December 6, 1995, a monumental trade took place which altered the competitive balance of the NHL when the Montreal Canadiens sent Patrick Roy and Mike Keane to the Colorado Avalanche for a package of Martin Rucinsky, Andrei Kovalenko and goaltender Jocelyn Thibault. Montreal coach Mario Trembaly and Roy didn't get along when they had played together and their frayed relationship reached it's breaking point when the Detroit Red Wings came to town for a game on December 2nd. Roy had run into Red Wings goalie Mike Vernon that morning at breakfast and Roy had confided that the pressure from the media and fans in Montreal had really gotten to him and he was even considering retirement. Vernon told him that he needed to get traded, that a trade from Calgary had relieved Vernon from the pressure of playing for his hometown team that had been unable to repeat their 1989 Stanley Cup championship. Later that evening, Tremblay left Roy in nets as he endured brutal booing from the fans while the Red Wings piled up a 9-1 lead. Roy pulled himself from the game and stormed past Tremblay over to Canadiens President Ronald Corey and told him he had played his last game for Montreal. Four days later the games greatest goaltender was on his way to Denver where he led the Avalanche to a pair of Stanley Cup championships. Montreal has not been in the finals since the end of the Roy era. Vernon's contribution to this saga is largely unknown but was likely the impetus for this monumental moment in NHL history.

On this date in hockey history, December 6, 1989, Mario Lemieux passed Jean Pronovost as the Pittsburgh Penguins all time goal scoring leader with his 317th goal in his 395th career game. Lemieux's goal helped the Penguins defeat the Washington Capitals 5-3.

This day in hockey history, December 6th 1980, the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Chicago Blackhawks 6-4 with George Ferguson and Greg Malone scoring in the first 29 seconds of the game to set an NHL record for the fastest two goals to start the game by a single team.

This day in hockey history, December 6th 1990, the NHL announced that two cities would be receiving NHL franchises: Ottawa and Tampa Bay. The Lightning and Senators would begin play in 1992. It would be the first time Ottawa hosted an NHL game since 1934.





This day in hockey history, December 6th 1999, the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 with Steve Thomas scoring the game winning goal in overtime winner to set an NHL record for the most regular season overtime goals, with 10.




Since then 19 players have tied or broken that record Jaromír Jágr has the current record with 18 regular season overtime winners. The leader in playoff OT winners is Joe Sakic with eight. Jagr has four. For now.








On this date in hockey history, December 7, 1977, Gordie Howe of the WHA New England Whalers scored his 1,000 career professional goal in a 6-3 victory over the Birmingham Bulls. Howe beat goalie John Garrett at 11:36 of the first period ending a scoreless drought of 11 games. It took Howe 30 seasons to score his 1,000th goal and it included all NHL and WHA regular season and playoff games.

On this date in hockey history, December 7, 1919, the Toronto Arenas changed their name to the Toronto St. Patrick's. In 1926-27 they changed their name to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

On this date in hockey history, December 7, 1961, Jean Beliveau played his first game as the Captain of the Montreal Canadiens. leading the Habs to a 4-1 victory the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Forum.

On this date in hockey history, December 7, 1975, Johnny Bucyk of the Boston Bruins tied Jean Beliveau of the Montreal Canadiens for sixth place in career NHL scoring when he tallied his 507th goal.

On this date in hockey history, December 7, 1940, Gerry Cheevers was born in St. Catharines, Ontario. Cheevers was one of the great “money” goaltenders of all time, winning two Stanley Cups with the Boston Bruins in 1970 and 1972. Cheevers is also famous for his stitch covered face mask which originated after he was hit in the face with a puck during practice. Feigning injury, Cheeevrs went to the locker room where coach Harry Sinden found him smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. As a joke, Bruins trainer “Frosty” Forristall drew a stitch on his mask. A new stich mark was added every time he was struck in the mask and the legndary mask was created. The Hockey News tallied votes for the best mask design ever and Cheevers mask won in a landslide with 221 votes to 66 for Gilles Gratton's lions face mask. Ron Hextall the former Flyers goalie and current Flyers general manager called Cheevers mask the “greatest piece of sports memorabilia ever.”

Cheevers developed an unconventional style of play as a flopping goalie which he learned with the Rochester Americans where his coach made him practice without a stick. In 1965, Cheevers set the AHL record for most victories in a single season by a goalie with 48. even so, he was hardly an overnight success in the NHL which consisted of only six teams at that time. Cheevers developed his style during six seasons in the minor leagues before becoming a full time goalie with Boston in 1967. In 1972 He went undefeated for 32 consecutive games which is an NHL record.

On this date in hockey history, December 7, 1982, the Edmonton Oilers defeated the St. Louis Blues 3-2 with Wayne Gretzky scoring his 23rd goal of the season at 6:23 of the second period at the Northlands Coliseum. That game marked the end of a 30 game scoring streak for Gretzky during which he collected an amazing 76 points on 24 goals and 54 assists.

On this date in hockey history, December 7th 1966, Henri Richard joined his brother Maurice “The Rocket” to become the first pair of brothers to each score 250 career NHL goals as the Canadiens defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3. “The Pocket Rocket” was the seventh player in franchise history with 250 career goals.

On this date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 7th, 1929, Harvey “Busher” Jackson played his first game as a Leaf. At age 18, he was the youngest player in the NHL. Jackson played ten years with the Leafs and holds the team recordd for most first team all star selections with four. He played on the famous “Kid Line” with Joe Primeau and Charlie Conacher and was part of the Leafs 1932 cup winning team.

On this date in hockey history, December 7th 1967, during a 2-2 tie between the Montreal Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings John Ferguson became the first player to be assessed a triple minor penalty.




On this date in hockey history, December 8th 1967, two months into their first NHL season, the California Seals officially changed their name to the Oakland Seals.




This day in Philadelphia Flyers history, December 8th 1967, Doug Favell blocked 24 shots while the Flyers scored three times on 19 shots in a 3-0 win over the Los Angeles Kings at the Fabulous Forum in LA. Claude Laforge scored in the first period then set up Pat Hannigan for a second period goal followed by Gary Dornhoefer. There was only one penalty for the whole game, this was a few years before the Broad Street Bully era.

This day in Philadelphia Flyers history, December 8th 1973, the Flyers Bernie Parent stops 31 shots in a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens. Tom Bladon, Bob Kelly and Rick MacLiesh scored for the Flyers. Dave Schultz fought Toronto’s Lanny McDonald (Kurt Walker the Leafs needed you that night) and invited the Leafs bench to tangle but there were no takers.

This day in Buffalo Sabres history, December 8th 1974, the Sabrea defeated the Minnesota North Stars 5-0 with Gary “Bones” Bromley blocking 14 shots for the shutout. Bromley earned his nickname because he stood 5’10” and weighed only 149 pounds.

This day in Philadelphia Flyers history, December 8th 1977, the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the New York Rangers 7-4 at the Spectrum. Trailing by a 2-1 score after two periods, the Flyers scored six goals in the third period. Don "Big Bird" Saleski, Ross Lonsberry and Reggie "the Rifle" Leach each scored twice while Bobby Clarke had a goal and an assist.





Happy birthday to Red Berenson hockey’s “Red Baron” born on December 8th 1939. The St. Louis Blues gave Red a birthday present of sorts when they hired him as coach on December 8th 1979, replacing Barclay Plager.

This day in hockey history, December 8th 1993, the Los Angeles Kings' lost to the Florida Panthers 5-3 with Jari Kurri scoring his 1,223rd career NHL point to become the highest scoring European player passing Peter Stastny who had retired with 1,222 points.

This day in hockey history, December 8th1995 , Montreal named Pierre Turgeon as their new team captain, replacing Mike Keane (who had been traded). Turgeon became the 22nd captain in Montreal Canadiens' history. Turgeon played only 104 games for Montreal before being traded to St Louis despite scoring an impressive 137 points in those 104 games. . He only served 65 games as captain. Apparently his hockey and leadership skills were not highly values by Montreal’s management.




On this date in hockey history, December 8th 1987, Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers became the first NHL goalie to actually shoot and score a goal. Here is his recollection of that game as told to Philadelphia Business Journal: “Scoring a goal was not high on my list of wanna-does,” he said. “The fans were on me to shoot, not only that night, but in prior games too. The media kept asking me questions about it. I said it would have to be the right opportunity, and if I had the right opportunity I’d take a shot. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Then I scored and our whole team came off the bench and guys were hooting and hollering almost like we won a playoff series. That’s what made it special to me, that my teammates were all there celebrating with me. It made it a bigger deal than I ever envisioned it would be. When I think back, I have fond memories of it.” Hextall's puckhandling ability became a major asset for the Flyers' defense. The team's defensemen certainly appreciated the goalie's ability not only to stop the puck behind the cage but to take it himself and pass it to safety. "Hexy really was like a third defenseman out there for us," Mark Howe recalled in a 2009 interview. "He saved me a lot of wear and tear."

On this date in hockey history, December 8, 1984, the Buffalo Sabres defeated the Boston Bruins 3-1 at Boston Gardens to give coach Scotty Bowman his 692nd career win to tie Dick Irvin for most victories by an NHL coach. Bowman coached for another 13 seasons and finished within 1,248 wins. Al Arbour is second with 782 victories. Scotty's nine Stanley Cups are also the most by any NHL coach. He also won five Stanley Cups as an executive, with Pittsburgh as Director Of Player Development in 1991, another with Detroit in 2008 as a Special Advisor, and threee more with Chicago as Senior Advisor of hockey Operation for a career total of 14, second only to Jean Beliveau's 17.





This day in Philadelphia Flyers history, December 8th 1984, the Flyers defeated their arch rivals the New York Rangers 4-2 at the Spectrum. Peter Zezel had a goal and two assists and Brian Propp has a goal and an assist. Mark Howe has an assist on defense partner's Brad McCrimmon's goal to open the scoring and the pair was plus three for the game with 32 minutes of ice time. Subbing for Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Pelle Lindbergh, backup netminder Bob Froese, a resident of Clarence NY had 32 saves on 34 shots to outduel John Vanbiesbrouck who stopped 32 of 36 shots.





On this date in hockey history, December 9, 1924, the Toronto St. Patrick's signed a pharmacy student from the University of Toronto to play left wing. He moved to defense and played for the St. Pats/Maple Leafs until 1937, 11 years as team captain. His name was Clarence “Hap” Day.

On this date in hockey history, December 9, 1979, the Edmonton Oilers rookie goaltender Eddie Mio recorded the first shutout in the Oilers NHL history. Mio stopped 30 shots for his first career shutout while Wayne Gretzky and Pat Price each added a goal and an assist.

On this date in hockey history, December 9, 1954, the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-0 at the Montreal Forum. The game featured a brawl where the teams combined for 36 penalties and 15 misconducts, setting a record for most penalties at that time.

On this date in hockey history, December 9 1976, the Philadelphia Flyers played the Boston Bruins at the Boston Gardens winning 3-1. this was the fourth consecutive season in which the Flyers and Bruins played on December 9th. Rick MacLiesh, Gary Dornhoefer on the power play and Bobby Clarke with a shortie into the empty net handled the scoring while Bernie Parent stopped 17 shots.




Hubert Jacques "Pit" Martin was born on this date, December 9th in 1943. He was the captain for the Chicago Black Hawks 1975 to 1977. He was an NHL All-Star and Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy winner. Martin played seventeen seasons in the NHL for the Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks and Vancouver Canucks.




Martin was nicknamed Pit after a comic strip character in a French newspaper, Martin was scouted by former NHL goaltender Wilf Cude and was the 1962 MVP and first all star team center of the Ontario Hockey Associations Jr. A league.




He was involved in one of the most one sided trades in history. In May 1967, Martin, along with Gilles Marotte and Jack Norris, was traded from Boston to Chicago for Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, and Fred Stanfield, who would become core elements of future Boston powerhouse teams. Martin himself was a bright spot of the trade for the Black Hawks, starring for them for ten seasons as a skilled two way center and being named to play in the NHL All-Star Game in four straight seasons.




Martin played 1101 career NHL games from 1961–62 to 1978–79 scoring 324 goals and 485 assists for 809 points. His best statistical season was 1972–73 when he had a career best 61 assists and 90 points, adding ten goals in the playoffs as the Hawks made it to the Stanley Cup finals. He wore number 7.





This date in hockey history, December 10, 1970, the Boston Bruins peppered Buffalo Sabres goaltender Joe Daley with 72 shots. Daley stopped 64 shots in an 8-0 loss. The 64 saves in one game are a Sabres record. The 72 shots were the most by an NHL team since 1943.

On this date in hockey history, December 10, 1924, the Montreal Maroons played the Montreal Canadiens in the first all Montreal game NHL game. The Canadiens won 5-0 with Auriel Joliet scoring four goals and Georges Vezina picking up the shutout. The Candiens won that game and also won the war as the Maroons folded in 1938.





On this date in hockey history, December 10, 1986, Wayne Gretzky had three goals in a 7-4 Edmonton Oilers victory over the Winnipeg Jets. This was Gretzky's 40th career hat trick. That's right – 40 hat tricks by age 25. On December 10, 1989 Gretzky tallied his 1,900th point in only his 803rd NHL game, an 8-4 victory for the los Angeles Kings over the Quebec Nordiques.

On this date in hockey history, December 10, 1975, The Montreal Canadiens retired jersey number 16 which had been worn by Henri Richard and Elmer Lach prior to a game against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs. The game ended in a 3-3- tie.

On this date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 10, 1969, Johnny Bower played his final game for the Leafs, retiring from the NHL at age 45. He only played one game in that 1969-70 season, losing 6-3 to the Montreal Canadiens. His career record with Toronto was 22—161-79 with a 2.49 GAA. He returned to the Leafs as an assistant coach for the 1976-77 and 1977-78 seasons.


On this date in hockey history, December 11, 1982, the Hartford Whalers defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 7-4. this became known as the “First Cooperall Game” because both teams wore the long pants style popularized with the introduction of the Cooperall uniform system. Actually both teams wore CCM pants but the Cooperall name has become synonymous with the long pants look. The NHL banned the use of the long pants for safety reasons. The fabric was a sleek nylon like the short pants which created little friction when players slid on the ice as compared to the knit fabric of the hockey sock which acted more like a braking mechanism when players slid. As a result, players wearing the long pants tended to slide faster into the boards raising concerns about an increase in the number and severity of injuries resulting from their use.

On this date in hockey history, December 11, 1985, the Chicago Black Hawks scored nine goals in a single game. And lost. Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers scored 12 goals in a 12-9 victory over Chicago. The Hawks held Gretzky scoreless but he tied an NHL record with seven assists in one game while linemates Jari Kuri and Glenn Anderson each had a hat trick. Chicago outshot Edmonton 46 to 44 and both teams pulled their starting goalies with Murray Bannerman and Bob Suave sharing the net for Chicago while Andy Moog and Grant Fuhr split goaltending duties for the Oilers. The Oilers did not score on their one power play opportunity while the Hawks scored three times on four power plays. The 21 goals tied an NHL record for most total goals in a single game. Here is the game summary:

First Period
1 - EDM : Glenn Anderson 21 (Wayne Gretzky, Randy Gregg) (EV) 1:35
2 - EDM : Dave Lumley 5 (Billy Carroll, Kevin Lowe) (EV) 3:19
3 - EDM : Dave Semenko 5 (Craig MacTavish, Mark Napier) (EV) 4:58
4 - EDM : Marty McSorley 4 (Wayne Gretzky, Don Jackson) (EV) 13:24
Second Period
10 - CHI : Bill Watson 4 (Ken Yaremchuk, Jerry Dupont) (EV) 7:11
11 - CHI : Troy Murray 14 (Behn Wilson, Keith Brown) (PP) 9:36
12 - CHI : Jack O'Callahan 1 (Jerry Dupont, Troy Murray) (EV) 11:36

13 - EDM : Jari Kurri 20 (Wayne Gretzky, Glenn Anderson) (EV) 14:52
14 - CHI : Keith Brown 3 (Ed Olczyk) (EV) 16:07
15 - EDM : Marty McSorley 5 (Lee Fogolin Jr., Kevin McClelland) (EV) 18:58
16 - EDM : Glenn Anderson 23 (Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey) (EV) 19:50
5 - EDM : Glenn Anderson 22 (Don Jackson, Wayne Gretzky) (EV) 1:20
6 - EDM : Kevin McClelland 5 (Marty McSorley, Raimo Summanen) (EV) 3:08
7 - CHI : Denis Savard 15 (Steve Larmer, Al Secord) (PP) 5:38
8 - EDM : Lee Fogolin Jr. 2 (Kevin McClelland, Raimo Summanen) (EV) 6:11
9 - CHI : Curt Fraser 14 (Troy Murray, Doug Wilson) (EV) 6:38
Third Period
17 - CHI : Troy Murray 15 (Ed Olczyk, Keith Brown) (PP) 13:22
18 - EDM : Jari Kurri 21 (Wayne Gretzky, Glenn Anderson) (EV) 15:34
19 - CHI : Ken Yaremchuk 5 (Bill Gardner, Behn Wilson) (EV) 17:59
20 - EDM : Jari Kurri 22 (Wayne Gretzky, Glenn Anderson) (EV) 19:24
21 - CHI : Ken Yaremchuk 6 (Tom Lysiak, Bill Gardner) (EV) 19:37

On this date in hockey history, December 11th 1982, the Quebec Nordiques defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 7-4. Peter Stastny scored three goals and had three helpers while his brother Marian had two goals and three assists for an 11 point night by the Stastny's. Peter Stastny would finish the season with 124 points, second in NHL scoring only to Wayne Gretzky's 196 points.











On this date in hockey history, December 11th 1943, the Boston Bruins defeated the New York Rangers 9-6 dropping the Rangers record to 0-41-1. It was the worst start in NHL history.




On this date in hockey history, December 11th 1973,the Los Angeles lost 6-3 to the Minnesota North Stars with Kings rookie Phil Hoene goal against Cesare Maniago made him the second player in NHL history to score his first goal on a penalty shot. Minnesota’s win improved their undefeated streak against Los Angeles to 21 games! With a record of 17-0-4.





On this date in hockey history, December 11th 1988, the Vancouver Canucks lost 8-6 to the Winnipeg Jets as Winnipeg’s Brent Ashton scored on a penalty shot for his 200th career goal and Winnpeg’s first successful penalty shot in their nine year NHL franchise history.







On this date in hockey history, December 11th1955 , Detroit Red Wings rookie John Bucyk scored the first goal of his NHL career. during the Red Wings' 2-0 win over the New York Rangers. It was Bucyk's only goal in the 38 games he played during the 1955-56 season. Big things were ahead for Mr. Bucyk.

On this date in Buffalo Sabres history, December 11th1991, John Muckler was named the new head coach, replacing Rick Dudley, who was fired after a 6-3 loss to St. Louis.





On this day in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 11th 1934, Charlie Conacher took the first penalty shot ever awarded to the Leafs. He was unsuccessful against New York Rangers goalie Andy Aitkenhead. In his career with Toronto Conacher was awarded four penalty shots scoring only once.

On this date in hockey history, December 12, 1970, Orland Kurtenbach scored the first hat trick in Vancouver Canucks history. This was Kurtenbach's pnly NHL career hat trick and he added an assist in the Canucks 5-2 win over the Oakland Seals. Kurtenbach finished the season with 21-32-53 totals in only 52 games. He was well known to old time hockey fans in vancouver having played for the WHL Vancouver Canucks during the the 1957-58, 1959-60 and 1960-61 seasons.

On this date in hockey history, December 12th 1971, Brad Park scored three goals and an assist for the New York Rangers in a 6-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Park was the first Rangers defenseman to score a hat trick. He finished the 1971-72 season with 24-59-73 totals and 130 penalty minutes.

On this date in hockey history, December 12th 1981, Ian Turnbull became the first defenseman in Kings history to score a hat trick (the second of his career) as the Kings won 7-5 over the Canucks. Turnbull finished the game with four goals.

On this date in hockey history, December 12th 1963, the Montreal Canadiens defeated the New York Rangers 6-4 with the two teams setting an NHL record for fastest 3 goals. Montreal's Dave Balon and Gilles Tremblay, and Rangers' Camille Henry scored within a span of 18 seconds early in the first period to set the record.




Happy Birthday to Dan Bouchard born on this day in 1950 in Val D'or Quebec.

On this day in hockey history, December 12th 1971, Phil Esposito scored his 300th career NHL goal as the California Golden Seals defeated the Boston Bruins 4-2. loss to the Oakland Seals. Espo was the 16th player to reach that milestone. I can't believe the Bruins lost to the Seals!

On this day in Buffalo Sabres history, December 13th 1972: The Sabres defeated the Boston Bruins in the now legendary game where Jim Schoenfeld ran Wayne Cashman through the Zamboni doors and fought him off the ice. The Sabres won the game 7-3, piling up 76 penalty minutes to the Bruins 78. The game was played at Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium although history suggests that it was actually played in Orchard Park at then Rich Stadium as the leagues first outdoor game because approximately 75,000 people claim to have been at the game and only the football stadium could hold that many.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTzbVjjOG7o




On this day in hockey history, December 12, 1933 The Toronto Maple Leafs were playing in Boston against the Bruins. Early in the second period the Leafs were two men short and coach Dick Irvin dispatched his penalty killers, Frank “King” Clancy with Red Horner on defense with Irvine “Ace” Bailey at forward. Bailey proceeded to put on a penalty killing clinic ragging the puck using his exceptional stickhandling skills. Finally, Boston's Hall of Fame defenseman, Eddie Shore gathered the puck in and carried the play into the Toronto zone where he was hip checked by Horner.

Shore was dazed by the hit and sought his revenge. He skated after Ace Bailey perhaps thinking he was Horner. Shore caught Bailey with a viscious check flipping him in the air. Bailey hit the ice head first and went into convulsions, bleeding from a head wound. Horner went after Shore and punched him, knocking him unconscious. Both Bailey and Shore had to be carried of the ice.

While Shore had a small cut on his head, Bailey's injury was far more serious and he was taken to the Bruins dressing room where the Bruins team doctors examined his wound. Shore had regained consciousness and went to Bailey to apologize. Bailey told Shore “It's all part of the game”, before he slipped back into unconsciousness.

Bailey was hospitalized with a cerebral hemmorhage and his death seemed imminent. In the event of Bailey's death, homicide detectives were prepared to charge Shore with manslaughter. Bailey's father travelled to Boston with a pistol intent on avenging his sons injury against Shore but Boston police interceeded and convinced him to abandon his plan.

Bailey underwent two operations after which his death seemed imminent. A priest was summoned to administer the last rites. But by morning his prospects had improved. Within two weeks it was clear that Bailey would survive but would never be able to play again. The Bruins donated $8,000 to Bailey and his family and the NHL held a special game to benefit Bailey and his family, featuring the Toronto Maple Leafs playing at Maple Leaf Gardens against a group of star players selected from other NHL teams. The benefit game raised $20,000 for Bailey. This was the forerunner of what would become the Anuual NHL all star game.

As the all star players skated onto the ice they wore their individual teams jerseys and were then presented with their all star game jersey. The first player onto the ice was goaltender Charlie Gardiner who was given his jersey with number one. When Shore skated onto the ice in his Boston Bruins uniform, he was greeeted at center ice by Ace Bailey in street clothes. Bailey handed Shore his number 2 game jersey and extended his hand. When Shore clasped and shook Bailey's hand the Gardens crowd roared it's approval.

Shore was suspended for 16 games as a result of the incident. Bailey remained in the Leafs organization, serving as the timekeeper at Leafs games from 1938 until 1984. He passed away in 1992 at age 89.


On this date in hockey history, December 11, 1977, the Philadelphia Flyers just destroyed the Cleveland Barons 11-1. In that game Flyers defenseman Tom Bladon scored four goals and four assists for eight points, setting an NHL record for most points scored by a defenseman in a single game. Bladon was also a plus 10 for that game. Despite the eight points, Bladon finished the season with only 35 points.




On this day in Buffalo Sabres history, December 12th 2000, J.P. Dumont scored every goal scored in the game, a hat trick as the Sabres beat the Boston Bruins 3-0. He had also scored the Sabres previous two goals as well, meaning he scored five consecutive Buffalo Sabres goals.

On this day in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 13th 1919, the Toronto Arenas hockey club was purchased by a group of investors including Fred Hambly, Percy Hambly, Paul Ciceri, Charlie Querrie and Richard Greer. These men were connected to an amateur team named the St. Patrick's and they renamed their new team after the St. Patrick's with the hope of attracting Toronto's large Irish population. The NHL franchise's nickname remained the St. Patrick's or St. Pats until February of 1927 when they became the Maple Leafs.

This day in hockey history, December 13th 1971, the St. Louis Blues traded Jimmy Roberts to Montreal in exchange for Phil Roberto.

On this day in hockey history, December 13th 1979, the Philadelphia Flyers extended their unbeaten streak to 25 games (18-0-7) with a 6-4 win at the Spectrum over the Quebec Nordiques. Two goals apiece by Bill Barber and Reggie Leach led the way for the Flyers, with Dennis Ververgaert and Al Hill (empty net) adding singles.

Apparently Wayne Gretzky liked playing on December 13th. Here are some of his career highlights from that date;




December 13th 1983 Gretzky scores his 300th career goal in only his 350th game, an 8-5 Oilers loss to the New York Islanders. That's nearly a goal per game!




December 13th 1985, Wayne scored two goals and added two assists, giving him 1,200 career points in only his 504th game during a 6-5 Oilers victory against the Winnipeg Jets. That's 2.38 points per game.




December 13th, 1989, he picked up an assist for the Los Angeles Kings during a 5-2 victory over the Hartford Whalers to extend his team record assist streak to 17 games. He had 35 assist in the streak, better than two per game.




On this date in hockey history, December 13, 1987, rookie Joe Nieuwendyk of the Calgary Flames scored four goals against the Buffalo Sabres. He became the first rookie in the modern NHL (post red line) to have two four goal games. Cully Wilson had a pair of four goal games duirng his initial NHL season in 1919-20 although he was hardly a true “rookie” having played three seasons in the NHA (NHL's predecessor league) and four seasons with the Seattle Metropolitans of the PCHA.

On this date in On this day in hockey history, December 13th 1992, Manon Rheaume played five minutes and 49 seconds for the Atlanta Knights, becoming the first woman to play in a pro hockey game. She stopped three of four shots as the Salt Lake Golden Eagles defeated the Atlanta Knights 4-1. She had previously played in a preseason game for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

On this day in hockey history, December 13th 1992, after 535 games over 67 years the New York Rangers finally put up double digits against the Montreal Canadiens with a 10-5 victory.




On this day in hockey history, December 13th 1995, the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 with Paul Coffey becoming the first NHL defenseman with 1,000 career assists. Coffey was just the fourth player l to record 1,000 assists preceded by Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, and Marcel Dionne had done it before. Coffey ended his career with the most points at 1,531, but was eventually passed by Ray Bourque who finished his acreer with 1,579 points.





On this day in hockey history, December 14th 1926, rookie coach David Gill guided the Ottawa Senators to a 2-0 victory over the New York Americans giving Gill a 9-0-1 record, the best ever start to an NHL coaching career.

This day in hockey history, December 14, 1929, Harold “Baldy” Cotton spoiled a history making appearance by the New York Rangers at Toronto's Mutual Street Arena by scoring a pair of overtime goals in Toronto's 7-6 victory. This was possible because overtime was a ten minute period played in it's entriety, ie not sudden death. But the history making event was that the Rangers became the first team to travel to their game by airplane.

On this date in hockey history, December 14, 1974, the New York Rangers Greg Polis set a team record for most penalty minutes in one game with 33. The St. Louis Blues won the game 6-2. The two teams combined for 256 penalty minutes

On this date in hockey history, December 14, 1933, Howie Morenz of the Montreal Canadiens scored his 247th goal, making him the NHL's career goal scoring leader as he passed Cy Denneny. Denneny had 245 goals in his first 259 games before finishing his career with only four goals in his final 66 games.

On this date in hockey history, December 14 1943, Boston's Bill Cowley had a goal and two assists to become the NHL's all-time leader in assists. He scored #258 to pass New York's Frank Boucher in a 4-3 win over Chicago. Cowley retired 4 years later with a record 353 career assists.

On this date in hockey history, December 14 1968, Bobby Orr scored his first NHL hat trick at Boston Garden during a 10-5 victory over the Chicago Black Hawks.

On this day in hockey history, December 14th 1985 Ron Wicks officiated a 6-6 tie between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Minnesota North Stars. This was his 1,034th regular season game, and he passed Bruce Hood for the all-time lead in games officiated by a referee.

On this date in hockey history, December 15, 1917, the first NHL game was played between the Montreal Canadiens and Montreal Wanderers. This was an exhibition game to benefit the victims of the Halifax Explosion in which a munitions ship exploded in Halifax harbor Over 1,950 were killed, more than 9,000 were wounded. Every building within a ten mile radius, 12,000 in all, were destroyed. Thirty one thousand people were left homeless or lacking adequate housing. A 1994 study of major non nuclear explosions concluded that "Halifax Harbour remains unchallenged in overall magnitude as long as five criteria are considered together: number of casualties, force of blast, radius of devastation, quantity of explosive material and total value of property destroyed."


This date in hockey history, December 15 1983, the Philadelphia Flyers scored an NHL record three shorthanded goals in one period during a 9-4 victory over the Washington Capitals. Mark Howe, Ilka Sinisalo and Miroslave Dvorak each scored a shortie during the second period.

On this date in hockey history, December 15, 1915, Art Jackson was born in Toronto, Ontario. Art was the younger brother of Toronto Maple Leafs Hall of Famer Harvey “Busher” Jackson. Art played with his brother on the Leafs from the 1934-35 season to 1936-37. He played for the New York Americans in 1937-38, then the Boston Bruins from 1939-40 to 1940-45 before finishing his career back with the Leafs in 1945-46 where he played on a Stanley Cup winner for his hometown team. He also won a Stanley Cup with Boston in 1941. Art centered the Leafs “Cyclone Line” with Nick Metz and Bob Davidson.

Happy birthday to the NHL's offside rule, drafted on this date in hockey history, December 16, 1929. Hockey had originally been played like rugby with no forward passing allowed anywhere on the playing surface forcing players to caary the puck in order to move it forward. In 1905 the Ontario Hockey Association began allowing defensemen to play the puck forward from rebounds within three feet of the goaltender. Some ice surfaces had a black line painted on the ice at the three foot distance. To promote scoring, the NHL allowed forward passing in the defensive and neutral zones in 1927 but scoring remained low. In 1928-29 the NHL allowed forward passing in the attacking zone and scoring doubled almost immediately as players would position themselves in front of the opposition goal and wait until a teamamte stickhandled over the offensive blue line then passed the puck down low to the player at the net. The league decided that too much scoring was undesireable and instituted the new rule during the season to cut down on these “easier” goals.

On this date in hockey history, December 16, 1950, the Montreal Canadiens debuted two future Hall Of Fame players Jean Beliveau and Bernie Geoffrion in a 1-1 tie with the New York Rangers with Geoffrion scoring Montreal's only goal in his NHL debut.

On this date in hockey history, December 16, 1981, Dave Lumley of the Edmonton Oilers scored a goal in his 12th consecutive game going 2-2-4 during a 7-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies. Lumley scored 15 goals during the streak. This was one game fewer than the NHL record at the time held by Charlie Simmer (13 games) as Lumley filled in as a winger on Wayne Gretzky's line.

On this date in hockey history, December 17, 1977, rookie defenseman Barry Beck of the Colorado Rockies scored a hat trick and added an assist in a 5-1 victory over the Minnesota North Stars. He scored 22 goals and 38 assists for 60 points as a rookie, including a stretch of six consecutive games with a goal. The 22 goals was a rookie record for defensemen until Brian Leetch scored 23 in 1988-89.

On this date in hockey history, December 17, 1977, the Hartford Whalers defeated the Winnipeg Jets 2-0 for their first NHL shutout away from home. Mike Veisor earned the shutout.

On this date in hockey history, December 17, 1977, Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Quebec Nordiques 8-1. Gretzky scored one goal and adding five assists for six points in his 352nd career game. These included his 500th assist and 800th point, an amazing pace of 2.27 points per game.

On this date in Buffalo Sabres history, December 17, 1990, the struggling Sabres (10-15-7) traded Mike Foligno to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Brian Curran and Lou Franschetti. Foligno played 663 games over ten seasons with the Sabres and became a fan favorite scoring 247 goals and 511 points. He earned a reputation as a player who stood up for himself and his teammates, piling up a then team record 1,450 penalty minutes for the blue and gold. Foligno was the team captain when he was traded, having been named captain on February 15, 1989. Foligno only scored 27 goals for Toronto in 129 games but scored twice against the Sabres at Maple Leaf Gardens on January 14, 1991. I wonder if Leafs fans found it as unusual watching Rick Vaive playing for Buffalo that bnight as it looked to see Foligno in a Maple Leafs uniform.

On this date in hockey history, December 18, 1983, Wayne Gretzky had a pair of goals to go along with two assists in an Edmonton Oilers 7-5 victory against the Winnipeg Jets. That sounds like just another day at the office for Wayne as he hit 100 points for the season in his 34th game. That's right, 100 points in only 34 games. In todays NHL standings there are only two teams with 100 goals, Montreal with 101 in 33 games and Dallas with 108 in 32 games.

On this date in hockey history, December 18, 1952, Jean Beliveau and Bernie Geoffrion each scored a ht trick at the Montreal Forum during Montreal's 6-2 victory over the New York Rangers. This was Beliveau's first three goal game, and Geoffrion's second.





On this date in hockey history, Maurice “The Rocket” Richard scored his 400th career goal in a 4-2 victory over the Chicago Black Hawks He was the first NHL player to reach that milestone.
On this date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 18, 1965, Bob Pulford and Dave Keon each scored three goals in an 8-4 victory over the New York Rangers. This was the first and only time two Maple Leaf players had hat tricks in the same game.




On this date in Toronto Maple Leafs history, December 18, 1971, the Leafs signed free agent goalie Gord McRae. McRae had played three seasons at Michigan Tech from 1967-68 to 1969-70. He worked his way up from the EHL to the AHL Providence Reds before settling in with Toronto's CHL farm team the Tulsa Oilers. He played a total of 71 games in the NHL from 1972-73 to 1977-78, all with the Leafs as he was yanked up and down from the minors. His biggest impact in the NHL was in the 1974-75 season when he played 20 games with a 3.29 GAA going 13-3-6 and 2-5 with a 2.86 GAA in the playoffs including a first round upset over the Los Angeles Kings who had finished the regulat season with 105 points, 27 more than the Leafs 78. When McRae posed for the 1977-78 team picture with a beard, the Leafs owner Harold Ballard had McRae's head removed from the picture and replaced with Gord Shervens clean shaven head from the previous season.

On this date in hockey history, December 19, 1984, Scotty Bowman was behind the bench when the Buffalo Sabres defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 6-3 to set a record for most victories by a coach with his 691st win. Of course that record was broken by Scotty Bowman himself who finished his career with 1,248 victories.

On this date in hockey history, December 19, 1984, Wayne Gretzky reached 1,000 career points with a six point game on home ice against the Los Angeles Kings, going 2-4-6. He set a record by accumulating 1,000 career points in only 424 games, breaking Guy Lafleur's previous mark by 296 games. Lafleur had reached 1,000 points in 724 games.

On this date in hockey history, December 19, 1967, Gary “Suitcase” Smith was beaten for two goals by his brother Brian Smith who led the Los Angeles Kings to a 3-1 victory over the Oakland Seals. While at first glance, Gary Smith is the more familiar player to most, Brian smith was a significant figure in 1960's hockey and his tragic end was shocking.

Smith played for the Memorial Cup in 1960 with the Brockville Canadiens and played in the EPHL from 1960-63 with the Hull-Ottawa Canadiens. When he was acquired by the Springfield Indians in 1963 he refused to report because of coach Eddie Shore's reputation for poor treatment of his players. Smith played in Austria but was suspended by the IIHF beacsue he hadn't obtained a release. So he was forced to play for Springfiled from 1964-67 where he and Bill White started Alan Eagleson on his career in hockey by strking against Shore in 1966 with Eagleson representing the players.

Shore was forced to sell the team to Jack Kent Cooke the owner of the expansion Los Angeles Kings and Smith suited up in 1967 as one of the original Kings. He played for Phoenix in the WHL then with the Minnesota North Stars in 1968-69 and finished his playing career with the WHA Houston Aeros in 1972-73. Smith then became a sports broadcaster with CJOH TV in Ottawa where he anchored the 6 PM news until 1995.

On August 1 1985 Smith was shot in the station parking lot by a paranoid schizophrenic who believed that the station had been broadcasting messages in his head.. Smith's death stunned the community. He was honored by the Ottawa Senators who renamed the press box at their home rink Canadien Tire Center the “Brian 'Smitty' Smith Press Box” and the team wore a memorial patch honoring Smith during the 1995-96 season.

On this date in hockey history, December 19, 1985, Larry Robinson scored the only hat trick of his NHL career during a 5-4 Montreal Canadiens loss to the Quebec Nordiques.

On this date in NHL history, December 19, 1917, the National Hockey League played it's first two games. Dave Ritchie scored the first goal in NHL history one minute into the game as his Montreal Wanderers defeated the Toronto Hockey Club 7-4. Joe Malone scored five goals and an assist for the Montreal Canadiens including Montreal's first ever NHL goal in a 7-4 win over the Ottawa Senators in the other opening day game.






On this day in hockey history, December 19th 1917, the NHL kicked off it's inaugural season with it's first two games as the Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators 7-4, and the Montreal Wanderers defeated Toronto 10-9.
The first goal in NHL history was scored by Wanderers' defenseman Dave Ritchie one minute into the NHL's first game. Montreal's Joe Malone scored five goals and an assist as the Canadiens defeated the Senators 7-4.
The Toronto team played without a nickname that season but became known as the Arenas in the because they were operated by the Toronto Arena Company operators of the Toronto Arena Gardens which also served as their home rink for two years until they were sold and renamed the St. Pats for the 1919-20 season.
Ironically the Toronto Arena was built and operated by the principals of the Canadian Arena Company, who also owned the Montreal Arena the home rink of the Montreal Canadiens. William Northey of the Montreal group and other would later build the Montreal Forum and found the Forums original NHL tenant the Montreal Maroons, eventually also owning the Canadiens.
Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey






On this day in hockey history, December 20th 1964, Bobby Hull was on a goal a game pace after he scored during the Black Hawks 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins to give him 28 goals in 28 games Hull continued his hot streak with 32 goals in 35 games but slowed down by injuries he only scored 4 goals in his remaining 26 games and finished with 39 goals in 61 games.
Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey














On this day in hockey history, December 20th 1983, Guy Lafleur became 

the third player in franchise history to score 500 goals as a member of the

Montreal Canadiens when he notches a single tally in the Habs 6-0 victory 

at the Meadowlands against the New Jersey Devils. Steve Shutt scored his 

400th goal as a Hab in the same game.





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey








This day in hockey history, December 20th 1987 - Dale Hawerchuk of the Winnipeg Jets became the 25th player in NHL history to play in 400 straight 

games when he stepped into the ice during Winnipeg's 4-1 win over the new 

Jersey Devils.. Since his rookie season of 1981-82, he had missed only one 

game, that due to an ankle injury.





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vinatge hockey













On this day in hockey history, December 20th 1981, Doug Smail set an NHL record for fastest goal from the start of a game, with a goal just five seconds 

into the Winnipeg Jets' 5-4 victory over the St. Louis Blues. This record was 

later tied by Bryan Trottier and Alex Mogilny.





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey














Back when goal scoring in the NHL was encouraged, on December 20th 1985, Jari Kurri scored four goals with Wayne Gretzky getting six helpers in a 9-4 Edmonton Oilers' victory against the Los Angeles Kings at Northlands Coliseum.
One year later back in Edmonton, December 20th 1986, Bernie Nicholls scores the tying goal with 34 seconds remaining and the goalie pulled for a sixth attacker as the Kings rallied from a four-goal deficit in the final 9:14 of the third period to earn an 8-8 tie.





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey














On this day in hockey history, December 20th 1979, the Los Angeles Kings 

lost 5-3 to the Buffalo Sabres at the Aud in Buffalo. Charlie Simmer scored 

for the Kings for the 11th straight game, setting a new modern NHL record. 

He finished his streak with goals in 13 consecutive games. Punch Broadbent 

had goals in 16 straight games in 1922 but Simmers record was accomplished 

in the post red line era, considered the "Modern NHL."





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey


















On this day in hockey history, December 20th December 20 1979, Behn 

Wilson scored the tying goal with 4:08 remaining as the Flyers tied the 

Pittsburgh Penguins 1-1 for their 28th straight game without a loss (19-0-9), matching the record for the longest undefeated streak of all time. The Flyers extended the record to 35 games (25-0-10).





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey






On this day in hockey history, December 21st 1977, Butch Goring received a minor penalty for slashing during an 8-1 victory by the Los Angeles Kings over the Minnesota North Stars.
This was his first and only penalty of the 80 games he played that season. And it's not like he was avoiding the action as he tallied 37 goals and 36 assists for 73 points.
And that wasn't unusual for Goring as he tallied only a single minor penalty for the Kings for three consecutive seasons, 1971-72, 1972-73 and 1973-74.
Those were wild seasons for Goring compared to his 1980-81 season when he had exactly zero penalty minutes in 80 games for the New York Islanders while tallying 60 points on 23 goals and 37 assists.
Goring played 1107 NHL games with only 102 penalty minutes, an average of .092 penalty minutes per game. Only Dave Keon posted a cleaner record of penalty free play with 1296 games with only 117 penalty minutes for .0903 penalty minutes per game.
Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey
Below is a chart of Goring career statistics. Please note the many single digit numbers in the PIM column.
                                          GP G A PTS PIM
1966-67 Winnipeg Rangers MJHL 0 35 31 66 2
1967-68 Canadian National Team 0 0 0 0 0
1967-68 Canadian National Team 0 0 0 0 0
1968-69 Winnipeg Jets WCHL 36 42 33 75 0
1969-70 Springfield Kings AHL 19 13 7 20 0
1969-70 Los Angeles Kings NHL 59 13 23 36 8
1970-71 Los Angeles Kings NHL 19 2 5 7 2
1970-71 Los Angeles Kings NHL 19 2 5 7 2
1971-72 Los Angeles Kings NHL 74 21 29 50 2
1972-73 Los Angeles Kings NHL 67 28 31 59 2-
1973-74 Los Angeles Kings NHL 70 28 33 61 2
1974-75 Los Angeles Kings NHL 60 27 33 60 6
1975-76 Los Angeles Kings NHL 80 33 40 73 8
1976-77 Los Angeles Kings NHL 78 30 55 85 6
1977-78 Los Angeles Kings NHL 80 37 36 73 2
1978-79 Los Angeles Kings NHL 80 36 51 87 16
1979-80 Los Angeles Kings NHL 69 20 48 68 12 

1979-80 New York Islanders NHL 12 6 5 11 2
1980-81 New York Islanders NHL 78 23 37 60 0
1981-82 New York Islanders NHL 67 15 17 32 10
1982-83 New York Islanders NHL 75 19 20 39 8
1983-84 New York Islanders NHL 71 22 24 46 8
1984-85 New York Islanders NHL 29 2 5 7 2
1984-85 Boston Bruins NHL        39 13 21 34 6 

1986-87 Nova Scotia Oilers AHL  10  3    5 8  2






On this day in hockey history, December 21st 1979, Garry Unger's NHL 

record for consecutive games played streak ended at 914, as his Atlanta 

Flames lost 5-1 to the St. Louis Blues at the arena in St. Louis.
Unger had been prepared for the end of his streak by his coach, AI McNeil.

“It's the coach's decision,” said Unger. “We haven't been playing well. The 

coach felt the game was more important than the streak, and do I. It's difficult

to play hurt, in fact, it's difficult enough to play when you're healthy."
Unger had played 622 games of that streak with St. Louis. He had played 

sparingly for the Flames since suffering a dislocated shoulder against the 

Winnipeg Jets on December 9th.but took the ice for at least one shift in the 

four games since then, keeping the streak alive.
Unger had stood up twice in the last minute of the game as if he were ready to

get on the ice. At one point Guy Chouinard skated to the bench yelling 

"Ungie", "Ungie" for Unger to replace him. as Unger stood up it appeared

that he was restrained by coach Al McNeil who appeared to reach out and 

grab Unger's jersey to keep him on the bench. Ungers streak had begun 

February 24th 1968 as a Toronto Maple Leaf.





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey






On this day in hockey history, December 21st 1972 Boston's Bobby Orr set a new NHL record for career points by a defenseman in his 423rd game with an assist for his 541st point in 8-1 win over Detroit Red Wings. Doug Harvey held the previous record, with 540 points in 1,113 games. Orr averaged 1.3 PPG, Harvey averaged 0.5 PPG,
Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey






















On this day in Buffalo Sabres history, December 21st 1975, the Sabres set a 

team record for most goals in a single game while handing the Washington 

Capitals the worst beating in team history in a 14-2 victory at the Aud in 

Buffalo. The Sabres doubled their scoring in each period, with a pair of goals 

in the first period, four in the second and eight in the third. Gilbert Perreault 

started the assault at 2:57 of the first period. The Sabres outshot the Caps 10-4

in the first, and held a 2-0 lead going into the second. Tony White scored for Washington at the 23-second mark to halve the Buffalo lead. But Buffalo 

scored three more times before the Caps notched their second goal. The Sabres outshot the Caps 18-9 in the second. Things really got ugly in the third. Craig Ramsay’s goal at the 56-second mark  gave Buffalo a 7-2 lead. It was the first 

of six goals the Sabres would score in a span of 8:42. Inclu-2 lead. It was the 

first of six goals the Sabres would score  in a span of 8:42. Included in that 

spree were Rick Martin’s third and fourth goals of the game. Fred Stanfield 

closed out the scoring at 18:11 with his third  goal of the game, thus marking 

the first time the Capitals had permitted a pair of hat tricks in the same game. Buffalo outshot Washington 22-3 in the third and 50-16 for the game. Only 

three of the 17 Buffalo skaters who dressed failed to record a point that night. Apparently the beat down was so discouraging to Tommy Williams of  the 

Capitals that he retired three days later.





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey


Happy birthday to the vertical striped referee jerseys. On December 29th 1955 in a game between the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs, NHL officials wore new vertically striped black and white sweaters for the first time. The Canadiens won the game 5-2.





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey










A sad day in Toronto Maple Leafs history on December 29th 1979, as GM 

Punch Imlach's escalating feud with Darryl Sittler precipitated his trade of 

Lanny McDonald and Joel Quenneville to the Colorado Rockies in exchange 

for Pat Hickey and Wilf Paiement. While Hickey and Paiement were good 

players, Lanny was beloved by the Leafs fans and a close friend of Sittler and winger on his line. This trade marked the beginning of the end of a strong 

Leafs team in the late 1970's.





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey






This day in hockey history, December 29th 1992, the Los Angeles Kings took

a 2-0 lead against the Philadelphia Flyers, then the Flyers scored 10 unanswered goals to win 10-2 Rod Brind’Amour had three goals and three assists for six

points and his first NHL hattrick.





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey

















This day in hockey history, December 29th 1945, Maurice Richard scored 

twice in a 5-4 loss to the Black Hawks to record his 100th career goal. And he reached the mark in just 145 games, the fastest in history. That mark has since

been broken by Mike Bossy, who reached 100 goals in 129 games. Wayne 

Gretzky missed out on this record as did Teemu Selanne, who scored 76 goals 

in his rookie season (84 games), but had just 25 in 56 games in his sophomore season.





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey









On this day in hockey history, December 29th 1984, the Edmonton Oilers 

defeated the Detroit Red Wings 6-3 with Wayne Gretzky scoring his 32nd 

career hat trick and and three assists for six pointys, he was in on every Oilers

goal, reach 100 points in only his 35th game. But this was only the second 

fastest 100 points in NHL history because Wayne did it in only 34 games in 

the previous season. Of course this was back when scoring goals, not blocking shots, was the leagues primary form of entertainment.





Visit vintagehockeyjerseys.net for more vintage hockey


















This day in World Junior Hockey Championship history, December 30th 1992, Peter Forsberg set a tournament record with 10 points in a single game during

a 20-1 victory by Sweden against Japan. Japan was outscored 83 to 9 in seven games. Forsberg ended the tournament with a record 31 points in seven games

but Sweden only finished second.

This Day In Hockey History - December