Jan. 3 NHL History
1929: Defenseman Eddie Shore of the Boston Bruins drives through a blizzard to get from Boston to Montreal. He arrives in time for the game and scores the only goal in a 1-0 victory against the Maroons at the Forum. Rookie Tiny Thompson gets his fifth NHL shutout.
1939: Bobby Hull, one of the greatest goal scorers in NHL history, is born in Point Anne, Ontario.
Hull joins the Chicago Blackhawks for the 1957-58 season at age 18. Two seasons later, his 39 goals and 81 points lead the League. He helps the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup in 1961, scores 50 goals in 1961-62, and becomes the first NHL player to score more than 50 goals in a season when he gets 54 in 1965-66.
By now, he’s known as the “Golden Jet,” a tribute to his speed (he’s clocked at nearly 30 mph) and his booming shot (one of his slap shots is measured at 118 mph).
Hull increases his single-season record by scoring 58 goals in 1968-69, leading the League for the fourth consecutive season. He scores 50 goals and has 93 points in 1971-72, then becomes the first NHL star to sign with the World Hockey Association.
Hull returns to the NHL in 1979 when the Winnipeg Jets are one of four teams to join the League. He retires after the 1979-80 season with 610 NHL goals (604 with the Blackhawks) and is inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983.
1943: The Blackhawks get an all-Bentley goal during their 3-3 tie with the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Reg Bentley opens the scoring at 5:44 of the first period, with Doug Bentley and Max Bentley getting the assists. It’s the first goal in NHL history on which brothers get all three points.
1970: Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings and George Armstrong of the Toronto Maple Leafs become the first players to appear in the NHL in four decades when each play in his first game of the new year. The Red Wings defeat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-1; the Maple Leafs win 6-2 against the Blackhawks.
1990: Guy Lafleur, playing for the Quebec Nordiques, scores his 545th goal to move past Maurice Richard into eighth place on the NHL all-time goal-scoring list. Despite Lafleur’s milestone goal, the visiting Nordiques lose 5-4 to the Maple Leafs.
1991: Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings becomes the fourth player in NHL history to score 700 goals, then gets two more for his 47th NHL hat trick. He reaches the milestone in a 6-3 victory against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum.
2015: Jaromir Jagr of the New Jersey Devils becomes the oldest player in NHL history to have a hat trick when he scores three goals in a 5-2 win against the Philadelphia Flyers. At 42 years, 322 days old, Jagr is more than a year older than Howe was at the time of his last NHL hat trick (41 years, 216 days on Nov. 2, 1969) when he set the mark.
Jagr’s hat trick comes 23 years, 11 months and 1 day after his first three-goal game for the Pittsburgh Penguins against the Bruins on Feb. 2, 1991. Jagr also breaks another NHL record held by Howe, the longest gap between a player’s first and last hat tricks. Howe’s last NHL hat trick comes 19 years, 264 days after his first one, on Feb. 11, 1950.
