THIS DATE IN HOCKEY HISTORY: March 10
1920: Joe Malone scores six goals for the Quebec Bulldogs in a 10-4 victory against the Ottawa Senators, becoming the first NHL player to score six or more goals in a game twice during his career. Six weeks earlier, he sets an NHL record by scoring seven goals in a win against Ottawa.
1927: Howie Morenz of the Montreal Canadiens scores three straight goals in the third period for his first NHL hat trick in a 4-2 win against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.
1955: The Maple Leafs and Canadiens play to a scoreless tie at the Forum, with Toronto’s Harry Lumley and Montreal’s Jacques Plante earning shutouts. However, history is made when the Zamboni ice-resurfacing machine makes its NHL debut. Previously, resurfacing is done by a team of workers who have to meticulously squeegee the ice. The Zamboni, invented by Frank J. Zamboni in 1949, becomes a fixture in NHL arenas and rinks around the world.
1978: The Boston Bruins acquire defenseman Dennis O’Brien on waivers from the Cleveland Barons, making him the first NHL player to be with four teams in the same season. O’Brien begins the season with the Minnesota North Stars, is traded to the Colorado Rockies after 13 games, then is sent to the Barons. After 23 games in Cleveland, he goes to Boston.
Exactly 14 years later, forward Dave McLlwain becomes the second player to play on four NHL teams in a single season when the Islanders trade him to the Maple Leafs.
1980: In what it still the gold standard for deals made prior to the NHL Trade Deadline, the New York Islanders acquire 29-year-old center Butch Goring from the Los Angeles Kings for forward Billy Harris and defenseman Dave Lewis.
After being upset by the New York Rangers in the 1979 Stanley Cup Semifinals, the Islanders play inconsistent hockey for the first five months of the 1979-80 season. That changes after the Islanders acquire Goring, who played his entire NHL career with the Kings and wasn’t expected to be traded.
“My initial reaction was one of anger and disappointment,” he said three decades later. “I got here and I realized I was going to an awfully good hockey club. That made it a lot easier to handle. This was a team that had a chance to win a Stanley Cup. Once I was able to get the emotions out of it, I realized it was a tremendous opportunity.”
With Goring filling the role of No. 2 center, the Islanders go 8-0-4 in their final 12 regular-season games, then go on to win the first of their four consecutive Stanley Cup championships.
1992: Al Arbour earns his 700th win as an NHL coach when the Islanders defeat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2 at Nassau Coliseum. He joins Scotty Bowman as the only coaches in League history to win 700 games.
On the same night, Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins hits the 100-point mark for the seventh time in his NHL career when he is credited with an assist during a 7-3 road loss to the Calgary Flames.
1998: Roger Neilson becomes the first man in NHL history to coach seven different teams. Team No. 7 is the Philadelphia Flyers, who play to a 2-2 tie against the visiting New Jersey Devils in Neilson’s first game as coach. Neilson coaches the Flyers through the end of the 1999-2000 season.
2002: Evgeni Nabokov of the San Jose Sharks becomes the seventh goaltender in NHL history to score a goal and the first to get a power-play goal. Nabokov shoots the puck the length of the ice and into an empty net with 47.2 seconds to play in the Sharks’ 7-4 road win against the Vancouver Canucks.
