1962: Bill Gadsby, playing his 17th NHL season, becomes the first defenseman in League history to reach 500 points in his career. The milestone comes on a third-period assist in the Detroit Red Wings’ 3-1 victory against the visiting Chicago Blackhawks.
1977: Rangers center Phil Esposito becomes the third player in NHL history to score 600 goals. He joins Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull when he scores a power-play goal during the first period of a 5-1 victory against the Vancouver Canucks at Pacific Coliseum.
1987: Wayne Gretzky beats Marcel Dionne to the 1,000-assist mark, and he does it in person.
Gretzky and Dionne each enter the New York Rangers’ game against the Edmonton Oilers with 998 assists. But Gretzky gets to the milestone with two assists (in addition to a hat trick) in Edmonton’s 7-2 victory at Northlands Coliseum. He gets his 1,000th assist in his 645th NHL game.
Dionne has one assist, his 999th. He gets No. 1,000 three nights later against his former team, the Los Angeles Kings.
1998: Goaltender Mike Vernon makes 21 saves to help the San Jose Sharks defeat the visiting Dallas Stars 4-0. The Sharks score their four goals on nine shots, the fewest by a winning team since shots on goal become a statistic in the 1955-56 season.
2003: Mark Messier becomes the No. 2 scorer in NHL history by getting two goals in the Rangers’ 3-0 victory against the Stars at Madison Square Garden. Messier (1,851 points) passes Howe for second place behind Gretzky.
2014: Alex Ovechkin becomes the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Washington Capitals. He breaks a tie with the former record holder, Peter Bondra, with the first of his two assists in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Calgary Flames at Verizon Center. His 827 points are two more than Bondra has in his 14 seasons with Washington.
2016: The Columbus Blue Jackets hit double figures in goals for the first time since joining the League in 2000 when they defeat the Montreal Canadiens 10-0 at Nationwide Arena. Cam Atkinson, Nick Foligno and Scott Hartnell each score twice for Columbus. The Canadiens lose 10-0 for the fourth time in their history and tie their largest margin of defeat.
