October 24 NHL History
1972: Jacques Lemaire scores three goals for his third NHL hat trick and has an assist for a four-point night, helping the Montreal Canadiens defeat the New York Islanders 4-3 in Uniondale, New York. It’s the first NHL hat trick at Nassau Coliseum.
1976: Bobby Orr becomes the first defenseman in NHL history to reach 900 career points when he scores twice to help the Chicago Blackhawks defeat the St. Louis Blues 7-2 at Chicago Stadium.
Orr, in his first season with Chicago, opens the scoring 20 seconds into the game against Blues goaltender Eddie Johnston, a longtime teammate with the Boston Bruins. His second goal comes during a power play midway through the third period.
Orr gets his 900th point in his 638th NHL game. But he scores once more before missing the rest of the season and all of 1977-78 with knee injuries.
1981: Mike Bossy becomes the first member of the Islanders to score 250 goals. The milestone comes in his 315th NHL game, making him the fastest player in NHL history (at the time) to score 250 goals. Bossy also has two assists in New York’s 6-4 victory against the Washington Capitals at Nassau Coliseum.
Exactly seven years later, Bossy announces his retirement after sitting out the 1987-88 season with back injuries. He finishes his NHL career with 1,126 points (573 goals, 553 assists) in 752 games.
1987: Mario Lemieux scores three goals in the third period, and Craig Simpson has a goal and three assists, to help the Pittsburgh Penguins defeat the Buffalo Sabres 5-3 at the Civic Arena. It’s the ninth NHL hat trick for Lemieux, who is less than a month into his fourth NHL season.
2002: Patrick Roy of the Colorado Avalanche passes Terry Sawchuk as the NHL’s all-time leader in games played by a goaltender. He plays his 972nd game and gets the win in a 3-2 road victory against the Phoenix Coyotes. Roy holds the record until 2009, when he’s passed by Martin Brodeur.
2015: The Canadiens break the NHL record for most consecutive regulation wins at the start of a season by defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3 at Bell Centre. Carey Price makes 49 saves to help the Canadiens move to 9-0-0, with all nine wins in regulation. That’s one more than the 1975-76 Buffalo Sabres.
