The National Hockey League (NHL) offers a rich and meaningful history dating back to its formation in 1917. Throughout the last 100 years, friends and family members bonded over astounding goals, record-breaking games, and world-class players striving to make hockey history.
The NHL has given its viewers some unforgettable moments; memories that will survive for centuries to come.
Here are five of the most memorable moments in the history of the NHL:
Mario Lemieux scores five different ways in the same game
Mario “Le Magnifique” Lemieux played for the Pittsburgh Penguins from 1984 to 2006. Considered one of the best hockey players of all-time, Mario led the Penguins to numerous Stanley Cup championships both as a player and as the team’s eventual owner.
Lemieux certainly did fantastic things for the Penguins and has himself achieved some of the highest honors in the NHL. He received the Lester B. Pearson award for most outstanding player four times and the Hart Trophy as the MVP thrice (among many other awards). Mario was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame right after his first retirement as a player in 1997.
Despite all those accomplishments, Mario’s biggest claim to fame is widely considered to come from a December 31st, 1988 game against the New Jersey Devils. In that game, Mario scored five goals in five unique ways.
What exactly does that mean? Well, Mario scored an even-strength goal (5 on 5), a short-handed goal (4 on 5), and a power play goal (5 on 4) all within the first period of the game! During the second period, Mario scored a fourth goal on a penalty shot – another unique type. Finally, with literally one second left in the game, Lemieux snuck in an empty net goal to complete one of the NHL’s most memorable moments.
The flight of Bobby Orr
Bobby Orr is one of the most esteemed pro hockey players of all time. He played ten seasons with the Boston Bruins and two with the Chicago Blackhawks from 1966 to 1978. Before Bobby, the Bruins hadn’t won a Stanley Cup since 1941. They hadn’t even made the playoffs in seven years. That all changed, however, in 1970.
That year, Bobby lead the Bruins on a tear through the playoffs, right to the final series against the St. Louis Blues. The Bruins led the series 3-0, and in the fourth game, both teams had scored three goals in the first three periods, pushing the game into overtime. In true nail-biting fashion, Orr scored the clutch goal, winning the Bruins the Stanley cup for the first time in 29 years.
As if that moment weren’t special enough, Orr’s Cup-winning goal birthed one of the most iconic photos in hockey history: a shot of a horizontal Orr, feet off the ice, as he leapt into the air after being tripped by a Blues defenceman. By the time he landed, he was a Stanley Cup champion.
Wayne Gretzky scores 50 goals in 39 games
Hockey player or not, chances are that you’ve heard of Wayne Gretzky. Nicknamed “The Great One,” Gretzky has been unofficially dubbed the greatest hockey player of all time. He had a playing career that lasted 20 seasons (1987 to 1999) and spanned four different NHL teams: the Edmonton Oilers, the L.A. Kings, the St. Louis Blues, and the New York Rangers.
Gretzky is the NHL’s top scorer of all time with more combined goals and assists than any other player. In fact, Gretzky is the only hockey player to ever score more than 200 points in a single season. To boot, he accomplished that feat four times. By the time he retired, The Great One held a whopping 61 NHL records.
The historic moment we’re focusing on, though, happened on December 30th, 1981 playing for the Edmonton Oilers against the Philadelphia Flyers. It was the 39th game of the season, and Gretzky began the game with a total of 45 goals so far. Before that game, only Maurice “Rocket” Richard and Mike Bossy had accomplished scoring 50 goals in exactly 50 games, an impressive feat itself.
During the December 30th game, Gretzky scored five goals for a total of 50 goals in 39 games. With that, Gretzky surpassed Richard and Bossy, providing one of the NHL’s most memorable moments in the process.
Darryl Sittler scores 10 points in a single game
Ten points in a single game? That sounds impossible!
Not impossible, but improbable, since one hockey player has done it: Darryl Sittler, playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
On February 7th, 1976, the Leafs faced the Boston Bruins at Maple Leaf Gardens; a game which would haunt Bruins goalie David Reece, because that game eleven points were scored against him. And, as the name of the memorable moment suggests, Darryl Sittler had a hand in ten of those eleven points. He scored six goals and added four assists to reach his total of ten points in a single game, the only player to have done so in NHL history. In fact, nine points in a single game hasn’t yet been accomplished – the next highest is eight, reached by a few players such as Maurice Richard, Wayne Gretzky, and Mario Lemieux.
Sittler’s ten-point record has stood for 42 years now, and judging by the pure difficulty of the feat, it’s likely to stand for a long time into the future.
Jacques Plante wears the first ever goalie mask
Hmm… maybe I should protect my face from the rubber puck that’s being shot at me at 80 miles an hour.
That’s what Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante was thinking in 1959 when he donned the first ever full-time goalie mask. To any of us, Jacques’s thought seems obvious, but to NHL players in 1959, wearing a mask during regulation play looked ridiculous. Nobody wore masks at that time. Everyone thought a mask would just impede your vision and slow you down.
Plante wouldn’t stand for that, though. The game before he wore the mask, Plante had his nose broken by a shot from the New York Rangers’ Andy Bathgate. Plante was sent to the dressing room to have his nose stitched. When he returned to the ice, he was wearing the mask that he used in practices but his coach, Toe Blake, wouldn’t let him wear during games.
After the broken nose, though, Plante refused to listen to Blake and played the rest of the game with the mask on. Blake, the players, and the public griped and laughed about the mask as Plante continued to wear it for eighteen straight games afterward. The Canadiens, however, won all eighteen of those games. On the nineteenth game, Blake once again asked Plante to remove his mask and Plante agreed. The Canadiens lost that game 3-0, and Plante wore his mask ever since.
Plante’s mask moment was crucial for NHL history because goaltender masks quickly gained popularity and soon became standard equipment. At the time, Plante figured he was taking a stand to protect himself. He didn’t know he would change the NHL forever in the process.
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