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Today in Hockey History: Feb. 26

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Today’s journey via National Hockey League historical past begins in the center of the Big Apple. From there, we spent a while in the crease earlier than reliving a memorable evening in 1997. Shutouts, hat tips and damaged information are all a part of the most important moments Feb. 26 has given us through the years.

New York Rangers Play the Hits on Broadway

The Rangers’ success on this date began in 1969 when Walt Tkaczuk tied a group file for many assists by a rookie when he had 4 in a 5-3 win over the visiting Chicago Blackhawks.

Rookie Darren Turcotte scored his second profession hat trick, on Feb. 26, 1990, to guide the Rangers to a 6-1 win over the Boston Bruins. This accomplished a sweep of the three-game season collection between these two outdated rivals. It was the primary time the Blueshirts swept a season collection with the Bruins since coming into the NHL in 1926.

Mark Messier lit the lamp, on Feb. 26, 2001, throughout the Rangers’ 3-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators. This made him simply the fourth participant in league historical past to attain no less than 20 objectives in a season on the age of 40.

Messier was nonetheless producing at age 40. (Photo by Dave Sandford/Getty Images/NHLI)

One yr later, Brian Leetch grew to become the ninth defenseman in NHL historical past to attain 900 profession factors with an help on Eric Lindros’ purpose in the Rangers’ 4-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils.

The Rangers accomplished one other season sweep, on Feb. 26, 2004, as they beat the New York Islanders for the sixth time, 6-3. Jaromir Jagr scored and added an help to achieve 25 objectives for the 14th time in his profession.

The winningest goaltender in Rangers historical past, Henrik Lundqvist, had an enormous second on the worldwide stage. On Feb. 26, 2006, he made 25 saves to guide Sweden to the gold medal with a 3-2 victory over Finland, in Torino, Italy. Nicklas Lidstrom scored the game-winning purpose in the opening seconds of the third interval.

Goaltenders Own the Day

George Hainsworth recorded his 18th shutout of the season, and the forty fifth of his profession, on Feb. 26, 1929, to guide the Montreal Canadiens to a 4-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Howie Morenz was the offensive hero with two objectives and an help.

Another Canadiens’ all-time nice, Bill Durnan, grew to become the primary goaltender in group historical past to win 30 video games in one season, on this date in 1944. Defenseman Mike McMahon led the scoring with a purpose and 4 assists in a 10-2 blowout of the visiting Bruins.

Gerry Cheevers prolonged his NHL-record unbeaten streak to 25 straight video games (19-0-6), on Feb. 26, 1972, because the Bruins beat the Los Angeles Kings 5-4. Phil Esposito did his half with a purpose and two assists.

Back to Montreal, the place on Feb. 26, 1975, Ken Dryden recorded his a hundredth NHL victory in the Canadiens’ 4-3 win in opposition to the visiting Vancouver Canucks. Rookie Doug Risebrough had two objectives and an help.

On Feb. 26, 1984, Mario Gosselin grew to become the 16th goaltender in NHL historical past to have a shutout in his debut. He stopped all 26 photographs he confronted in main the Quebec Nordiques to a 5-0 win over the St. Louis Blues.

Patrick Lalime grew to become the primary Ottawa Senators goaltender to have a 25-win season, on Feb. 26, 2001, with a 3-2 victory on the Rangers.

Nikolai Khabibulin grew to become the fourth European-born goaltender to win 200 NHL video games, on Feb. 26, 2004, when the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Toronto Maple Leafs. Brad Richards performed an enormous half in this milestone with two objectives and an help.

Ben Bishop is aware of all about calling his actual property agent on this date as he was traded twice on Feb. 26. First, in 2012, he was traded by the Blues, the group who drafted him, to the Senators for a second-round draft choose. St. Louis used that choose to pick out Thomas Vannelli, who by no means performed in the NHL. Exactly 5 years later, Bishop was traded by the Lightning to the Kings, for Peter Budaj and Erik Cernak.

Jordan Binnington picked up his twelfth win of the month, on Feb. 26, 2019, by blanking the Nashville Predators 2-0. This matched the Blues’ franchise file for essentially the most wins by a goaltender in a single month and improved his profession file to 15-2-1. The shutout was his fifth in 18 begins, becoming a member of the legendary Jacques Plante as the one two netminders in the fashionable period to have 5 shutouts in their first 18 begins.

A Big Night in 1977

This eventful night began in Montreal, the place Guy Lafleur had an help to increase the Habs’ team-record residence undefeated streak to 25 video games (20-0-5) with a 5-3 win over the Cleveland Barons. The helper gave Lafleur 100 factors for the third straight season.

Guy Lafleur
Lafleur dominated throughout the 70s. (THW Archives)

J. P. Parise scored his 2 hundredth profession purpose in the Islanders’ 8-2 win over the Atlanta Flames. Also, in the massive win, Clark Gillies, Denis Potvin and Lorne Henning mixed to set a brand new group file with three objectives inside a span of 45 seconds.

Finally, rookie Brian Sutter scored the primary purpose of his NHL profession, in the Blues’ 5-1 loss to the visiting Philadelphia Flyers. This was the primary of his 303 profession objectives, all scored with St. Louis.

Odds & Ends

Brothers Doug and Max Bentley had an evening to recollect, on Feb. 26, 1947, in the Blackhawks’ 9-7 win on the Rangers. The duo mixed for 10 complete factors with Doug scoring 4 objectives and including two assists, whereas Max had three objectives and a helper.

Doug Harvey picked up his 41st assists of the season, on Feb. 26, 1955, in the Canadiens’ 4-1 residence win over the Bruins. This broke Babe Pratt’s single-season file for assists by a defenseman, set with the Maple Leafs throughout the 1943-44 season.

Speaking of the Maple Leafs, on Feb. 26, 1966, Frank Mahovlich grew to become the primary participant in franchise historical past to attain 250 objectives. The milestone got here in a 3-2 win over the visiting Bruins, which additionally noticed Boston’s John Bucyk scored his 2 hundredth NHL purpose.

The Canadiens had fairly the journey, on Feb. 26, 1967, simply attending to the Chicago Stadium. After their constitution bus failed to point out up, the group acquired to their sport with the assistance of some taxis, police cruisers and a paddy wagon. The Canadiens and Blackhawks skated to a 2-2 as soon as they lastly made it to the rink.

Defenseman Brad Park scored on an influence play for the 2 hundredth purpose of his NHL profession, of Feb. 26, 1984, and picked up an help in the Detroit Red Wings 4-2 win on the Blackhawks.

Tony Tanti scored twice and an help, on Feb. 26, 1987, in the Canucks’ 5-4 on the Red Wings. His two objectives made him the primary participant in franchise historical past to attain 30 or extra in 4 straight seasons.

Mario Lemieux grew to become simply the third participant in league historical past to have 100 assists in a season, on Feb. 26, 1989, when he had three in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 8-6 loss to the Hartford Whalers. He joined Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky as the one gamers to have 100-assist campaigns.

Eric Lindros set a Flyers’ group file with six assists, on Feb. 26, 1997, in an 8-5 win on the Senators. LeClair chipped in together with his sixth profession hat trick and an help.

On that very same evening, Doug Gilmour made an instantaneous affect in his debut with the Devils, by scoring a purpose and including three assists in a 5-3 street victory on the Islanders.

Pavel Bure scored two objectives, together with the primary penalty shot in Florida Panthers’ franchise historical past, on Feb. 26, 1999, throughout a 5-5 tie with the Red Wings.

Pavel Bure, Florida Panthers
Bure scored the fist penalty-shot purpose in Panthers’ historical past in 1999. (Rick Stewart/Getty Images/NHLI

Brett Hull performed in his 1,000th NHL sport, on Feb. 26, 2001, appropriately on the Calgary Flames, with who he started his profession. The Flames spoiled the massive evening by beating the Dallas Stars 3-2.

Alex Ovechkin performed in his 984th sport with the Washington Capitals, on Feb. 26, 2018, passing defenseman Calle Johansson for essentially the most performed in group historical past. He went on to attain a purpose in a 5-1 street win on the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Kevin Lowe, a six-time Stanley Cup champion with the Edmonton Oilers, was named to the Order of Hockey in Canada on Feb. 26, 2021, together with Angela James and Bill Hay. James performed for Canada’s nationwide ladies’s group from 1990 to 1999 and scored 54 factors in 50 worldwide video games. She was additionally the primary Canadian-born lady inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010. Hay was president of Hockey Canada from 1990-1995 and chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame from 1998-2013.

In a loopy 10-7 victory over the Red Wings, Maple Leafs ahead Mitch Marner recorded 4 objectives and 6 factors. Only two different Maple Leafs in franchise historical past recorded extra in one sport – Darryl Sittler, who had 10 on Feb. 7, 1976, and 7 on Oct. 14, 1978, and Corb Denneny who had seven on Jan. 26, 1921.

On Feb. 26, 2023, Nikita Kucherov notched the 700th level of his NHL profession, becoming a member of Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier in Lightning historical past.

Hat tips have been widespread on this evening in 2023, as Dylan Cozens recorded the primary of his NHL profession in a 7-4 win over the Capitals and Kirill Kaprizov accomplished a pure hat trick in opposition to the Blue Jackets when he notched the winner with 20 seconds remaining in extra time.

Happy Birthday to You

Joe Mullen, who turns 67 immediately, had essentially the most profitable profession out of the 26 NHL gamers born on this date. Other Feb. 26 birthday boys are P.J. Axelsson (49), Marty Reasoner (47), Mikael Granlund (32), Barclay Goodrow (31), Jacob Trouba (30), Victor Soderstrom (23) and Alex Turcotte (23).

*Originally constructed by Greg Boysen


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