Who was the first NHL player to score more than 500 goals in a career?
Few players dominated his era the way Maurice “Rocket” Richard dominated his. On October 19, 1957, at the Montreal Forum he scaled another plateau when he scored goal number 500, the first to do so in the NHL. The Rocket was playing in his 863rd game. Strangely enough, Richard never won a scoring championship. In fact, he holds the record for being the runnerup, accomplishing that unfortunate mark five times in 1945, 1947, 1951, 1954, and 1955. To date only two NHL players have scored more than 800 regular-season career goals: Wayne Gretzky (894) and Gordie Howe (801).
Who is the only rookie to win the NHL scoring championship?
Scrappy, surly Nels Stewart was already 23 when he joined the NHL as a Montreal Maroon in 1925–26. Previously, “Old Poison,” as he was nicknamed, had played for five years with the Cleveland Indians in the USA Hockey Association. Born in Montreal, Stewart scored 34 goals and eight assists for 42 points in 36 games in his inaugural season. That year he also won the Hart Trophy as most valuable player and helped the Maroons to win the Stanley Cup. Old Poison won a second Hart in 1929–30 and scored 39 goals and 16 assists for 55 points in only 44 games. The next season, on January 3, 1931, he potted two goals in four seconds, an NHL record that still stands, though it was equalled by the Winnipeg Jets’ Deron Quint in 1995. The record for most goals scored by a rookie in the NHL belongs to Teemu Selanne, who got 76 in 1992–93 while playing for the Winnipeg Jets. That same year Selanne racked up 132 points, which is also a record for a rookie.
How long was the longest undefeated streak in NHL annals?
With Pat Quinn behind the bench as coach and top-notch, feisty players such as Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber, and Reggie Leach headmanning the attack on the ice, the Philadelphia Flyers put together an amazing streak of wins and ties that began on October 14, 1979, when they edged the Toronto Maple Leafs 4–3 and continued unbeaten until they were defeated by the Minnesota North Stars 7–1 on January 7, 1980. All told the Broad Street Bullies won 25 games and tied 10 during their streak.
Who was the first black player in the NHL?
Black players and managers have been noticeably absent from the NHL for much of its existence. Whether this had more to do with the fact that almost all big-league players before 1970 hailed from Canada and in those days the country had, relatively speaking, a small black population, or with the fact that there was an active colour barrier in place, is open to debate. But one thing isn’t subject to conjecture: Fredericton, New Brunswick– born Willie O’Ree was the first player of African descent to play in the NHL. The right winger’s stint in the major league was brief — he played two games for the Boston Bruins in January 1958 and 43 matches for the same team in 1960–61 — but his place in hockey history is significant. The New Brunswicker experienced much racial abuse at the hands of opposing players as well as fans, the latter insulting him by throwing black hats onto the ice. O’Ree may not have had a lengthy career in the NHL and only recorded 14 points in the big league, but he was a legend in the minors, playing in various leagues such as the American Hockey League and the Western Hockey League (largely for the San Diego Gulls) well into the 1970s. He did all this even though he was legally blind in one eye, due to an errant puck during a game when he was 18.
Quickies …
Did you know …
that Sidney Crosby is the youngest NHL player and the only teenager ever to win the Art Ross Trophy as scoring champion? He achieved that in his second season in 2006–07 with the Pittsburgh Penguins when he scored 36 goals and 84 assists for 120 points. That year Crosby also won the Hart Trophy as most valuable player (chosen by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association) and the Lester B. Pearson Award (picked by the NHL Players’ Association).
Who was the first full-blooded aboriginal player in the NHL?
A Saskatchewan Cree named Fred Saskamoose from the Sandy Lake Reserve appeared in 11 games with the Chicago Black Hawks in 1953–54, making him the first full-blooded aboriginal player to make it to the NHL. Saskamoose recorded no points and notched six penalty minutes in his short NHL dalliance. Later, though, he was the playing coach of the Kamloops Chiefs. During his time in British Columbia, the Shushwap and Chilcotin Bands of the province’s interior awarded him the name Chief Thunder Stick, a title he assumed when he was elected chief of the Sandy Lake Cree.
Quickies
Did you know …
that Jarome Iginla was the first black player to win the Art Ross Trophy? In 2001–02 the ace right winger of the Calgary Flames scored 52 goals and 44 assists for 96 points to win the Art Ross as scoring champion. Iginla also won the Lester B. Pearson Award as the NHL Players’ Association pick for most valuable player and the Maurice Richard Trophy for most goals. He won the Richard Trophy again in 2003–04 when he potted 41 goals.
Who is the only NHL player ever to receive permanent possession of a trophy?
Between 1927–28 and 1934–35, Frank Boucher of the New York Rangers won the Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly play seven times. During that period, Boucher played 364 games and only incurred 87 penalty minutes. When the Ottawa-born centreman received his seventh Lady Byng in 1935, the NHL decided to give him the trophy for good. A new piece of hardware was then donated to the league by Lady Byng herself. Incidentally, as a player, Boucher helped the Rangers win Stanley Cups in 1928 and 1933. As coach of New York, he steered them to another Cup in 1940, their last until 1994 when they finally won it again.
Quickies
Did you know …
that the first NHL player of Asiatic descent was Larry Kwong? The son of a Chinese grocer in British Columbia, Kwong was pretty much only in the NHL for a cup of coffee when he played a single shift for the New York Rangers in a game on March 13, 1948.
What kind of car was Tim Horton driving when he was killed?
Cochrane, Ontario-born Tim Horton is now better known as the franchise name of a colossal doughnut-and-coffee empire, but for 24 seasons he was one of the NHL’s most durable, dependable defencemen. After a couple of brief stints with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Horton came to stay in 1952–53. He was a fixture on the Leafs’ defence until he was traded to the New York Rangers in 1969–70. During the 1960s, he and a crackerjack blueline squad that included Allan Stanley, Bob Baun, and Carl Brewer helped Toronto win four Stanley Cups (1962–64, 1967). Horton’s 16 points in 13 playoff games in 1962 set a record for defencemen (long since outstripped), and he was capable of rushing up ice in a burst of speed to deliver a pretty hard slap shot to an opponent’s net. The brawny defender played briefly for the Pittsburgh Penguins after his time with the Rangers, then ended up with the Buffalo Sabres and back with his old Leafs coach George “Punch” Imlach in 1972–73. Horton, now in his forties, wanted to retire the next season, but Imlach persuaded him otherwise. On February 21, 1974, Horton was killed in a car accident near St. Catharines, Ontario, after a game in Toronto. A notorious speeder, he was headed back to Buffalo in the new Ford Pantera sports car that Imlach had given him as a signing bonus to play one last season. During his long NHL career, he played 1,446 regular-season games and scored 115 goals and 403 assists for 518 points, adding another 11 goals and 39 assists in the playoffs. Today the doughnut company Horton founded
