Oct. 10 has offered an unimaginable variety of firsts in NHL historical past. There have been first video games performed by new franchises, NHL debuts by among the all-time greats, first targets, and first factors. There was additionally a memorable ending, because the longest consecutive games-played streak noticed its remaining sport. The THW time machine is gassed up and able to take again in time to relive all of this date’s greatest moments.
A Large Date for Oilers, Gretzky
The Edmonton Oilers have been certainly one of 4 groups, together with the Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, and Winnipeg Jets, from the defunct World Hockey Affiliation (WHA) to hitch the NHL in 1979. They made their league debut on Oct. 10, 1979, on the Chicago Blackhawks, and so they introduced an thrilling younger participant named Wayne Gretzky with them.
Defenseman Kevin Lowe scored the primary Oilers aim of their NHL historical past halfway by means of the primary interval. Gretzky picked up an help on the play for the primary of two,857 factors in his legendary profession. The Oilers misplaced to the Blackhawks 4-2, thanks, partially, to a power-play aim by present Anaheim Geese normal supervisor Bob Murray.
Six years later, on Oct. 10, 1985, Craig MacTavish made his debut with the Oilers after spending the primary 5 seasons of his profession with the Boston Bruins. He scored a aim on his first shot with the crew, serving to the Oilers to a 4-3 victory over the Jets.
Sabres Make Historical past
On Oct. 10, 1970, the Buffalo Sabres took to the ice on the previous Civic Area for the primary time. They beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 of their NHL debut. Jim Watson scored the primary aim in Sabres historical past, 5 minutes into the second interval. Gilbert Perreault netted the game-winning aim with lower than 9 minutes to play. It was the primary of 512 targets the long run Hockey Corridor of Famer scored in a Sabres sweater.
4 years later, on Oct. 10, 1974, rookie ahead Danny Gare scored simply 18 seconds into the Sabres’ sport towards the Bruins. The aim was the second-fastest ever scored by a participant making his NHL debut. The report of 15 seconds was set on Oct. 30, 1948, by Gus Bodnar of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Buffalo rolled to a 9-5 win over Boston that night time, and Gare completed his rookie marketing campaign with 31 targets.
A Busy Evening in 1973
The 1973-74 season opened on this date and the busy night included a number of milestones and memorable moments.
4 future Hockey Corridor of Famers made their league debut on this night time. Beginning in Toronto, the place Lanny McDonald and Borje Salming performed of their first video games for the Maple Leafs. McDonald had two assists to assist his crew rating a 7-4 win over the visiting Sabres.
In the meantime, within the Twin Cities, rookie Bob Gainey performed in his first NHL sport as his Montreal Canadiens beat the Minnesota North Stars 5-2. The victory prolonged the Canadiens’ opening night time undefeated streak to 11 straight video games (8-0-3).
For the second straight season, the New York Islanders and Atlanta Flames performed on opening night time. Defenseman Denis Potvin performed in his first NHL sport as the 2 groups drew to a 1-1 tie in Atlanta.
Lengthy earlier than his profitable profession as a broadcaster and entrance workplace govt, John Davidson performed 301 NHL video games as a goaltender. He performed the primary of these video games, on this date, for the St. Louis Blues. Sadly, his debut was spoiled with a 2-1 loss to the Oakland Seals.
Lastly, Phil Esposito scored his twenty first hat trick to succeed in 400 targets in his profession. He additionally had two assists within the Bruins 6-4 season-opening win over the Vancouver Canucks. Esposito was the tenth participant in league historical past to attain 400 targets.
2002-03 Season Begins with a Bang
A brand new NHL season began on Oct. 10, 2002, with a full slate of video games. In Toronto, goaltender Ed Belfour made his debut for the Maple Leafs. The primary sport together with his new crew was an enormous success as the long run Corridor of Famer made 33 saves in a 6-0 defeat of the Penguins.
Talking of shutouts, Canucks’ netminder Dan Cloutier made 19 saves in a 3-0 victory over the Calgary Flames. This was the primary time in franchise historical past that Vancouver opened the season with a shutout.
The Columbus Blue Jackets opened the season towards the Blackhawks, and so they had a younger rookie named Rick Nash within the lineup. Lower than a minute after Chicago opened the scoring within the second interval, Nash tied the sport together with his first profession aim. Mike Sillinger, who had the lone help on Nash’s aim, scored the deciding aim in a 2-1 victory.
Lastly, the Mighty Geese of Anaheim beat the Blues 4-3 in St. Louis. Stanislav Chistov scored a aim and assisted on the three different Geese’ tallies. At simply 19, he turned the youngest participant in NHL historical past to rack up 4 factors in his league debut.
A Fistful of Firsts
On Oct. 10. 1953, Maurice Richard turned the primary participant in league historical past to attain 350 targets as he helped the Canadiens beat the Detroit Purple Wings 4-1.
Al Arbour made his teaching debut, on Oct 10, 1970, for the Blues. He led St. Louis to a 3-1 victory over the Rangers for the primary of 782 NHL wins.
Gary Smith turned the primary goaltender in league historical past to play for seven completely different NHL groups on Oct. 10, 1979, when he suited up for the Jets. This was Winnipeg’s first sport within the NHL after merging from the WHA.
Eight years to the day after his league debut, Salming turned the primary European-trained participant to attain 500 profession factors on Oct. 10, 1981. He ended his 60-game goalless streak together with his first profession hat trick to assist the Maple Leafs beat the Blackhawks 9-8.
The Purple Wings misplaced 6-5 to the North Stars on Oct. 10, 1985, as they acquired targets from two rookies. Each Adam Oates and Petr Klima scored their first NHL targets within the dropping effort. Oates additionally had an help within the sport.
On Oct. 10, 1989, two gamers born within the Soviet Union confronted one another for the primary time in an NHL regular-season sport. The New Jersey Devils, with Slava Fetisov and Sergei Starikov, hosted the Flames, who dressed Sergei Priakin and Sergei Makarov. Priakin had the game-winning aim in Calgary’s 4-2 win.
Geese’ ahead Espen Knutsen turned the primary Norwegian-born participant to attain an NHL aim, on Oct. 10, 1997, in a 1-1 tie with the Ottawa Senators.
Associated – The NHL’s High 50 Russians of All-Time
The Nashville Predators performed their first-ever dwelling sport on Oct. 10, 1998. The Florida Panthers ruined the get together as goaltender Kirk McLean made 26 saves, and Ray Whitney scored the one aim in a 1-0 win.
The Vegas Golden Knights performed their first-ever dwelling sport on Oct. 10, 2017. After a really emotional pregame ceremony to honor the victims of a horrible mass taking pictures that occurred simply 9 days earlier, the Golden Knights scored 4 first-period targets. The quick begin sparked a 5-2 victory over the Arizona Coyotes, changing into the primary enlargement crew to win its first three video games. James Neal turned solely the second participant in league historical past to attain the game-winning aim in his crew’s first three video games to begin a season.
On Oct. 10, 2023, Connor Bedard had an help to change into the fourth participant to report some extent in his Blackhawks debut at age 18 or youthful. The others: Eddie Olczyk (18 years, 56 days on Oct. 11, 1984), Steve McCarthy (18 years, 243 days on Oct. 4, 1999) and Dean McAmmond (18 years, 250 days on Feb. 20, 1992) – all three gamers additionally did so in what was their first profession NHL sport.
Odds & Ends
On Oct. 10, 1987, Whalers’ ahead Doug Jarvis performed his 964th consecutive sport. The 6-2 loss to the Rangers was the ultimate sport of his “iron man” streak as he missed Hartford’s subsequent sport resulting from harm. This was additionally the final sport of his NHL profession as he was despatched all the way down to the American Hockey League (AHL) to change into a participant/coach in Binghamton.
Greg Adams set an NHL report for many assists, with 5, in a gap night time sport on Oct. 10, 1985, as his Devils beat the Flyers 6-5. Precisely a decade later, he scored two targets to succeed in 250 targets in his profession, to guide the Dallas Stars to a 7-3 win over the Flames.
Scotty Bowman set an NHL report for coaches on Oct. 10, 1998, when he started his twenty seventh season behind the bench. Bowman broke the longevity mark of 26 teaching seasons held by Dick Irvin. His Purple Wings fell brief in a 2-1 loss to the Maple Leafs.
On Oct. 10, 2001, Mark Parrish scored two third-period targets, and Claude Lapointe had a aim and three assists because the Islanders earned their 1,000th victory in crew historical past, a 6-3 win in Pittsburgh. New York turned the 14th NHL crew to win 1,000 video games.
Completely happy Birthday to You
A grand complete of 24 present and former NHL gamers have been born on Oct. 10. Probably the most notable of this group are Pete Mahovlich (78), Bobby Nystrom (72), Mike Donnelly (61), Alexei Zhitnik (52), Brian Holzinger (52), Jeff Shantz (51), Chris Pronger (50), Shane Doan (48), Ilya Mikheyev (30), Sami Niku (28) and the late Edgar Laprade and Dallas Smith.
*Initially constructed by Greg Boysen
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