Toronto Maple Leafs alumnus Darryl Sittler was honoured by the organization in late January to mark the 50th anniversary of his record-setting 10-point game.John E. Sokolowski/Reuters
Having scored four goals in his National Hockey League debut, 69 in a single season, and then eventually breaking the Toronto Maple Leafs franchise goal-scoring record earlier this year, Auston Matthews knows a thing or two about scoring benchmarks. But even he struggles to envision a day when someone might surpass Darryl Sittler’s 10-point game.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said when asked if that record might tumble in the near future. “That might be one that lasts for a pretty long time. It’s like two hat tricks. It’s really hard to wrap your head around that, just how incredible that is. But yeah, I don’t think that’s getting touched any time soon.”
Fifty years ago this Saturday, Sittler had little idea he was about to skate into the NHL history books either. Facing a Boston Bruins team that was 20 points above the Leafs in the Adams Division standings, Toronto’s captain had been running around all day with his eight-month-pregnant wife. After grabbing some Swiss Chalet chicken and taking his usual pre-game nap, he headed over to Maple Leaf Gardens and suited up.
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After the first period, he had a couple of assists. But it was in the second period that he really caught fire, scoring a hat trick and adding two more assists. Another hat trick in the third period – with all the goals scored against Boston goaltender Dave Reece, who never played another NHL game – pushed Sittler past the eight-point record which had been jointly held by Montreal Canadiens legends Maurice (Rocket) Richard and Bert Olmstead.
Given the way the sport has changed in the 50 years since – goaltending and sports science, to name but two aspects – Sittler seconds Matthews’s opinion.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen,” he said. “It could happen, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. You do the stats and you see how many times 10 points is scored by one team.”
According to NHL Stats, a team has scored 10 goals in a game only 12 times since 2016.
And while a number of players have come close – most recently when Sam Gagner had eight points in an 8-4 win for the Edmonton Oilers over the Chicago Blackhawks 14 years ago – Sittler thought the firewagon hockey era of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux was when it was most likely to fall.
“When Gretzky and Lemieux didn’t do it in the late eighties, early nineties, they got eight points a couple times,” he said. “That was the time I thought it was going to be broken.”
Sittler, right, shared a joke with former Boston Bruins goaltender Dave Reece in 2016. Reece was in net the night Sittler recorded his 10-point game.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
While both Matthews and Sittler think it unlikely, current Leaf blueliner Morgan Rielly says that in hockey, you just never know.
“I mean, there’s probably a time where people didn’t think it would ever happen and he did it,” Rielly said. “So I like to think that there’s always opportunity there to kind of match those cool records and those achievements. But as of right now, he’s the only guy.”
The players that were on the ice with Sittler that night said that the magnitude of the accomplishment – exemplified by the fact it’s still being celebrated 50 years later – didn’t really sink in until afterwards.
While Sittler didn’t do anything the night of the game – “we had a game the next day” – in the days that followed, he received $500 of gift certificates from Swiss Chalet, as well as a silver tea service from the-then Maple Leafs owner, Harold Ballard.
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“It wasn’t so much during the game because you just played and every game you go in, your goal is to win the game,” said Dave (Tiger) Williams, who somehow ended up at minus-two in the game. “But it was after the game that it sunk into us all how special this was, and it was special.”
For those plying their trade in the modern NHL, where even a five-point game can seem outlandish, the lore of Sittler’s 10-point performance from Feb. 7, 1976, only grows in its lustre as the years roll on. The tour de force moved him from 21st to 10th in the NHL scoring race in the space of a few hours, and eventually culminated in his first career 100-point season.
And it’s given him exalted status among the current Leafs team, who took the chance to chat with the Toronto legend last month when the franchise celebrated the accomplishment with a pre-game ceremony.
“Yeah, it was cool,” said defenceman Simon Benoit. “I mean, how many players [get] 10 points in one game? I don’t even have 10 points this year.”