{"id":449530,"date":"2026-02-06T22:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T22:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/449530\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T22:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T22:30:16","slug":"fifty-years-later-sittlers-10-point-game-still-feels-unreachable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/449530\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifty years later, Sittler\u2019s 10-point game still feels unreachable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Having scored four goals in his National Hockey League debut, 69 in a single season, and then eventually breaking the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> 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\u2019s 10-point game.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so,\u201d he said when asked if that record might tumble in the near future. \u201cThat might be one that lasts for a pretty long time. It\u2019s like two hat tricks. It\u2019s really hard to wrap your head around that, just how incredible that is. But yeah, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s getting touched any time soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Leafs’ captain Matthews excited to finally get Olympic chance with United States<\/a><\/p>\n

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 \u2013 with all the goals scored against Boston goaltender Dave Reece, who never played another NHL game \u2013 pushed Sittler past the eight-point record which had been jointly held by Montreal Canadiens legends Maurice (Rocket) Richard and Bert Olmstead.<\/p>\n

Given the way the sport has changed in the 50 years since \u2013 goaltending and sports science, to name but two aspects \u2013 Sittler seconds Matthews\u2019s opinion. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cIt could happen, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to happen. You do the stats and you see how many times 10 points is scored by one team.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to NHL Stats, a team has scored 10 goals in a game only 12 times since 2016. <\/p>\n

And while a number of players have come close \u2013 most recently when Sam Gagner had eight points in an 8-4 win for the Edmonton Oilers over the Chicago Blackhawks 14 years ago \u2013 Sittler thought the firewagon hockey era of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux was when it was most likely to fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Gretzky and Lemieux didn\u2019t do it in the late eighties, early nineties, they got eight points a couple times,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was the time I thought it was going to be broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

While both Matthews and Sittler think it unlikely, current Leaf blueliner Morgan Rielly says that in hockey, you just never know.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, there\u2019s probably a time where people didn\u2019t think it would ever happen and he did it,\u201d Rielly said. \u201cSo I like to think that there\u2019s always opportunity there to kind of match those cool records and those achievements. But as of right now, he\u2019s the only guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The players that were on the ice with Sittler that night said that the magnitude of the accomplishment \u2013 exemplified by the fact it\u2019s still being celebrated 50 years later \u2013 didn\u2019t really sink in until afterwards. <\/p>\n

While Sittler didn\u2019t do anything the night of the game \u2013 \u201cwe had a game the next day\u201d \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

‘Boots on the ice’: Hockey and politics are about to collide at the Milan Olympics<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t so much during the game because you just played and every game you go in, your goal is to win the game,\u201d said Dave (Tiger) Williams, who somehow ended up at minus-two in the game. \u201cBut it was after the game that it sunk into us all how special this was, and it was special.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those plying their trade in the modern NHL, where even a five-point game can seem outlandish, the lore of Sittler\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

And it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it was cool,\u201d said defenceman Simon Benoit. \u201cI mean, how many players [get] 10 points in one game? I don\u2019t even have 10 points this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Toronto Maple Leafs alumnus Darryl Sittler was honoured by the organization in late…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1018,1001,1019,967,991,1020,19,990,1008,1009,1004,992,989,1014,1016,1013,1007,1000,1030,993,994,1006,5,1002,1003,997,1021,998,1025,1026,4,1028,1023,1027,786,1024,995,1011,1012,333,1010,1022,86,1015,1017,1005,999,996,1029],"class_list":["post-449530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-hockey","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-nhl","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}