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In general, hockey is a sport full of crazy stories involving professional players and also fans, especially because of the number of fights and unexpected situations that happen in matches. Although it is a sport played on ice, it is very common for the temperature to rise among athletes and fans, causing fights and scenes worthy of cinema. In this context, the 5 incredible records in hockey history show what happens in this modality beyond what is shown on television.
Fans most passionate about statistics can find an extensive list of records on the National Hockey League (NHL) website. However, not all unbelievable stories and peculiar records are on this page, as they go beyond the highest number of goals or team with the most championships won. Whether you are a novice fan or an old follower of hockey, these events narrate significant events in the trajectory of the modality. Learn more information below and get to know some of these records.
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What are the most incredible records in hockey history?
1. Highest number of fights in a career
As mentioned earlier, sometimes players’ temperaments boil over and conflicts happen on the rink. However, some athletes cross the line from verbal offense to rolling with their rivals while fighting.
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This is the case with former professional hockey player, Canadian-Albanian Tahir “Tie” Domi. In total, it is estimated that he had over 330 fights in his 16-year career as an NHL athlete. Not surprisingly, he was the “Enforcer” of the teams he played for, a non-official role to designate the team’s bully.
Basically, the Enforcer is the one who responds to the violent actions of rivals, taking the lead to respond aggressively or even fight against the offender. However, Domi continues to be the greatest in this position, because no other person in hockey had so many fights.
To understand the scale, it is estimated that he had 3,315 penalty minutes in his career due to fights. In other words, this is equivalent to 58 hours on the bench for fighting with other players, but there are records of fights with fans that are not included in this calculation.
2. Highest number of scars on a player’s head
That hockey is not the safest and most stable sport in the world everyone knows. Even more so with the number of impacts between players. Moreover, one cannot ignore how sharp the blades are, or the way the ice becomes concrete during high-speed falls on the rink.
Taking all this into account, there is an unofficial record in hockey history that crowned Eddie Shore as the player with the highest number of scars. Popular for being one of the most legendary defenders in the history of the Boston Bruins team, the player had 19 stitches of scars on his head.
To better contextualize this situation, it is worth remembering that Eddie Shore played between 1924 and 1940. At that time, hockey was much less safe and much more aggressive. Obviously, an aggravating factor of this record is the violent personality of the player in defending his team.
In one of the conflicts in the 1925-26 season, Shore almost had his ear torn off by a hockey stick in a fight with two other players. In fact, many doctors wanted to completely amputate the limb, but he found a professional willing to sew it back on. And the worst part? At the time of the surgery, the player refused anesthesia and still watched the entire procedure through a mirror.
Despite this, Shore won several other prominent awards in his career. Among them, the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player four times and NHL All-Star in the first eight seasons he played.
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3. The fastest hat-trick in sports history
This is one of the most highlighted records in hockey. In this context, it marks the achievement of three goals by a player in a total time of 21 seconds. The unbelievable feat is authored by Canadian right winger Billy Mosienko. In 1952, he was playing for the Chicago Black Hawks, and scored the three points against the New York Rangers.
The match marked the last night of the regular NHL season. Specifically, the points were made against goalie Lorne Anderson and featured the assistance of his line mate Gus Bodnar in all points. To this day, no other athlete in hockey has managed to beat this record.
4. Highest number of goals in a goalkeeper’s career
Yes, just as it happens in rare moments in soccer, hockey goalkeepers also muster the courage to attack the puck on the opponent’s field. However, it is even more difficult for this to be done because the rink is a space of high speed and little room to return to the goal.
Thus, it is more common to see attackers tallying the highest number of goals in their careers. Currently, the record is held by Wayne Gretzky, known as the greatest hockey player by many fans. In his 20 years in the NHL, he scored 894 goals and 1,963 assists.
However, when the record is for goalkeeper goals, the title is divided between Ron Hextall and Martin Brodeur. Despite being two goals for each, Hextall was the one who hit the puck directly into the goal from his goal. In other words, he hit the entire distance between the two goals, without having to run through the rink.
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5. Most use of goalkeepers in the playoffs
This is one of the hockey records that also includes goalkeepers. In this case, it refers to the highest number of goalkeeper changes during a series of games. Specifically, it happened during the playoff stage of the 1985-86 season, due to an extreme domination of the Calgary Flames team against the Winnipeg Jets. As a consequence, the technical team used four goalkeepers in just three games.
Throughout NHL history, such substitutions have occurred. However, not with the same number of goalkeepers put on the field. In the end, the strategy worked, as the Winnipeg Jets won most of the games.
So, did you like this list of hockey records?
There are several curious stories in the world of hockey, especially when it comes to fights, injuries, and penalties. As a sport of high aggressiveness and competitiveness, new records are created each season. And the consequence could not be otherwise, once the penalty time records are also being redefined.
