April 6 has had its fair share of historical moments throughout the decades. One of the National Hockey League’s biggest legends scored his final goal in his last regular-season game. Another legend finished the greatest season in the history of the game. The Hockey Hall of Fame is full of names who had big moments on this date, so let’s begin our daily trip back in time.
Gordie Howe’s Final Shift
Gordie Howe played his 1,767th and final NHL regular-season game on April 6, 1980, appropriately, against the Detroit Red Wings. In closing out the Hartford Whalers’ first season in the NHL, a 52-year-old Howe scored his 801st career goal in their 5-3 win over the team he played 25 seasons for.
He also picked up the final assist of his career by setting up Ray Allison’s goal in the first period. Gordie Roberts, who was born in the Detroit area and was named after Howe, had an assist on Mr. Hockey’s final goal.
Howe’s final NHL goal came against goaltender Rogie Vachon, who made his NHL debut against Howe and the Red Wings in 1967 when he was a member of the Montreal Canadiens. Vachon’s first career save in the league came by stopping Howe on an early-game breakaway.
The Whalers qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs to extend Howe’s extraordinary career for three more games as they were swept in a preliminary round by the Canadiens. After 32 professional seasons (26 in the NHL and six in the World Hockey Association), he finished his career with 975 goals and 2,358 points in 2,186 games. He had 96 goals and 231 points in 235 career playoff games between both leagues.
Denis Potvin’s Big Date
Hall of Fame defenseman Denis Potvin broke two records on this date during his career. On April 6, 1974, he finished off his tremendous rookie season by scoring a goal and adding three assists in the New York Islanders’ 4-2 win in their regular-season finale against the Minnesota North Stars.
Potvin finished the season with 17 goals, 54 assists and 71 points; all records for a first-year defenseman. After the season, he is awarded the Calder Trophy for being the NHL’s top rookie for the 1973-74 season.
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Exactly 14 years later, Potvin took to the ice for the Islanders’ opening game of the Patrick Division Semifinals against the New Jersey Devils. It was his 181st career Stanley Cup playoff game, the most in NHL history. He broke the previous record held by Henri Richard of the Canadiens.
Potvin played in four more playoff games and retired with 185 under his belt. In the last 34 years, 30 players have passed his old record as the playoffs have been expanded to four rounds of best-of-seven matchups.
1985-86 Goes Out with a Bang
Wayne Gretzky closed out the best season of his remarkable career on April 6, 1986. He picked up an assist in the Edmonton Oilers’ 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks. He went on to win his sixth straight Art Ross Trophy for leading the league in scoring as he broke his own scoring records with 163 assists and 215 points.
In that same game, Jari Kurri scored the 300th goal of his career. He scored another 301 goals before retiring and is one of just 20 players in the history of the NHL to score at least 600 goals.
Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, Brian Propp scored three goals and added two assists in the Flyers’ 5-3 win over the Washington Capitals. The win gave the Flyers their third division title in four seasons and the huge game gave Propp 600 points in his career. He retired with 849 points in a Flyers uniform, the third-most in franchise history.
Stanley Cup Final Memories
The Montreal Maroons won their first Stanley Cup championship on April 6, 1926, with a 2-0 win over the Victoria Cougars of the Western Hockey League. They closed out the best-of-five series in four games. Nels Stewart scored both goals and finished the Final with six goals in four games. Goaltender Clint Benedict was the hero of the series as he shut out the Cougars in all three of Montreal’s victories.
Maurice Richard scored the first of his NHL-record three Stanley Cup Final hat tricks on April 6, 1944, in the Canadiens’ 3-1 Game 2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. This gave them a 2-0 series lead as they won the Cup in four straight.
On April 6, 1961, Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita made their Stanley Cup Final debuts on April 6, 1961, as the Blackhawks hosted the Red Wings. Hull scored two goals and Mikita picked up two assists to lead Chicago to a 3-2 series-opening win. They went on to win their first championship since 1938 in six games.
Odds & Ends
On April 6, 1945, Frank McCool of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Red Wings’ Harry Lumley become the first pair of rookie goaltenders to face each other in a Stanley Cup playoff game. McCool picked up his first of three consecutive shutouts with a 1-0 win.
Johnny Bower became the oldest goaltender to play in the postseason on April 6, 1969. At 44 years, four months and 28 days, Bower was between the pipes for the Maple Leafs’ 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins.
The Chicago Blackhawks made plenty of history on April 6, 1975. They won their 1,200th NHL game as Tony Esposito shut out the North Stars 3-0 at the old Chicago Stadium. It was also the 500th career victory for head coach Billy Reay, who became just the third NHL coach to reach the 500-win milestone.
On April 6, 1978, Bernie Parent recorded his 50th NHL career shutout in the Flyers’ 3-0 win over the visiting New York Rangers. He became the 16th goalie in NHL history to record 50 career shutouts. He finished his career with 54 shutouts, which ranks him 24th on the all-time list.
Clark Gillies lit the lamp twice to become the third player in Islanders’ franchise history to score 300 career goals on April 6, 1985, in a 5-5 tie with the Devils. He joined Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier in New York’s 300-goal club.
Brett Hull scored two goals in his first Stanley Cup playoff game on April 6, 1988, as the St. Louis Blues beat the Blackhawks 4-1 in Game 1 of the Norris Division Semifinals.
Keith Tkachuk scored his 50th goal of the season, on April 6, 1997, in a 2-1 Phoenix Coyotes loss at the Colorado Avalanche. It was his second straight 50-goal season, and he became the first, and still only, Coyote to score 50 goals in a season.
On April 6, 2002, Mats Sundin scored the 395th goal of his career in the Maple Leafs’ 2-2 tie with the Florida Panthers. The goal made him the all-time leader among Swedish-born NHL players, breaking the previous record held by Tomas Sandstrom. He still holds the record with 564 career goals, 120 more than any other fellow countryman.
One year later, Sergei Fedorov scored against the Blackhawks to become just the fourth player in Red Wings’ franchise history to score 400 goals. It was his final goal with the team. He remains with Howe (786), Steve Yzerman (692) and Alex Delvecchio (456) as the only players in Detroit’s long and storied history to score at least 400 goals.
That same night, the Colorado Avalanche become the first team to win a division title in nine consecutive seasons when they defeated the Blues 5-2. Milan Hejduk scored his 50th goal of the season and became the first member of the Avalanche to lead the NHL in goals.
The Tampa Bay Lightning tied the NHL single-season record for wins on April 6, 2019, by beating the Bruins 6-3. This was their 62nd victory of the season, tying the 1995-96 Red Wings record. Nikita Kucherov scored a goal and added an assist to win the Art Ross Trophy for a league-high 128 points. He also broke Alexander Mogilny’s record for the most points in a season by a Russian-born player set in 1992-93.
Patrick Kane tied Bobby Hull for the second-most 50-point seasons in Blackhawks history with 14 when he recorded a goal and an assist in his team’s 4-2 victory over the Stars on April 6, 2021. Makita still leads the way with 18.
Related: Kane Is Already the Greatest American-Born NHL Player of All-Time
On that same night in a 4-2 win over the Flyers, Patrice Bergeron made history with his 900th point to become the fourth player in franchise history to record at least that many. He joined Ray Bourque (1,506), Johnny Bucyk (1,339) and Phil Esposito (1,012) in the feat. His linemate and fellow member of the “Perfection Line”, Brad Marchand, joined him in the record books when he posted his 48th shorthanded point, passing Bobby Orr and Ed Westfall for most in Bruins’ history.
That game also saw Shayne Gostisbehere score his 57th career goal to pass Behn Wilson for fifth among Flyers’ defensemen. Mark Howe still holds the record with 138. Finally, to cap off this event-filled contest, the Flyers’ 25 shots in the second period were the most in a period since they had a franchise-record 28 in the third period against the Penguins on Feb. 11, 2019.
Adam Fox extended his point streak to 11 games on April 6, 2021 against the Penguins to have the longest since Brian Leetch recorded a 14-game one from Oct. 30-Dec. 1, 1996. He also became the fourth New York defenseman to have one last at least 11 games. Leetch did it three times while Brad Park and Reijo Ruotsalainen each did it once.
The front office also got into the act on this night in 2021 when Islanders’ general manager (GM) Lou Lamoriello tied Glen Sather (Oilers, Rangers) for second in NHL history with his 1,319th win as a GM. He, of course, has since passed that mark as he still holds that position to this day.
Devils’ rookie Tyce Thompson (brother of Tage Thompson of the Sabres), scored the fifth-fastest point from the start of an NHL debut in Devils/Colorado Rockies/Kansas City Scouts history when he posted his first-ever assist in the NHL in a 5-3 loss to the Sabres on April 6, 2021. He was chosen 96th overall by the Devils in the 2019 NHL Draft.
On April 6, 2022, Washington Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom posted his 743rd NHL assist, passing Denis Potvin for 45th in NHL history. He did it in a win, too, as the Capitals beat the Lightning 4-3.
Jack Hughes (21 years, 327 days) notched his 200th point in the NHL on April 6, 2023, to become the second-youngest Devils player to reach that milestone. Only Kirk Muller (21 years, 255 days) was younger when he did it back in 1986-87.
On that same night, Steven Stamkos played his 1,000th game, joining Vincent Lecavalier as the only Lightning player to play 1,000 with the franchise.
Finally, to close out the proceedings in 2023, Mikko Rantanen scored 50 goals for the first time in his career and became the fifth different Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques player to hit the 50-goal mark.
Happy Birthday to You
34 players who have skated in the NHL are celebrating birthdays today. Among the most notable players are Gerald Diduck (59), Olaf Kolzig (54), Hal Gill (49), Travis Moen (42), Clarke MacArthur (39), Ilya Lyubushkin (30), Pavel Zacha (27), Tobias Björnfot (23), and Moritz Seider (23).
*Originally constructed by Greg Boysen