This date in National Hockey League history was pretty eventful in the state of New York. Plus, a whole slew of Hockey Hall of Famers added to their great resumes and some big names were traded, as well. The THW time machine is warmed up and ready to go. Let’s take our daily trip through the decades and relive all the best from March 10.
New York Islanders’ Greats Have Quite a Day
The Islanders may have added the final piece to their dynasty’s puzzle on March 10, 1980, when they acquired Butch Goring. They sent forward Billy Harris and defenseman Dave Lewis to the Los Angeles Kings for the veteran center.
Even though Goring admitted that he was not happy about being traded, he quickly realized he joined an exceptional group of hockey players. The Islanders go 8-0-4 over the final 12 regular-season games after adding him to the mix. New York went on to win their first Stanley Cup, the first of four straight championships.
Bryan Trottier had a pair of big moments on this date. In 1982, he extended his team-record point streak to 25 straight games in a 4-4 tie with the Minnesota North Stars. He scored 28 goals and 55 points during this streak. Two years later, he set up three goals in a 5-4 overtime win over the Calgary Flames to become the first player in team history to record 600 career assists.
On March 19, 1992, legendary head coach Al Arbour earned his 700th NHL victory when the Islanders beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2. He joined Scotty Bowman as the only two members of the 700-wins club.
Buffalo Sabres Make Memories
The Sabres traded popular defenseman Jerry “King Kong” Korab to the Kings, on March 10, 1982, for their first-round draft pick in 1982. The pick was used to take future Hall of Fame blueliner Phil Housley, who played 608 games with the team. Korab returned to Buffalo in 1983 after being claimed off of waivers from the North Stars. He played the final 63 games of his career over two seasons with the Sabres.
Pat LaFontaine had a huge night on March 10, 1993, when he scored a goal and added four assists in the Sabres 7-4 win at the Quebec Nordiques. Dale Hawerchuk added a goal and three assists in the win.
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Dominik Hasek became the Sabres’ all-time leader in games played by a goaltender on March 10, 1998, when he appeared in his 308th career game, a 2-2 tie with the Islanders. He broke the previous record held by Don Edwards.
The Sabres acquired veteran Doug Gilmour and J.P. Dumont, on March 10, 2000, from the Chicago Blackhawks for winger Michal Groshek. Gilmour played a total of 82 games for the Sabres, scored 10 goals and 55 points. Dumont turned out to have the better run in Buffalo. In five seasons, he had 102 goals and 223 points.
On March 10, 2003, the Sabres acquired a relatively unknown forward in Danny Briere, along with a third-round pick, for Chris Cratth and a fourth-round pick. Briere broke out in Buffalo by scoring 92 goals and 230 points in 225 games before signing with the Flyers in 2007.
On March 10, 2022, Sabres goaltender Craig Anderson won his 300th career game, joining Ryan Miller (391), John Vanbiesbrouk, Tom Barrasso, Jonathan Quick and Mike Richter as US-born goalies with 300 wins.
Hall of Fame Moments
Joe Malone became the first player in NHL history to have two games with at least six goals on March 10, 1920, when he scored half a dozen times in the Quebec Bulldogs’ 10-4 win over the Ottawa Senators. He scored a league-record seven goals against the Senators six weeks earlier.
Gordie Howe collected his 900th career point on March 10, 1959, when he scored two goals and added an assist for the Detroit Red Wings in a 5-5 tie with the Montreal Canadiens.
On March 10, 1971, Bobby Orr scored twice to lead the Boston Bruins to an 8-1 blowout at the California Golden Seals. His two tallies gave him 34, breaking his own single-season record for goals by a defenseman he set the previous season.
Guy Lafleur had four assists, on March 10, 1977, in the Canadiens’ 7-1 victory against the Colorado Rockies. The win extended their home unbeaten streak to 28 games (23-0-5), the longest in NHL history.
Related: Guy Lafleur: The Last of the Great Habs Skaters
Playing in his 229th career game on March 10, 1982, Wayne Gretzky picked up two assists to give him 300 in his career during the Edmonton Oilers’ 3-2 loss at the Kings.
Ron Francis scored his 100th NHL goal and added two assists on March 10, 1985, when the Hartford Whalers and visiting Canadiens skated to a 5-5 draw.
The Kings traded their all-time leading scorer Marcel Dionne to the New York Rangers, on March 10, 1987, for defenseman Tom Laidlaw and forward Bobby Carpenter. He played his final 118 career games in the Big Apple, where he scored 42 goals and 98 points.
Mark Howe picked up his 700th career assist, on March 10, 1988, in the Flyers’ 5-2 win over the Washington Capitals.
Cam Neely scored for his first of three career 50-goal seasons, on March 10, 1990, in the Bruins’ 3-3 tie with the Islanders. He became the first Bruin to score 50 goals in a season since Rick Middleton posted 51 in 1981-82.
Paul Kariya scored twice to become the first 40-goal scorer in Mighty Ducks of Anaheim team history, on March 10, 1996, in a 3-2 win over the visiting Kings. He picked up his seventh game-winning goal of the season.
Mats Sundin scored the game-winning goal, on March 10, 2002, for his 1,000th NHL point as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Oilers 3-2 in Edmonton.
Odds & Ends
Goaltending greats Harry Lumley and Jacques Plante dueled to a 0-0 tie on March 10, 1955, but that was not why this game between the Maple Leafs and Canadiens is remembered. This was the first night that Frank Zamboni’s ice resurfacing machine was used at an NHL game. Before this night, the ice was cleaned with squeegees by a group of arena workers. The Zamboni did a much better job in a shorter period of time and soon becomes a staple at ice rinks worldwide.
On March 10, 1968, Glen Sather scored the 7,000th goal in Bruins’ history during a 7-5 loss to the visiting Red Wings.
The Bruins claimed defenseman Dennis O’Brien off of waives from the Cleveland Barons on March 10, 1978, as he became the first player in league history to play on four different teams in the same season. He also had stints with the North Stars and Rockies. Dave McLlwain became the second player to accomplish this feat, exactly 14 years later when he was traded to the Maple Leafs by the Islanders. This came after making appearances with both the Winnipeg Jets and Sabres to start the 1991-92 season.
The San Jose Sharks beat the Islanders 4-3 on March 10, 1994, to give them 63 points, equaling the amount they earned in their first two NHL seasons combined.
Roger Neilson made his coaching debut with the Flyers, on March 10, 1998, in a 2-2 tie with the New Jersey Devils. This made him the first person to coach seven different NHL teams.
The Tampa Bay Lightning named Vincent Lecavalier their new team captain, on March 10, 2000, after they traded Gratton to the Sabres. At just 19, he became the youngest captain in league history, replacing Steve Yzerman, who was 21 when the Red Wings put the “C” on his sweater in 1986.
Evgeni Nabokov became the seventh goaltender to score a goal on March 10, 2002, and the first to do it while on a power play, as his empty-net tally sealed the deal in the Sharks’ 7-4 win at the Vancouver Canucks.
On March 10, 2004, the Oilers set a league record by playing in their sixth straight overtime game, a 3-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on home ice.
The Vegas Golden Knights won their 20th road game of the season, on March 10, 2018, with a 2-1 shootout victory in Buffalo. This set a new NHL record for road win by a first-year team as the Golden Knights went on to win 22 games away from Sin City.
On that same night, Joel Quenneville passed Arbour on the all-time games-coached list, as his 1,608th contest behind the bench resulted in a 7-4 Blackhawks loss to the Bruins.
On March 10, 2021, Minnesota Wild defenceman Dylan Coghlan scored a hat trick for the first three goals of his NHL career in a 4-3 victory over the Golden Knights. He became only the third blueliner to do that in the history of the league joining the Devils’ Uli Heimer (Oct. 31, 1984, vs. the Black Hawks) and the Canadiens’ Joe Hall (Jan. 21, 1918, vs. the Senators).
On that same night, Nathan MacKinnon passed Avalanche great Peter Forsberg for ninth on the all-time games-played list with his 545th game in the NHL. The Avs defeated the Coyotes 2-1 in overtime when his linemate Gabriel Landeskog scored the winner with only 38 seconds left in the extra frame.
Troy Grosenick won his first NHL start in more than six years when the Kings claimed a 5-1 victory over the Ducks on March 10, 2021. He made 33 saves in his first game since Nov. 18, 2014, the sixth-longest gap between NHL starts by a goalie in NHL history (six years, 102 days).
On March 10, 2022, Cale Makar had his 13-game assist streak snapped in a 2-0 loss to the Hurricanes. It was the longest assist streak in franchise history.
On March 10, 2023, John Gibson became the all-time saves leader for the Anaheim Ducks in a 3-1 win against the Calgary Flames. He made 36 saves and hit 11,837 with Anaheim, passing Guy Hebert (11,813) for most on its all-time list.
Happy Birthday to You
A total of 22 current and former NHL players have been born on this date. The most notable of this collective are Mike Bullard (63), Andy Sutton (49), Tim Brent (40), Tuukka Rask (37), Scott Harrington (31), Tyler Motte (29), and Matthew Poitras (20).
*Originally constructed by Greg Boysen