Hat Trick!

1991-92 Bowman #347, Ken Hodge

 

 

I was a young collector when these 1991-92 Bowman hockey cards were released. Any amount of foil on a card was a pretty big deal back then, and those three pucks stamped in gold foil on the top corner of these special "hat trick" cards earned some coolness points with collectors, for sure. What can I say? We were easy to please back then.

 

But this post isn't really about the 1991-92 Bowman hockey set. Another type of hat trick was scored recently, in an anniversary sense of the expression.

 

This blog has turned three years old!

 

And just like last year's anniversary, I'm very happy to say that I've again maintained the goal of posting new content once a week, every Sunday.

 

It was a big year. Along with extending the streak, I added a bunch of fun custom cards to the list, and debuted the print versions to boot.

 

All you readers, commenters, and fellow bloggers have continued to inspire me and make the effort worthwhile, so I'm sending a big thank-you all around. I look forward to year number four, and I've got more custom cards and other ideas lined up. I'm also going to push hard to keep the every-Sunday streak going throughout the entire year. 

 

But let's get back to hat tricks for a moment. Because this is a trading card blog, let's link a few more cards to the feat of scoring three goals in a game.

 

Here are the three players who've scored the most hat tricks across their NHL careers: 

 

 

Gretzky had 50, Lemieux had 40, and Bossy had 39. 

 

Fifty hat tricks. Think about it for a minute. 

 

That means 150 of Wayne Gretzky's 894 career goals came on nights when he scored a hat trick. I mean c'mon, 150 goals total for an NHL career is nothing to shake a stick at. And Gretzky put up that many on hat tricks alone.

 

As for Mike Bossy's 39 hat tricks? Here's something that will help you understand just how incredible that number really is: 

 

Wayne Gretzky's 50 hat tricks came across 20 seasons. 

Mario Lemieux's 40 hat tricks came across 17 seasons. 

Mike Bossy's 39 hat tricks came across only 10 seasons.

 

Additional factoids:

 

Most career postseason hat tricks

Wayne Gretzky: 10

Jari Kurri: 7

Maurice Richard: 7

Dino Ciccarelli: 6

 

Most hat tricks in a single season

Wayne Gretzky: 10 (twice)

Mike Bossy: 9

Mario Lemieux: 9

Brett Hull: 8

 

Quickest hat trick

Bill Mosienko of the Chicago Black Hawks turned the trick in a total time of 21 seconds against the New York Rangers on March 23, 1952. Wow!

Back to the anniversary now. I'd like to do a giveaway like I did for last year's anniversary, but over the past few months I've done a few giveways, and I think I'm spent for ideas and material. However, there will be at least a couple of opportunities for you to claim some cards over the first few months of the new year, so please do stay tuned.

Thanks again for spending some time here on the blog. Let's look forward to a new year of blogging and collecting!