Nashville Predators Gordie Howe Hat Tricks

The Nashville Predators have never been known as a team that fights a ton.

The Nashville Predators have had a few that wouldn’t mind baring their knuckles.  Jordin Tootoo was a fan favorite for roughing things up a bit.  Preds announcer Stu Grimson had a few scuffles and Rich Clune may have been the last true “enforcer” the Nashville Predators have employed.

In memory of Gordie Howe, who passed away this morning at the age of 88 as one of the greatest hockey players that ever lived, we wanted to offer up something.  Gordie Howe played games in FIVE different decades. He scored 20 or more goals 22 times.  He was known as “Mr. Hockey” but a very famous hockey term was formed because of him.

You all know what a “Hat Trick” is.  Three goals in the same game.   Well, a Gordie Howe Hat Trick is a variation on that, where a player scores a goal, records an assist, and gets in a fight all in one game. It is named after him because he was well known for his skill at both scoring and fighting. He had 801 goals, 1850 points, and 1685 penalty minutes.

There is not a lot of data out there on up-to-date compilations of Gordie Howe Hat Tricks.  According to Wikipedia, Rick Tocchet who mostly played for the Flyers had 18 in regular season and playoffs and former NHL Director of Player Safety ( who handed out fines and suspensions) Brendan Shanahan had 17.  Jerome Iginla of the Avs is the active leader with 9.

Gordie Howe Hat Tricks are a little rarer than they used to be. There was more scoring and more fighting a few years ago than there is now. There was only seven this entire past season. They were much more common back in the 1970’s and 80’s

We were able to find eight confirmed instances of them for the Nashville Predators. Denny Lambert was the first in 1998, our premier season.   Jordin Tootoo is the only Pred that had two of them. Mike Fisher is the only one who had multiple assists. Two of ours were against Detroit of all teams.

Perhaps our readers can help us with a few more. I know that Scott Harnell had a couple but couldn’t find one with the Nashville Predators.  Roman Josi was close this past season with a fight and a goal but couldn’t get that elusive assist back on December 7th. Oh, so close!

Paul Gaustad had the last one on October 12th of 2014.  Who will get the next one?  Our vote is for Mattias Ekholm.  He seems to have as good a chance as anyone.

Here is the list of Nashville Predators Gordie Howe Hat Tricks:

Denny Lambert – December 19, 1998, v. Vancouver (1 G, 1 A, 1 fight – Chris McAllister)

Jim McKenzie – February 21, 2004, v. Phoenix (1 G, 1 A, 1 fight – Andrei Nazarov)

Jordin Tootoo (2) – January 10, 2004, v. St. Louis (1 G, 1 A, 1 fight – Mike Danton)
December 8, 2007, v. Anaheim (1 G, 1 A, 1 fight – Joe DiPenta)

Scott Walker – November 18, 1999, v. Montreal (1 G, 1 A, 1 fight – Jim Cummins)

Shea Weber – February 28, 2009, v. Detroit (1 G, 1 A, 1 fight – Andreas Lilja)

Mike Fisher – December 30, 2013, v. Detroit (1 G, 2 A, 1 fight – Justin Abdelkader)

Paul Gaustad – October 11, 2014, v. Dallas (1 G, 1 A, 1 fight – Vernon Fiddler)

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It’s a sad day in the Hockey World when “Mr. Hockey” leaves us but he sure left us with a bunch of fantastic hockey memories. Rest in peace, Gordie Howe.