Today in NHL History, Feb 7th

1876: The first documented use of the work "puck" was mentioned in a story in the Montreal Gazette.

1925: Goalie Doc Stewart recorded the first shutout in Boston Bruins' history, a 1-0 victory at Montreal.

1928: Ottawa goalie Alex Connell and Rangers' Lorne Chabot dueled to a 0-0 scoreless tie in a game played at New York. It was the third of six straight shutouts for Connell (and the 44th of his career) and the 16th of Chabot's career.

1933: Canadiens' George Hainsworth recorded his 71st career shutout, in a 2-0 win over Toronto, in Montreal, to move past Alex Connell as the NHL's all-time leader in career shutouts.

1937: Johnny Sorrell scored his third career hat trick, and Norm Smith recorded his 12th career shutout as the Red Wings beat the Bruins, 8-0 at the Olympia in Detroit.

1939: Boston extended its unbeaten streak to 6-0-1 as Frank Brimsek recorded the 9th shutout of his rookie season with 33 saves in a 2-0 win over Toronto, at Boston Garden.

1943: Chicago's Doug Bentley scored his third career hat trick and added 3 assists and Bill Thoms also got his third hat trick (his only one with Chicago) and 2 assists in the Black Hawks' 8-4 win against the visiting New York Rangers.

1956: Detroit's Gordie Howe scored twice to become the first Red Wing to score 300 goals. The milestone came in a 3-2 win over Chicago. Howe was the third player in the NHL to reach the 300 goal mark (Maurice Richard and Nels Stewart were the others).

1965: Detroit's Gordie Howe became the first player in NHL history to score 100 career goals against every opposing team in the league, during a 6-0 win over the visiting Montreal Canadiens. Rookie Roger Crozier recorded his 7th career shutout.

1971: Bobby Hull scored his 544th career goal, to tie Maurice Richard as the second highest goal scorer in NHL history (behind Gordie Howe). It came in the Black Hawks' 1-0 win over the visiting Penguins. Tony Esposito recorded his 22nd career shutout....Buffalo's Dick Duff played in his 1,000th career NHL game as the Sabres lost 4-3 to the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.....Scotty Bowman took over as head coach of the St. Louis Blues, replacing Al Arbour, who returned to playing duty. It was Bowman's second tour of duty as the Blues' coach.

1975: Eddie Johnston recorded his 30th career shutout to lead the Blues to a 5-0 win over the Kansas City Scouts, in St. Louis. Wayne Merrick led the scoring with 2 goals and an assist, as the Blues began a team-record 11 game (9-0-2) undefeated streak.

1976: Darryl Sittler set an NHL record with 10 points in one game -- he scored six goals and added four assists in an 11-4 Toronto win over Boston, at Maple Leaf Garden. It was the 5th career hat trick for Sittler.....Boston's Jean Ratelle scored twice to give him 350 career NHL goals, and added two assists when the Bruins lost 11-4 at Toronto. In the same game John Bucyk scored his 1,283rd career point to move into second place all-time behind Gordie Howe.....Rod Gilbert scored four goals, including his 7th career hat trick as the Rangers won at Detroit, 5-4.

1979: Washington Capitals signed Dennis Hextall as free agent.

1980: Mike Bossy extended his team-record point scoring streak to 18 games in the New York Islanders' 4-1 win over the visiting Los Angeles Kings. Bossy scored 17 goals and 10 assists for 27 points during the 18 game streak. Also in that game, Marcel Dionne scored his 45th goal of the year, and passed Butch Goring to become the L.A. Kings all-time leading point scorer.....Boston's Ray Bourque picked up three assists to give him 30 for the season, breaking Bobby Orr's record (28) for most assists by a Bruins' rookie defenseman (set in 1966-67). Boston won 8-6 over the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.

1982: Mark Osborne picked up five assists to tie the Red Wings' records for most assists and most points by a rookie. Red Wings beat St. Louis, 8-5. Records were first set by Jimmy McFacdden in 1947.....Guy Chouinard scored two goals and three assists, Kent Nilsson had a goal and four assists and Kevin Lavallee added two goals and two assists in the Flames' 8-2 win over the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.

1983: NY Islanders' General Manager Bill Torrey won the Lester Patrick Award for outstanding service to hockey at the All-Star dinner hosted by the Islanders and the Nassau Coliseum.

1985: Mike Bossy scored an NHL-record 33rd career hat trick, and added an assist, to lead the Islanders to a 7-5 win over the Rangers, at Nassau Coliseum in Long Island. Bossy's 33rd hat trick broke the record of 32 held by Phil Esposito.....Don Lever scored the 300th goal of his NHL career, and Uli Hiemer picked up three assists as the Devils won 6-3 over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins. Lever became the 53rd player in NHL history to score 300 career goals.

1988: Rookie Joe Nieuwendyk scored his 40th goal of the season, to break Eric Vail's 13-year old Flames' team record for goals by a rookie, in a 5-2 Calgary win at Los Angeles.....Toronto Maple Leafs fired General Manager Gerry McNamara. Two months later Gord Stellick was named as his replacement, and became the youngest GM in NHL history.

1989: Kings' Wayne Gretzky was named the MVP at the 40th NHL All Star Game in Edmonton. He scored a goal and had two assists as the Campbell Conference defeated the Wales Conference, 9-5.

1990: Toronto's Al Iafrate scored a goal and added three assists as the Maple Leafs won 7-1 over the visiting St. Louis Blues.

1991: Pat Quinn picked up his first victory as coach of the Vancouver Canucks, with a 2-1 win at Philadelphia.

1992: Washington's Peter Bondra scored two goals and two assists, and Michal Pivonka added four assists as the Capitals won 6-2 over the visting NY Rangers.

1995: Pittsburgh's Joe Mullen scored twice and added two assists, including his 1,000th NHL point as the Penguins won 7-3 over the visiting Panthers. Mullen became the first American-born player and the 42nd in NHL history to reach 1,000 points.

1996: Anaheim obtained Teemu Selanne, Marc Chouinard and a 4th round pick in the '96 Entry Draft from the Winnipeg Jets, in exchange for Chad Kilger, Oleg Tverdovsky and the Mighty Ducks' 3rd round pick (Per-Anton Lundstrom) in the 1996 Entry Draft.....Buffalo's Dominik Hasek became the winningest European-trained goaltender in NHL history, when the Sabres beat the visiting Boston Bruins 2-1 in overtime. Hasek's 88th career win moved him one ahead of Pelle Lindbergh.....Jaromir Jagr became the 5th player to score 200 goals as a member of the Penguins. The milestone came when Pittsburgh tied the Devils 1-1 in New Jersey.

1998: The NHL had its busiest day in history, with 13 games (featuring all 26 teams) on the eve of the 1998 Olympic Break. Scoring honors went to Valerie Bure, who scored his first career hat trick in a 4-2 Flames' win over the Oilers.....Dallas Stars retired Neal Broten's #7 sweater in a pre-game ceremony before their game (a 3-1 victory) against the visiting Chicago Blackhawks.....Devils' captain Scott Stevens recorded his 600th career NHL assist and Doug Bodger scored his 100th NHL goal in a 3-2 win over the New York Islanders.

1999: Patrick Roy recorded his 46th career shutout as the Avalanche extended its franchise record winning streak to 12 straight games, in Colorado's 3-0 win at Dallas. Avalanche became the 7th NHL team to win at least 12 straight games.

2001: Alexei Kovalev recorded the first five-point game of his career (with three goals and two assists), to give him 450 points in his NHL career, as the Penguins won 9-4 against the visiting Philadelphia Flyers.

2003: San Jose's Teemu Selanne scored a goal and an assist to become the 7th European player in NHL history to score 900 career points; He reached the milestone in a 4-3 Sharks loss at Minnesota.....Bob Hartley became the 6th fastest coach in NHL history to win 200 games, when the Thrashers had a 4-2 victory over the Devils at New Jersey. Hartley's 200th victory came in his 369th regular season game.....Bryan Smolinski scored his third career hat trick (with 3 power play goals) and rookie Jared Aulin scored his first two NHL goals and added an assist in the Kings 8-2 win against the visiting Carolina Hurricanes.