This Day in Hockey History – November 17, 1973 and 1984 – Getting By With a Little Help From Friends

Nov 17, 2019

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Everyone wants teammates like these. Eleven years apart on November 17, Bobby Orr and Bryan Trottier each tallied four assists. In 1973, Orr’s teammate Phil Esposito also became the fastest to reach 20 goals in one season. Then in 1984, Mike Bossy tied Esposito’s record for hat tricks, partly thanks to Trottier’s help.

Unsurprisingly, all the scoring happened during big blowouts. In 1973, the Boston Bruins hosted the Detroit Red Wings at Boston Garden, and the home team blanked them 8-0. For the 1984 game, the New York Islanders’ Nassau Coliseum hosted fellow New Yorkers, the Rangers, only to crush them 10-4. The earlier game was witnessed by 15,003 fans and the second by 16,002.

To score eight goals, the Bruins had seven scorers and but for a deflection would have had eight. Coach Bep Guidolin claimed the scoring distribution “looks better with every game.” It was a shutout for goalie Gilles Gilbert. Esposito started things off at 7:32 of the first period. This was his 20th goal in 18 games, making him the quickest to score as many up to that point.

As the Bruins proceeded to tally three goals in the second period and four in the third, Orr assisted on two goals in each period. He helped Andre Savard at 5:11 and Fred O’Donnell at 9:31. After the break, he and Esposito assisted Ken Hodge at 4:04. For the second-to-last goal of the night, Orr sent a 50-foot shot that deflected off Savard to score. Savard told the press, “I didn’t change it. Bobby did and I don’t know that it went off me.” It was better that Orr was credited with an assist instead of a goal because it gave him 456 total, the most ever by an NHL defenseman. Amazingly, this was his 458th game.

Orr ended his career with 645 assists. He is currently ranked 11th out of defensemen in terms of having the most career assists.

Come 1984, Esposito held the career hat trick record with 32. Bossy scored his first goal of the night 5:29 into the game. As the New York Daily news reported, “Bossy, in a wide open slot, gratefully backhanded the rebound of a Dennis Potvin point blast. Bryan Trottier, who had two first period assists, began the sequence by beating Pierre Larouche in a faceoff to [goalie] Hanlon’s left.” Less than a minute later, Bossy assisted on Greg Gilbert’s goal. Before the period ended, at 16:00, “Trottier intercepted a clearing attempt and hit Gillies, who gave a backhand pass that sprung Potvin to his second goal in as many games.” The Islanders went into the break up 4-1.

Trottier was credited with his third assist of the night at 5:31 of the second period, on Paul Boutilier’s goal. For the second time that game, the Islanders had scored four goals in one period. It was their seventh time that season that they had managed that feat. At the end of the session, the Rangers pulled goalie Glen Hanlon and replaced him with John Vanbiesbrouck.

The third period belonged to Bossy. Just 3:52 in, Bossy scored his second with a power-play slap shot. After two goals by the Rangers desperately trying to catch up, Bossy nailed the lid on the coffin at 17:44 with an assist from Trottier. Other than Bossy, seven of his teammates had scored to bring the total to ten goals, giving goalie Bill Smith his fourth straight victory.

Bossy went on to break the hat trick record by tallying his 33rd on February 7, 1985. After his final hat trick, scored on March 8, 1987, he had 39 total. That puts him third on the all-time list, but he scored his in only 10 seasons. Esposito remains in fifth for hat tricks after his 18-season career.