On Tuesday, prior to Toronto’s game against the Buffalo Sabres at Scotiabank Arena (7 pm. ET; TSN4, MSG-B), the Maple Leafs will honor Sittler for the 50th anniversary of that feat, a single-game points mark that has endured to this day. It will be a party that lasts all evening, even after the opening puck is dropped.
With his No. 27 banner dangling from the arena rafters, the 74-year-old will be joined, weather and health permitting, by former teammates McDonald, Thompson, Dave “Tiger” Williams, Inge Hammerstrom, Claire Alexander, Rod Seiling, Pat Boutette, Ian Turnbull, Jack Valiquette and Bob Neely. There, they will celebrate a record that has survived the test of time, even with the subsequent inventions of composite sticks, feather-light skates and the removal of the center-ice red line.
Chicken wings will be sold at arena kiosks in 10 pieces in tribute to the number of points Sittler racked up in that game. Current Maple Leaf players will have special patches on their jerseys marking the event.
“To share it with the fans, my teammates, my family, it’s just special,” he said.
Much like his record.
It’s especially so when you consider he ranks 68th on the NHL’s all-time points list with 1,121 (484 goals, 637 assists) in 1,096 games with the Maple Leafs, Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings in a truncated career that lasted from 1970-1985. He was the epitome of a leader and a dogged competitor, traits that deservedly got him elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1989.
In the ensuing years, he admits watching generational talents like Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux take the League by storm. Surely, he thought, one of these guys will eclipse it one day.
It has not to be.
Eleven players in NHL history have had eight points in a game. That’s the closest anyone has ever come. Lemieux and Gretzky each did it twice.
“I thought if anyone was going to catch me, it was them,” Sittler said. “They could carry a team. They were so dynamic.”
Obviously not enough. At least not like he was in one glorious 60-minute span.
Sittler’s historic night started with a pair of assists in the first period, a goal by McDonald goal at 6:19 and one by Turnbull at 7:01.
The second period was even more impressive. He scored his first goal at 2:56, assisted on a goal from Borje Salming at 3:33, scored his second goal at 8:12 and completed his hat trick at 10:27. Before the period would end, he would assist on another goal from Salming at 13:57. Five points (three goals, two assists) in one period and seven points (three goals, four assists) through two periods.
As the players were resting in the second intermission, Maple Leafs publicity director Stan Obodiac busted into the dressing room and told Sittler that he was just one point shy of the then-NHL record of eight, held at the time by Montreal Canadiens great Maurice “Rocket” Richard.
“There was no internet then or anything like that,” Williams said. “No one had a clue. We just knew Darryl had just scored a hat trick in one period. Back then, goals were a big deal. “When Stan told us he was close to Rocket’s record, well, any time you approached one of Rocket’s records, it was a big deal.”
