A certain Hurricanes defenceman scored a natural hat trick, the team got a Fat Trick, and a couple of players hit some milestones.
Here are five things we learned in the NHL on Tuesday night.
Faulk natural hat trick, Hurricanes second Fat Trick
Justin Faulk did something during the Carolina Hurricanes’ game against the Los Angeles Kings that few prolific scorers have been able to do: score a natural hat trick.
Faulk scored the second, third and fourth goals during the Hurricanes’ 7-3 win and became just the 10th different defenceman in NHL history to score thrice in a row.
Amazingly, Al MacInnis achieved the feat twice, once in 1996 and another in 1998, and Dustin Byfuglien was the latest to score three straight.
Faulk’s second goal also gave the Hurricanes their second Fat Trick of the season.
A Fat Trick, according to The News & Observer, occurs after the following three events.
▪ Any time Faulk scores, Triangle-area Moe’s locations hand out a free side of queso the next day.
▪ Papa John’s offers half-priced pizzas (online only) on days after the Canes score at least three goals.
▪ And Bojangles’ gives free Bo-Berry biscuits to customers who say “I’m a Caniac, and it’s Bo Time!” the morning after the Canes score a power-play goal.
Faulk’s second goal fulfilled all three requirements of the Fat Trick and even the in-house announcer got in on the action.
Since Faulk secured all three food groups for Caniac nation with one shot, does that mean he scored a natural Fat Trick?
Hall stays devilishly hot
New Jersey Devils forward Taylor Hall entered Tuesday night’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers riding a 14-game point streak during which he amassed an astounding nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points.
Five minutes into the second period, Hall extended the streak to 15 games with a snipe from a near-impossible angle while he was simultaneously plastered into the boards by Radko Gudas.
Hall left the game, but would return later and scored the game-tying goal with under 1:30 to play. The Devils went on to win in shootout.
For the record, Hall thought the hit was clean.
Tavares hits milestone
John Tavares continues to prove why he was worth the No. 1 overall pick back in 2009.
At the end of the first period of the New York Islanders’ game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Tavares scored his 29th goal of the season.
The goal marked the 600th point of the 27-year-old’s career giving him 264 goals and 336 assists through 645 games spanning nine seasons.
He leads his entire draft class by 150 points. Matt Duchene, drafted third overall, has 450, followed by Ryan O’Reilly (33rd overall, 403 points), Victor Hedman (second overall, 339 points) and Evander Kane (fourth overall, 338 points).
Tarasenko reaches games milestone
Vladamir Tarsenko played in his 400th career game when the St. Louis Blues played the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.
Tarasneko began his career when he was drafted by the Blues 16th overall in the 2010 NHL Draft. Four hundred games later, the 26-year-old Russian has managed to pot 168 goals and pick up 167 assists, two of the latter category came against the 4-3 loss to the Predators.
Though he was picked midway through the first round, he ranks fourth in scoring from the 2010 draft class behind Tyler Seguin (478), Taylor Hall (440), and Jeff Skinner (365).
Gilmour earns place in Rangers lore
If I were to tell you that a player scored a goal to make history for the New York Rangers would you be able to guess who it is?
Well, I’ll just tell you. It was John Gilmour.
The 24-year-old scored his first goal of his career and became the 700th player to score a goal wearing a Rangers jersey.
The goal was also the first point in his three-game career. He was originally drafted by the Calgary Flames in the 2013 NHL Draft.
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