Aug. 7 is the saddest day in NHL history as the hockey world lost its greatest player on this date. It also saw one of the greatest pitchers change addresses of all time and finally get his chance to become a full-time starter. Ultimately, future Hall of Famer Sidney Crosby was born in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia.
Chicago Loses A Legend
Stan Mikita, the leading scorer for the Chicago Blackhawks, died at the age of 78 on Aug. 7, 2018. His career was known for its longevity and creativity. He played for the Blackhawks during the 1958-59 season and remained a fixture until 1980.
Mikita was undersized at 5-foot-9 and 169 pounds and didn't have the big personality of his teammate Bobby Hull. However, he is still one of the most attacking players in the game. He scored at least 30 goals on nine different occasions. He won the Art Ross Trophy, for leading the league in scoring, in four of five seasons between 1964 and 1968. He won back-to-back Hart Trophies, as the NHL's most valuable player, in 1967 and 1968.
(Photo by Melchior DiGiacomo/Getty Images)
In fact, he won the Art Ross, Hart and Lady Bing awards in each season, the only player to ever accomplish that feat. The Lady Bing is given each season to the gentlest player of all time, and Mikita winning this award was a huge turning point. He accumulated a combined 300 penalty minutes during the 1963–64 and 1964–65 seasons. He adjusted his act and only accumulated a combined 26 penalty minutes during his two winning seasons for Lady Bing.
Mikita was one of the first players in the league to wear a full helmet. He, along with Hull, innovated by playing around the curve in their posts. This allowed them to get the puck off the ice and become even more lethal shooters.
When he retired in 1980, Mikita was the third leading goaltender in NHL history. He still leads the Blackhawks with 926 assists, 1,467 points, and 1,396 games played. His 541 career goals are second only to Hull.
Hasek Traded to Buffalo
Back in 1992, the Chicago Blackhawks had the problem that the NHL's general manager wished they had; two new players stand out in the lineup. Both had Ed Belfour and Dominik Hasek under contract but only one net to start them. This led them to trade for the future Hockey Hall of Famer.
(Photo by Denis Brodeur/NHLI via Getty Images)
On August 7, 1992, the Blackhawks sent Hasek to the Buffalo Sabers in exchange for goaltender Stephane Beauregard and a fourth-round pick in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. Hasek ended up being the starter in Buffalo and had great success.
He appeared in 491 games over nine seasons with the Sabres, posting a 234-170-70 record with a .926 save percentage (SV%), 2.22 goals-against average (GAA), and 55 shutouts. He won five Vezina Trophies and was voted the best goalkeeper in the league. In 1999, he won 13 postseason games helping the Sabers reach the Stanley Cup Finals. He was traded to the Detroit Red Wings in 2001.
Belfour remained the starting goaltender for the Blackhawks until 1997. Beauregard never played in Chicago. Three days after the Hasek trade, he was traded to the Winnipeg Jets for Christian Ruuttu, who put up 90 points in three seasons with the Blackhawks. A fourth round pick was used to select Eric Daze. He scored 226 goals and 398 points in 601 career games for the Blackhawks.
A Busy Day for Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins made a bevy of moves on this day over the years. On August 7, 1976, they signed free agent goaltender Denis Herron. This was his second of three stints with the Penguins in his 14-season NHL career. Herron went 88-133-44 with a .886 SV% and 3.88 GAA over his 290 games in a Penguins jersey.
On August 7, 1997, they re-signed center Martin Straka. The Penguins originally drafted Straka with 19th The overall pick of the 1992 NHL Entry Draft. He scored 30 goals in the 1993-94 season before being traded to the Ottawa Senators for Troy Murray and Norm Maciver.
He scored a career high 35 goals in the 1998-99 season. He stayed with the team until he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings, in 2003, for Martin Strbak.
Five years later, on August 7, 2002, they signed defenseman Dick Tarnstrom, who spent the previous season with the New York Islanders. In 2003-04, he scored 16 goals and 52 points to become the first blueliner to lead the Penguins in scoring.
A Busy Day in Bubbles
On August 7, 2020, three teams advanced to the round of 16 in the Edmonton bubble. Brad Richardson scored a goal in overtime to give the Arizona Coyotes a 4-3 victory over the Nashville Predators in Game 4 of their playoff series and a 3-1 series win.
Dominik Kubalik scored the game-winning goal to give the Blackhawks a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers and close out their playoff series. Chicago was 24 years oldth and the last team to make it into the extended playoff format. They were 12th seed in the Western Conference and upset the fifth-seeded Oilers in four games.
Chris Tanev scored just 11 seconds into overtime to lead the Vancouver Canucks to a 5-4 win over the Minnesota Wild. The Canucks won the best-of-five series in four games to advance to the next round, where they faced the defending Stanley Cup champions, the St. Louis Cardinals. Louis Blues.
On this same day in Toronto, Auston Matthews' overtime goal kept the Maple Leafs' season alive in a 4-3 Game 4 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, forcing a fifth and final game in their Qualifying Round series. The Maple Leafs were down 3-0 with less than six minutes to play when William Nylander put them on the board. Matthews assisted on back-to-back goals by John Tavares and Zach Hyman to force overtime before winning the game in overtime.
Later that night, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Penguins 2-0 with third period goals by Artturi Lehkonen and Shea Weber. They closed this Qualifying Round series in four games, becoming the second of 12 to advance on this day.
Odds & Ends
Although many hockey fans today only know Joe Micheletti as a color analyst, he had a six-season professional career, as a defenseman, in the World Hockey Association (WHA) and the NHL. Long before he started broadcasting New York Rangers games, on Aug. 7, 1979, was sold to St. Louis Blues, by the Oilers, by Tom Roulston and Risto Siltanen. He played 137 games for the Blues before being traded to the Colorado Rockies.
The Minnesota North Stars also acquired Bobby Smith from the Canadiens on Aug. 7, 1990, in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick. The North Stars originally selected Smith with the first overall pick of the 1978 NHL Amateur Draft.
Smith scored 30 goals and 74 points in 1978-79 and won the Calder Trophy for that season's leading scorer. He scored at least 24 goals in his first five seasons with Minnesota, including a career-high 43 in 1981-92. On October 28, 1983, he was traded to the Canadiens for Keith Acton, Mark Napier and a third-round draft pick. Smith had two seasons of at least 30 goals in Montreal and won the Stanley Cup in 1986.
happy Birthday to you
There are 12 current and former NHL players born on Aug. 7. The first was Hazen McAndrew in 1917, who played seven games for the Brooklyn Americans in 1942. The most recent was Samuel Kňažko who was born in 2002.
By far, the best player celebrating a birthday today is Sidney Crosby, who was born on Aug. 7, 1987, Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. He was drafted by the Penguins with the first overall pick of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. He made an immediate impact with 39 goals and 102 points in his rookie season, winning the Calder Trophy. The following season, he became the youngest player ever to score 120 points.
Crosby has served as the Penguins captain since 2007. He played a major role in the Stanley Cup championship in 2009, 2016 and 2017. He also won the Hart Trophy (regular season MVP) and the Conn Smythe Trophy (postseason MVP) twice in his career.
Other famous players born on this day include Jonathan Bernier (36), Jake Allen (34), Damon Severson (30), and John Leonard (26).
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