Another First

The Fight:




Normally I wouldn't be posting a mediocre fight between members of opposing KHL teams that have no connection to North American hockey.  However, this fight goes beyond a few right hooks.  I have a feeling this season is going to be pretty entertaining with or without the NHL.

I have a fondness for the skill and toughness a hockey player can bring to the ice.  Give me a guy who can score, run you over and throw a punch and I'm happy.  With that being said there is no better irrelevant stat then the Gordie Howe hat trick.  Goal, assist, fight in one game.  Not an extremely common occurrence.

I did some digging and found that including the playoffs there have been 38 Gordie's in the last two seasons in the NHL.  There were about 80 games played in the playoffs last year so double that and add the total number of regular season games and you get 2,620.  Needless to say they don't happen often.  Hell, four teams alone combined for 16 of those.  Watch the AHL and your chances slightly increase.  They have have 62 in the past two years.

Now for some increased insider information.  Of those 100 combined Gordie Howe hat tricks, three times both combatants did it against each other.  Very cool and very rare.

So here we are in a new season with all the European leagues underway.  We've had the first fight of the year and have seen some scraps here and there.  And now we can also say we have the first Gordie Howe hat trick of the season thanks to the fight above.  But wait.  There's more.

In the season of the unpredictable the first Gordie this year was accomplished by both of these players.  If we want to get technical, Lehtera did it first but either way both did it by fighting each other.  Adding more to the story, these teams totaled 8 goals in this game.  Both of these players figured in every one of them.  Lehtera ended with a goal and four assists and Ankudinov a goal and two assists.

What will be next?  In going with the unpredictable I will say an early season goalie fight.