Darryl Sittler and his 10 point game in the NHL

Nearly half a century ago, Toronto Maple Leafs captain Darryl Sittler set a record that will probably last forever. He managed to score 10 points in one NHL game. That’s a feat not even the great Wayne Gretzky could achieve in his glory days.

Sittler and his 10 points for Boston

The year was 1976, specifically February 7. The Toronto team wasn’t in a good playing condition. The Maple Leafs had lost six of their previous seven games, and were scheduled to play an upstart Boston team that day.

The Bruins were in form at the time, having won seven straight. They had lost only one of their previous 17 games. Against a struggling Toronto team, it wasn’t going to make a difference that day. Boston simply came to Maple Leaf Garden for another winning notch.

But no one knew what Darryl Sittler would do that night. The game ended in a wild result for Toronto (11:4) and the Toronto captain was on the scoresheet for ten goals, scoring six times and adding four assists.

The unlucky Dave Reece

Bruins goalie Dave Reece was practically cooked in his own juice as he grabbed a share of all the goals. Gilles Gilbert was the number one goalie at the time, but he was injured at the time. Therefore, the choice fell on rookie Reece, who was only catching his 14th game of the regular season. After that game they sent him to the farm and never appeared in the NHL again.

Hero Sittler

In the game report we can read that after the first period there was no indication that Sittler would explode in points. After the first period the score was 2:1 for the home team and Sittler had two assists. But everything changed in the second period.

An incredible nine goals were scored in the second 20 minutes. Toronto scored six of them and the score was already wild at that point (8:4). Sittler himself scored a hat trick in that period and added two assists. After 40 minutes he was already on seven points with three goals and four assists.

But that wasn’t all, Toronto and especially Sittler didn’t lose their appetite in the last period, which had only three goals. The captain of Toronto took care of all of them with his second hat trick and set the points record!

10 points in one NHL game means “immortality” for Sittler. Plus, it lasted a full 48 years! And there’s really no sign of it being surpassed anytime soon. Even greats like Phil Esposito, Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky couldn’t score even 9 points in a single game.

Sittler spent just under 12 seasons in a Toronto jersey, and played for the Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings towards the end of his career. In the regular season, he left a trail of 1,096 games and recorded 1,121 points on 484 goals and 637 assists. In the playoffs, he almost also kept a point per game, scoring 74 points in 76 duels. He was deservedly inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto in 1989.

Source: NHL history, ESPN, Wikipedia