Detroit’s up-and-coming forward Givani Smith recorded a Gordie Howe hat trick tonight in a 4-1 win against the Panthers. “I never heard of it,” he told reporters after the game. “I’m not sure what it is.”
It is, of course, a goal, an assist, and a fight in the same game. A New York writer was the first to call this combination a “Gordie Howe hat trick” way back in the 1950s, despite Mr. Hockey’s only accomplishing it twice himself in an astonishing 32 years of professional hockey. So maybe Howe’s wasn’t the aptest name for the feat, but it stuck, so it’s fun to see his fellow Red Wing notch one.
Smith’s was the fourth GHHT of the season league-wide so far, and a welcome boon to a struggling Detroit team, lifting them to their first win in nine games.
