Oct. 24: Orr first defenseman to reach 900 points

THIS DATE IN HISTORY: Oct. 24
1976:
Bobby Orr
becomes the first defenseman in NHL history to reach 900 career points when he scores twice to help the Chicago Blackhawks
defeat the St. Louis Blues 7-2
at Chicago Stadium.

Orr, in his first season with Chicago, opens the scoring
20 seconds into the game
against Blues goalie
Eddie Johnston
, a longtime teammate with the Boston Bruins. His second goal comes during a power play midway through the third period.
He gets his 900th point in his 638th NHL game. But Orr scores just once more before missing the rest of the season and all of 1977-78 with knee injuries.

MORE MOMENTS
1945:The NHL has the earliest start to its season since beginning play in 1917-18. In the lone opening-night game,
Red Hamill
scores two unassisted goals in the final seven minutes to give the Blackhawks a
5-4 win against the Bruins
at Boston Garden.
1972:
Jacques Lemaire
scores three goals for his third NHL hat trick and has an assist for a four-point night, helping the
Montreal Canadiens defeat the New York Islanders 4-3
in Uniondale, New York. It's the first NHL hat trick at Nassau Coliseum.
1981:
Mike Bossy
becomes the first member of the Islanders to score 250 goals. The milestone comes in his 315th NHL game, making him the fastest player in NHL history (at the time) to score 250. Bossy also
has two assists
in New York's 6-4 victory against the Washington Capitals at Nassau Coliseum.
Exactly seven years later, Bossy announces his retirement after sitting out the 1987-88 season with back injuries. He finishes his NHL career with 1,126 points (573 goals, 553 assists) in 752 games.

1987:
Mario Lemieux
scores three goals in the third period, and
Craig Simpson
has a goal and three assists, to help the
Pittsburgh Penguins defeat the Buffalo Sabres 5-3
at the Civic Arena. It's the ninth NHL hat trick for Lemieux, who is less than a month into his fourth NHL season.
2002:
Patrick Roy
of the Colorado Avalanche passes
Terry Sawchuk
as the NHL's all-time leader in games played by a goalie. He plays his 972nd game and gets the win in
a 3-2 road victory
against the Phoenix Coyotes. Roy holds the record until 2009, when he's passed by
Martin Brodeur
.

2015:The Canadiens break the NHL record for most consecutive regulation wins at the start of a season by defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs
5-3 at Bell Centre
. Carey Price makes 49 saves to help the Canadiens move to 9-0-0, with all nine wins in regulation. That's one more than the 1975-76 Buffalo Sabres.
2019: The Columbus Blue Jackets
defeat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3
at Nationwide Arena on a goal by Cam Atkinson at 3:28 of overtime. It's the eighth consecutive one-goal game for the Blue Jackets, and their fourth in a row that's decided in overtime.