Grimaldi's Four-Goal Night Brings Stats, Stories Worth Celebrating

When Eric Nystrom scored four goals in a single game for the Predators back in January of 2014, there ultimately wasn't much to be happy about.
Nystrom was the only one who found the back of the net for the visitors that night in Calgary, as they lost, 5-4, in a shootout.
When Rocco Grimaldi accomplished the four-goal feat for just the second time in Preds franchise history on Thursday, the mood was a bit more celebratory.

Grimaldi's hat trick - the first of his NHL career - came in a span of just 2:34 in the first period, and his fourth and final tally of the night was Nashville's seventh goal in a 7-1 rout of the Red Wings, a much more favorable result than the first occurrence of a quadruple-goal night.
As you might imagine, Grimaldi etched his name into a number of Preds and NHL records by the time the game was complete, so let's first take a closer look at some of the more impressive stats.
From NHL Public Relations: "Grimaldi set a franchise record for the fastest three goals in a game - at any point and from the start of a contest - and later equaled the club mark for most goals in a single game with four. It was the second-straight day that an NHL player posted at least four goals in a game.
"Grimaldi's hat trick marked the fifth time in Predators history that a player has scored three goals in a single period and just the second time a player has done so in the opening frame. It also marked the 10th-fastest hat trick from the start of a regular-season game in NHL history."
Grimaldi's hat trick in 2:34 was the 22nd-fastest three goals scored by a player in NHL history. The hat trick marks the fifth time in Preds history a player has scored at least three goals in a single period and the second time it has happened in the first period (first: Rob Valicevic, three goals on Nov. 10, 1999, at Chicago).

Next, the human element.
Standing just 5-foot-6, Grimaldi surely had his doubters over the years as to whether he would ever make it to this level. But, for what the 28-year-old California native may lack in size, he's always made up for with speed, skill and heart.
All of those attributes were on display Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena, and the entire hockey world took notice.
After being drafted by the Panthers in 2011, Grimaldi spent time with the Florida and Colorado organizations, but he was never able to find full-time NHL work - until moving to Tennessee. Grimaldi signed with the Predators in the summer of 2018, and he hasn't looked back. He skated in 53 games with the Preds that first campaign, and then appeared in 66 more last season while posting career highs with 10 goals, 21 assists and 31 points.
Entering Thursday's game, however, Grimaldi had only three goals and four points to speak of in 25 games, including a span of 15 contests without finding the scoresheet. In reality, the drought was even longer with Grimaldi being a healthy scratch for the first outings of Nashville's eight-game road trip during the second week of March.
But, as Grimaldi said shortly after collecting all four pucks, hockey can be a strange, strange game.
"I was more in shock," Grimaldi said on scoring his fourth. "[I scored] three goals in [fewer than three] minutes, and we just were laughing like, 'What is going on?'"
What was going on was a night most only dream of for someone who moved to Detroit from California as a teenager to pursue his hockey dreams. Grimaldi grew up a Red Wings fan, and of all the teams to score four against, doing so against Detroit had some added meaning.
"A kid that grows up a Detroit Red Wings fan, a kid who is from California but grows up as a Red Wings fan, gets the opportunity to move to Michigan - and I know the man who brought me to Michigan was in the stands tonight, Glen Murray, son-in-law of [Red Wings owners] Mr. and Mrs. Illitch, to have him in the stands, and to grow up with [Red Wings broadcasters] Kenny Daniels and Mickey Redmond, watching those games, and to know that they called tonight's game, it's surreal for me," Grimaldi said. "It's special. I have nothing but respect for that organization. The family that owns that organization, the people in it, I've known them for a long, long time. For them to be in the building tonight was extremely special. To have them call my game is extremely special, and I've nothing but the utmost respect for them. It's crazy. I don't know what to say."
Grimaldi's teammates knew they didn't want him to stop at three, nor four, and he almost had a fifth before the night was through. If Grimaldi had his way, he wouldn't have even been on the ice late in the game to have an opportunity at No. 5, but his teammates weren't about to let him sit down.
"That was really special," Grimaldi said of the support from his teammates. "I mean, late in the game, I think it was like two or three minutes left, and I went out for a shift and then I was coming back to the bench, and the whole bench pushed me back out there for that face off… And that was pretty gassed but I was like, 'All right, I'll try.' …And when I looked up, I saw that it was a 2-on-1, I heard everyone yelling at me to go, so I was like, 'OK, as long as you're not mad at me for not changing,' but I was like might as well try it. If the game was a one-goal game, I wouldn't have done that, but when the game was out of reach at that point, I might as well try [for five]. And my teammates wouldn't let me off anyway. They kept pushing me on, so pretty surreal."
The night was surreal for at least four reasons, and it won't be forgotten anytime soon by Grimaldi, the Preds or even the visiting broadcasters who were privileged to witness a piece of hockey history.