This Day In Hockey History: Dec 22nd

1917 - Ottawa Senators signed Frank Nighbor.

1920 - Hamilton became the 1st (and only) NHL team to post a shutout in it's debut, when the Tigers (relocated from Quebec City) beat the visiting Montreal Canadiens 5-0. Babe Dye scored twice and Howie Lockhart recorded the only shutout of his career.

1954 - Milt Schmidt retired as a player and was named the new coach of the Boston Bruins.

1964 - NY Rangers traded Dick Duff to Montreal in exchange for Bill Hicke.

1971 - Chicago's Bobby Hull scored his 28th (and final) career hat trick to lead the Black Hawks to a 4-1 win against the Seals, at Oakland. Hull became the first player in NHL history to score 28 hat tricks.

1993 - Dean Evason scored a shorthanded goal at 3:20 of overtime to give the Dallas Stars a 3-2 win at Anaheim. It was the first shorthanded overtime goal since the NHL adopted the five-minute overtime period in 1983.

1996 - Mark Messier scored two goals and had two assists to become the 5th player in NHL history to register 1,500 career points in the Rangers' 7-3 win against the Florida Panthers, at MSG.

1997 - Detroit's Scotty Bowman became the first coach in NHL history to win 200 games with three different teams, when the Red Wings beat the Bruins, 4-2 at Boston. Bowman had previously won 200+ games with Montreal and Buffalo.

Happy Birthday to Ron Greschner, Ian Turnbull, Stefan Persson, Kirk Maltby, Paul Fenton, Norm Gratton, Stan Neckar and Steve Kariya.