This Day in Hockey History
1980 - Bruins retire Johnny Bucyk's No. 9
The Boston Bruins retired Johnny Bucyk's No. 9 before a game against the Detroit Red Wings on Mar. 13th, 1980. The Bruins would proceed to win by a final score of 4-2.
Bucyk - nicknamed "the chief" - spent the vast majority of his illustrious career with the Bruins, racking up 1369 points in 1540 NHL games. He was famously the first Bruins skater to skate with Lord Stanley's mug following the team's 1970 Stanley Cup victory, despite not being captain (that club had a committee of alternates).
1996 - Wendel comes home again
The struggling Toronto Maple Leafs were a busy team on Mar. 13, 1996. They pulled off two trades that day: first they dealt forward Dave Andreychyuk to the New Jersey Devils for a couple of draft picks. Then in a separate deal with another New York-area side, the Maple Leafs re-acquired fan favorite Wendel Clark.
Clark was acquired by the Maple Leafs along with defenseman Mathieu Schneider and prospect D.J. Smith (who now coaches the Oshawa Generals of the OHL). In exchange the Maple Leafs sent defenseman Kenny Jonsson, forward Darby Hendrickson, highly-touted prospect Sean Haggerty, and a first-round pick at the 1997 NHL entry draft to the New York Islanders.
"My lifelong dream has been to win the Stanley Cup," Islanders general manager Mike Milbury told the New York Times after the trade, explaining that the team had set themselves up for the future. "I think this gets us one step closer to that dream."
Of course, as always happens whenever the Maple Leafs trade a first-round draft pick - the team bottomed out the next season, handing the Islanders a top-five pick at the 1997 NHL entry draft (which was considered extremely deep at the time). The Islanders used that pick (fourth-overall) to select Roberto Luongo.
But hey, at least Clark was still productive. In fact he scored 78 goals in 185 games during his second tour of duty as a Maple Leaf, pretty impressive totals for the mid-90s.
2001 - Mark Recchi's 1000th point
On Mar. 13, 2001 the Philadelphia Flyers dusted off the St. Louis Blues at the Wells Fargo Center by a final score of 5-2. Flyers winger Mark Recchi led the way with a goal and two assists.
Those three points pushed Recchi past 1000 total NHL points for his career. At the time he was only the 60th player to accomplish such a feat.
"I think it will mean more when I'm finished playing," Recchi told reporters after that game. "My family and my kids can look back and see I accomplished something. Right now, it's nice, but we've got other things that we're trying to accomplish here."
Recchi would go on to play another decade of NHL hockey, win two Stanley Cups and contribute 533 more points before retiring in 2011.