Bobby Hull (left) and Gordie Howe
April 11, 1980: The Montreal Canadiens beat the Hartford Whalers, 4-3 at the Hartford Civic Center. Yvon Lambert scored the winning goal for Les Habitantes, 29 seconds into overtime. This allowed the Canadiens to complete a 3-game sweep of the Whalers in the 1st round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
It was also -- including the Playoffs -- the 1,924th NHL game, and the 2,422nd at the major league level, for the Whalers' Gordie Howe. At the age of 52 years and 11 days, he is the oldest player in NHL history.
He had debuted with the Detroit Red Wings on October 14, 1946. So his 26-season tenure in the NHL -- with 6 years in the World Hockey Association thrown in, for a total of 32 seasons -- spanned 6 Presidents, from Harry Truman to Jimmy Carter. Or, in his own country of Canada, 6 Prime Ministers, from William Lyon Mackenzie King to Joe Clark.
In 32 seasons, he had participated in 29 All-Star Games. He got the Red Wings into the Stanley Cup Finals 11 times, winning 4: In 1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955. He got the Houston Aeros into the WHA Finals 3 times, winning 2: In 1974 and 1975. In 6 seasons, he won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer. In 6 -- 4 of them the same -- he won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's Most Valuable Player. And he won the WHA's MVP, the Gary Davidson Trophy, in 1974. The league then renamed their MVP the Gordie Howe Trophy.
Howe scored his 545th career goal in 1963, surpassing Maurice Richard to become the NHL's all-time leader. He extended the record to 786 when he initially retired in 1971. In 1978, the Aeros traded him to the New England Whalers. When the Whalers were absorbed into the NHL in 1979, as the Hartford Whalers, it gave Howe 1 more season in the NHL, and he raised the record to 801 goals -- 975 counting the WHA. It took until 1994 for Wayne Gretzky to surpass the 801, raising it to 894, but, counting the WHA, he still trails Howe, with 940.
In 2010, appropriately enough with the Red Wings, Chris Chelios played his last game at the age of 48. That's as close as any player has come to breaking Howe's age record.
In 2021, Patrick Marleau of the San Jose Sharks surpassed Howe's record for most NHL regular-season games, 1,779 to 1,767. Including the Playoffs, he leads Howe, 1,974 to 1,924. Mark Messier trails both in regular-season games, with 1,756; but leads both with the Playoffs counted, 1,992. However... Howe-ever, add WHA totals, and, while Messier's 1st season was in that league, Howe's lead is still in place.
In 2007, the Hartford Civic Center was renamed the XL Center. (UPDATE: In 2025, it was renamed the PeoplesBank Arena.)
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April 11, 1980 was a Friday. These other Stanley Cup Playoff games were played that day:
* The New York Rangers lost to the Atlanta Flames, 4-2 at The Omni in Atlanta. The next day, the Rangers beat the Flames to eliminate them from the Playoffs. It was the last game the Flames played in Atlanta: The next season, they moved to Calgary.
* The New York Islanders beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Ken Morrow, who had played for the Gold Medal-winning U.S. team in the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York just 6 weeks earlier, scored the winning goal, 6:55 into overtime. Having traded for the Kings' Butch Goring earlier in the season, the Isles eliminated the Kings the next day, and went on to win their 1st Stanley Cup.
* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Al MacAdam scored the winning goal, 32 seconds into overtime. This eliminated the Leafs.
* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-1 at the Checkerdome, as the St. Louis Arena was then known. The Blues were eliminated.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-2 at the Northlands Coliseum. Ken Linseman won it at 3:56 of the 2nd overtime. The Oilers were eliminated. The Flyers went on to their 4th Stanley Cup Finals in 7 seasons, but lost to the Islanders. As for Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers, in their 1st season in the NHL, their time would come, but not yet.
* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-4 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. The Sabres won the series, anyway.
There were 3 regular-season games played in the NBA:
* The Boston Celtics beat the Houston Rockets, 95-75 at the Boston Garden.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 95-91 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.
And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns, 108-105 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.
And these games were played in Major League Baseball:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Texas Rangers, 11-7 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Fergie Jenkins was the winning pitcher, although neither he nor Yankee starter Tommy John reached the 6th inning. Rusty Staub hit a home run for the Rangers, Bob Watson and Oscar Gamble for the Yankees. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-3 with a walk, and had an RBI on a groundout.
* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 7-5 at Shea Stadium.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Montreal Expos, 6-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Steve Carlton outpitched Steve Rogers. Mike Schmidt and Pete Rose each went 0-for-3 with a walk.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-0 in a game shortened to 6 innings by rain. Johnny Bench went 1-for-3.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 8-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Eddie Murray went 0-for-4.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Willie Stargell went 2-for-3 with a walk.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-0 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Larry Gura pitched a 6-hit shutout. George Brett went 1-for-4, raising his batting average on the season to .143. He would raise his average to .401 in mid-September, before slipping to .390.
* The Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 10-6 at the Astrodome.
* The San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-3 at San Diego Stadium (soon to be renamed Jack Murphy Stadium). Dave Winfield went 0-for-3 with a walk and an RBI groundout. Willie McCovey, in his final season, went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs.
* The California Angels beat the Cleveland Indians, 10-2 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Joe Rudi hit 2 home runs, and Rod Carew went 3-for-5 with an RBI.
* The Oakland Athletics beat the Minnesota Twins, 1-0 at the Oakland Coliseum. Matt Keough pitched a 4-hit shutout in this 1st month of Billy Martin-managed "Billy Ball" for the A's. Rookie Rickey Henderson went 1-for-4 with an RBI, although he didn't attempt to steal any bases.
* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Seattle Mariners, 10-7 at the Kingdome in Seattle. This was a wild game: It was 2-1 Jays after the top of the 6th, 5-2 M's after the bottom of the 7th, 7-5 Jays after the top of the 9th, and then Rod Craig hit a home run to send the game to extra innings. But 4 straight singles (by Alfredo Griffin, Willie Upshaw, Bob Davis and Roy Howell) and a sacrifice fly (by Otto Velez) gave the Jays 3 runs in the top of the 11th, and the M's couldn't mount another comeback.
* And the Boston Red Sox and the Milwaukee Brewers were rained out at Milwaukee County Stadium. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on July 10. The Brewers won the opener, 2-1. The Red Sox won the nightcap, 7-0. Steve Renko and Bob Stanley combined on a 5-hit shutout. Neither Carl Yastrzemski or Paul Molitor appeared in either game. Over the 2 games, Robin Yount went 1-for-8.
Mark Teixeira, a 1st baseman who hit 409 home runs, made 3 All-Star Games, won 5 Gold Gloves, and won the 2009 World Series with the Yankees, was born on this day.
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