Taylor Hall's spotlight stolen after first hat trick in 4041 days (Source: Imagn)
Taylor Hall scored his fifth career hat trick during Chicago Blackhawks' 6-2 win over the Dallas Stars on December 28th, 2024. His latest hat trick, before last night, was 4041 days ago on December 5, 2013 for the Edmonton Oilers. However, head coach Luke Richardson chose to highlight Hall's backcheck late in the third period rather tha his hat trick.
With the Stars pressing, the 33-year-old tracked back to help defend and stopped a potential scoring chance. Richardson praised Hall for playing a complete game, emphasizing that the defensive play was just as important as his goals.
"We’ll talk about his 3 goals, and those were huge in our win. But if you scroll in the middle part of the third period, when they were trying to press and push, he had a huge backcheck right to our crease and that pretty much nullified a play. That’s just as important as the others. That’s the professional he is. He played a complete game," Richardson said.
