Hatty Valentine’s Day Courtesy Spezza and Kovalchuk

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Two NHL players had a ‘Hatty’ Valentine’s day yesterday night. The first hat trick was from Jason Spezza of the Ottawa Senators and the next was from Ilya Kovalchuk of the New Jersey Devils. Both teams ended up winning their games. Good Valentine day gift for fans from New Jersey and Ottawa! Here are those highlights:

Spezza’s hatty (I like the delay before the shot on the 2nd goal): 

Kovalchuk’s hatty (Check out Parise’s steal on the 3rd goal): 

Valentine’s day also proved to be fairly interesting on social media with the hashtag #nhlvalentines. People took the opportunity to create their own ‘roses are red, violets are blue’ poems, completely bashing other teams and boosting their own. Alright here are some favorites (for some of the more racy ones, just search the hashtag):

Sam Gagner’s Crazy 8 Point Night

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For those of you who didn’t hear (aka Americans who don’t get proper hockey news coverage)… Last night Sam Gagner tallied 8 points for the Oilers in their win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Sam Gagner becomes the 3rd Oiler player to score 8 points in a game (with Gretzky and Coffey– good company huh?)

Even more impressive is that no one in the NHL has been able to make this feat since Mario Lemieux scored 8 points in the late 1980s. So is Gagner really on par with the 8-point superstar club? Is it fair to put him in a grouping with Maurice Richard, Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey, and Bryan Trottier? I mean, he did earn it. Eight points in a eight-goal win is pretty impressive. He scored 4 goals and 4 assists in the game and fans couldn’t get enough. It is reported that after Gagner’s fourth goal, one fan (who had already thrown his hat for the hat-trick) through his shoe on the ice- now if that isn’t excitement and serious commitment I don’t know what is! Gagner’s name also started to trending on Canadian’s twitter accounts yesterday and quickly became the number 1 topic trending worldwide on twitter. To top it all off, Gagner is going to become an unrestricted free agent next summer. Can you imagine what he could do for a franchise that has a decent record and is building a strong, young team?

Here are the highlights of Gagner’s 4 goals and 4 assists from last night: