The future of the NHL is looking bright.
And two of the players leading that charge, Macklin Celebrini and Connor Bedard, both netted hat tricks Tuesday night. They are the only players with multiple hat tricks this season.
Bedard’s three goals came in a 5-2 home win for his Chicago Blackhawks against the Calgary Flames. His first came early in the second period, his second goal broke a 2-2 tie, and his final tally iced the game into the empty net.
Then, hours later, Celebrini matched his fellow first-overall pick with three goals of his own. Both players now have 13 on the season, trailing only Nathan MacKinnon in the Rocket Richard race.
Celebrini opened Tuesday’s game against the Utah Mammoth with two goals in the first six minutes, including a laser of a shot on a breakaway. But he didn’t get his final tally until overtime, when he fired a point shot on the power play past Vitek Vanecek for a 3-2 Sharks win.
The three goals gave Celebrini 30 points on the season, which is tied with Connor McDavid for second in league scoring (and one point more than Bedard). According to Sportsnet Stats, the 19-year-old Celebrini joins Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky (twice) as the only teenagers to have 30 points in the first 20 games of a season.
Hockey fans were quick to react to the latest heroics from the NHL’s next generation. Here are some of the many reactions.
