Nov. 7: Rangers acquire Esposito, Vadnais from Bruins for Park, Ratelle

THIS DATE IN HISTORY: Nov. 7
1975:The New York Rangers and Boston Bruins, archrivals for the first half of the 1970s, complete a franchise-altering trade involving three future Hockey Hall of Famers. The Rangers send center
Jean Ratelle
, defenseman
Brad Park
and minor league defenseman
Joe Zanussi
to the Bruins for center
Phil Esposito
and defenseman
Carol Vadnais
.

The trade stuns everyone, especially Esposito, the NHL's top goal-scorer in each of the previous four seasons and a player who has always been reviled in New York. Park, regarded for several years as the best NHL defenseman not named
Bobby Orr
, is just as unpopular in Boston.
"It took me probably a year to accept that I wasn't part of the Boston Bruins anymore," Esposito remembers years later. "All I knew about New York was between Seventh and Eighth avenues and 33rd and 34th streets, Madison Square Garden. … When I did learn the city, it was … the greatest city and the greatest fans, and we had some good years."

Twelve hours after the trade is announced, Esposito
scores two goals and has an assist
for the Rangers in a 7-5 loss to the California Golden Seals in Oakland.
Park becomes a fan favorite in Boston, where he helps cushion the impact of Orr's loss a year later.
The trade turns out better for the Bruins, who get several superb seasons from Park and Ratelle and advance to the Stanley Cup Final in 1977 and 1978. Esposito's offensive numbers decline from his peak seasons, but he remains among the most dangerous scorers in the NHL. Vadnais is unable to make up for the loss of Park and the Rangers miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 1976 and 1977, though they advance to the Final in 1979.

MORE MOMENTS
1962: Goalie
Glenn Hall
, making his 502nd consecutive start, has to leave the Chicago Blackhawks game against Boston in the first period because of a back injury. He's replaced by
Denis DeJordy
and the
Blackhawks tie the Bruins 3-3
.

1968:St. Louis Blues center
Red Berenson
scores six goals
(and has an assist) in an 8-0 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers at the Spectrum. Berenson scores once in the first period, four times in the second and once more in the third. It's the first six-goal game in the League since Detroit's
Syd Howe
in 1944. By the end of the night, even the fans at the Spectrum were rooting for Berenson. "I don't remember exactly what the chants were, but there was a lot of support from the Philadelphia fans,"
Berenson tells NHL.com in 2008
. "I was probably the last player on St. Louis that Philadelphia fans ever cheered for."

On the same night,
Gordie Howe
of the Detroit Red Wings has an assist in for his 1,600th NHL point. It comes when he sets up a first-period goal by longtime linemate
Alex Delvecchio
in Detroit's
5-2 victory against the Minnesota North Stars
at Olympia Stadium.
1981:
John Van Boxmeer
has a natural hat trick and two assists for a
five-point night
to help the Buffalo Sabres defeat the New York Islanders 6-2 at Nassau Coliseum. The five points set a Sabres single-game record for a defenseman.
2002:
Brian Leetch
becomes the first defenseman in NHL history to score seven regular-season overtime goals. The seventh one comes when he scores
51 seconds into overtime
to give the Rangers a 1-0 victory against the Calgary Flames at Madison Square Garden.

2007:
Mike Modano
of the Dallas Stars
scores two goals in the first 4:24
of a 3-1 road victory against the San Jose Sharks to become the highest-scoring United States-born player in NHL history. The two goals give him 1,233 points and move him past
Phil Housley
.

2017:
Jaromir Jagr
of the Calgary Flames plays in his 1,925th NHL game (regular season and Stanley Cup Playoffs) to move past
Gordie Howe
into second place on the NHL's all-time combined games played list, behind
Mark Messier
(1,992). Jagr ends the season with 1,941 combined games played.

On the same night,
Roberto Luongo
of the Florida Panthers makes his 972nd regular-season appearance, moving past
Terry Sawchuk
into third place on the all-time list among NHL goalies. Luongo makes 45 saves, but the Panthers
lose 3-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes
at PNC Arena. He retires after the 2018-19 season having
played in 1,044 games
, second behind
Martin Brodeur
in NHL history.
2019: Henrik Lundqvist makes 45 saves for the New York Rangers, who are outshot 47-19 but
defeat the Hurricanes 4-2
at PNC Arena. It's the second in as many days for Lundqvist, who improves to 54-23-8 with a 2.12 goals-against average, a .928 save percentage and nine shutouts in the second of back-to-back games.
On the same night, the Pittsburgh Penguins trail 3-0 entering the third period but score four unanswered goals to
defeat the Islanders 4-3
in overtime at Barclays Center, ending New York's 10-game winning streak. The Penguins become the fourth team in NHL history to end two double-digit winning streaks by the same opponent; on Feb. 21, 1982, they defeat the Islanders 4-3 to end New York's 15-game streak, an NHL record at the time.