5 best things you can watch from the NHL’s Pause Binge collection

1. Wayne Gretzky hits the 50-goal mark with a five-spot in 1981

Like many younger hockey fans, I did not watch Wayne Gretzky at all during his historic NHL career. Sacrilegious, I know, but as someone who was born in 1993, Gretzky’s hockey career was just not on my radar growing up.

As such, I’ve only come to appreciate Gretzky’s greatness second-hand, through retellings on social media or clips seen during NHL broadcasts. I know his records, of course, but I’ve never really sat down to watch a game of his, which makes his 1981 five-goal game against the Flyers a perfect start.

During this contest, Gretzky scored a blistering five goals — much like someone else we know from this season — in an Edmonton Oilers 7-5 win over the Flyers. The game wasn’t just significant for that reason alone, Gretzky also blew past Maurice “Rocket” Richard’s record of 50 goals in 50 games during the contest, hitting the 50 goal mark in his 39th game of the season.

The game is a culmination of Gretzky’s skills on display. Even without seeing the numbers on the sweaters, it’s so easy to tell when Gretzky was on the ice during this game, and he made all five of his goals look so easy, as he often did.

Plus, the game is an absolute barnburner, with 12 goals being scored over the course of the game. Though the game isn’t a high-intensity playoff game, it’s no doubt one of the more fun games in the NHL’s collection.

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