March 9: On this day in 1975, one of the flukiest rareities in the entire history of the Maple Leafs involving Leaf goaltender Gord McRae occurred in Washington. McRae played five seasons for the Leafs between 1973 and 1978, just 71 games in all and never more than 20 in one season. Yet this was the second consecutive night that he faced a penalty shot. Nelson Pyatt of the Capitals scored. The previous night, Dennis Hextall of the Minnesota North Stars had scored on McRae. No other Leaf goaltender was in net for any penalty shot in the four year period between February 1974 and January, 1978 but Gord McRae faced two in successive games.
March 9: On this day in 1996, Kirk Muller scored 3 out of 4 Toronto's goals in a 4-3 win over the Calgary Flames at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. It was his only hat trick as a Leaf. Muller enjoyed a long NHL career of 1,349 games, but only 102 of them as a Leaf between 1996-97. He had 29 goals and 33 assists with Toronto. His finest career moment came in 1993 when he scored the cup-winning goal for the Montreal Canadiens. Muller was the second player chosen overall behind Mario Lemieux in the 1984 Entry Draft.