Canadian Olympic gold medalist Patrick Marleau of Aneroid, Saskatchewan became the fifth player in history to play in 1700 National Hockey League regular season games on Saturday according to Yahoo! Sports. Marleau scored the game winning goal in a 2-1 San Jose Sharks win over the Dallas Stars from the SAP Center in San Jose, California.
Marleau, who won the gold medal for Canada at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver and the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, scored the game winner at 2:56 of the third period from Brent Burns of Barrie, Ontario and Tomas Hertl. In addition to the goal, Marleau was a +2 and scored on his only shot on goal.
This was Marleau’s second game winning goal this season. He also scored the winner in a 4-3 San Jose win over the Los Angeles Kings on November 25.
In 2019-20, Marleau has eight goals and eight assists for 16 points in 43 games. He is a -1 with 10 penalty minutes, one power play point, 72 shots in goal, 21 faceoff wins, 13 blocked shots, 38 hits, 21 takeaways and 10 giveaways.
Of the 1700 NHL games Marleau has played, 1536 have come with the Sharks. He also played 164 with the Maple Leafs. In 22 NHL seasons, Marleau has 559 goals, 623 assists, 1182 points, is a -14, with 513 penalty minutes, 413 power play points, 21 shorthanded points, 108 game winning goals and 4234 shots on goal.
Three of the other four NHL players to play 1700 regular season games are Canadian. The three Canadians are Gordie Howe of Floral, Saskatchewan (1767 games), Mark Messier of Edmonton, Alberta (1756 games) and Ron Francis of Sault. Ste. Marie, Ontario (1731 games). The other is Jaromir Jagr, who played 1733 games.
