The Blackhawks and Maple Leafs once played the cleanest game in NHL history

What if I told you that a perfect game could occur in the NHL? Or, better yet, at one time it could happen? And no, that doesn't mean one team shuts out the other and records zero penalty minutes in the process, even if that'd be rare.

Instead, or, in this event, both teams shut each other out and recorded exactly zero penalty minutes all the way back on February 20th, 1944. You could probably guess the Blackhawks were involved here, or, better yet, the Black Hawks, as they were called in those days.

Anyway, the Hawks and Leafs not only played to a 0-0 stalemate, but nobody entered the penalty box. Yeah, in today's game, I'd like to see something like that happen, but, unfortunately, we'll probably never see it unless the NHL inserts about 100 rule changes.

Okay, so maybe 100 is hyperbolic, but you know what I mean. With the way the league is today, seeing a game end in a 0-0 tie and neither team commit a single penalty wouldn't fly with today's rulebook being, what, 215 pages long, or something like that? Been a while since I checked, but I believe that was it for the 2024-25 season.

You'll probably never see a "perfect game" ever again

Even by 1940s standards, this game was rare enough, as it'd never happened before or since, per my research. Penalty minutes during that time were lower than what we'd seen them evolve into in later decades.

But even if the number of penalty minutes has been decreasing lately, we also need to remember that we're seeing a much faster, skill-based league that's promoting more speed and scoring. That would take out the possibility of seeing a game end in a 0-0 tie, and a five-minute period of 3-on-3 hockey go to a shootout.

Still, with the shootout rule in place, it tacks an extra goal onto the stat sheet for the winning team. So, if a team wins in a shootout, they'll always end the game with a one-goal win, taking out any possibility of a 0-0 tie ending things unless the league decided to start letting games end in ties again, and that's probably not happening.

So, with all of that being said, this "perfect game" that took place over eight decades ago will hold onto its uniqueness as far as NHL history goes. And it will probably mean the Blackhawks will go down in history as one of just two teams to finish a "perfect game."

But, as I always like to say, none of us will ultimately know what kind of curveballs the league will throw us in time. While a perfect game isn't possible right now UNLESS you don't count that additional goal in the shootout, it doesn't mean there won't be a time when the league will plant seeds for history to repeat itself.

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