It started off as one of those typical “phone it in” type games, but for all their flaws, it’s probably foolish to label Johnny Gaudreau and the Calgary Flames as quitters.
They were down 3-0 against the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings. After tonight, the Flames are off until Saturday.
A less spirited team may have slumped its shoulders and taken its ninth loss in a row.
Gaudreau instead lit a fire in his team and sparked a resounding 4-3 OT comeback win instead.
The spritely 21-year-old generated the first hat trick of his career, and he did it in “natural” fashion in erasing a 3-0 deficit to a 3-3 tie. He nearly iced it in overtime, too, but Mark Giordano instead did the trick with less than a minute left in extra time.
Take a look at Gaudreau’s hat trick in the videos below.
"Johnny Hockey turned on the show." - #TheCaptain
— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) December 23, 2014
If there’s one lesson from “The Gaudreau Show,” it’s that you might not want to turn it off before it’s over.