If you’re the kind of fan that just checks out the box scores in the morning, boy are you missing out on a lot of stuff. Chances are though if you saw the box score from Ottawa’s 7-3 win over Tampa Bay you were probably left scratching your head as to how Milan Michalek ended up getting not just a natural hat trick, but doing so while netting two empty net goals.
Easy, the Lightning were down 5-3 and after Michalek buried his second goal, Lightning coach Guy Boucher didn’t see much sense in sending Dwayne Roloson back out on the ice for the final 1:27 of the game. Since Roloson came into the game to relieve an injured Mathieu Garon, why run the risk of seeing anything else potentially happen, right? Sure, we’ll go with that. Check out Michalek’s bizarro hat trick and the two easiest goals he’s ever scored before.