Some records are built to survive generations, and the Blackhawks have a few that look untouchable. After 100 seasons of hockey, Chicago’s history book has plenty of marks that still stand alone. Three of the toughest to imagine falling belong to Tony Esposito, Steve Larmer, and Bill Mosienko.
Tony Esposito’s shutout total is the kind of number that feels locked in place. The Blackhawks landed him in 1969 after the Montreal Canadiens left him unprotected in the annual intra-league draft, choosing Jack Norris as compensation. What followed was a franchise-changing move that paid off immediately.
Esposito’s 1969-70 season was one for the ages. He won the Calder Trophy and the Vezina Trophy, finished second in Hart Trophy voting, and put together one of the greatest rookie seasons ever.
His line was dazzling: 38 wins, a .932 save percentage, a 2.17 goals-against average, and 15 shutouts. That shutout total stands as both the Blackhawks record for a single season and a modern-day NHL record.
He opened that shutout chase on Oct. 25, 1969, against the Canadiens, then blanked them again on Nov. 16.
From there, he shut out the Maple Leafs, Red Wings, Bruins, Blues, and Penguins twice, plus the Flyers, Kings, and Seals once each. The record has held for a reason.
Shutouts are scarce, and the modern game doesn’t exactly make them easier to stack up.
Chicago has had strong seasons in goal since then, but nothing close to 15. Esposito himself was the only Blackhawk to reach 10 shutouts in a season again, doing it in 1973-74.
Jeff Hackett got to eight in 1997-98, and Jocelyn Thibault matched that in 2002-03. The nearest anyone has come to the record was Dominik Hasek’s 13 for Buffalo in 1997-98.
Since 2012-13, only one goalie has hit double digits in shutouts, Marc-Andre Fleury with 10 in 2014-15 for Pittsburgh. Spencer Knight had three shutouts last season and eight in his career, but even a run like that would have a long way to go before it touched Esposito’s mark.
Steve Larmer’s streak sits in a different category, but it’s just as daunting. He never missed a game in his Blackhawks career, appearing in 884 straight contests.
That kind of reliability is rare enough on its own. Doing it through the physical, grinding hockey of the Norris Division in the 1980s and early 1990s makes it even more striking.
Larmer’s streak remains one of the longest in NHL history. Only six runs have been longer.
Brent Burns is currently second all-time at 1,007 consecutive games, and he enters the 2026-27 season 58 games shy of Phil Kessel’s record. For a Blackhawks player to break Larmer’s mark, the math is brutal: more than 10 and a half seasons without missing a night.
Ryan Donato was the only Chicago player to dress for all 82 games last season, which says plenty about how hard that sort of streak is to even begin, let alone extend.
Then there’s Bill Mosienko’s hat trick, a record that lives in pure speed. On March 23, 1952, he scored three times in just 21 seconds against the New York Rangers.
His first goal came at 6:09 of the third period, followed by another 11 seconds later. After Chicago went on the power play, he finished the hat trick 10 seconds after that.
He later rang one off the post 45 seconds later, nearly adding a fourth. Even that burst wasn’t totally out of character - his first two NHL goals came only 21 seconds apart.
Seventy-four years later, nobody has beaten Mosienko’s pace. Jean Beliveau came closest in 1955 with three goals in 44 seconds, and that remains the last hat trick scored in under a minute.
Former Blackhawks coach Derek King scored three in 1:18 for the Islanders in 1991, while Al Secord’s fastest hat trick for Chicago came in 3:15 in 1987. Mosienko’s mark still sits at the top, untouched and looking that way for a long time.
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