DENVER (AP) — In keeping with hockey tradition Authentic Baker Mayfield Jersey , a tip of the cap to honor Alex Ovechkin and Patrik Laine .They’ve each recorded a hat trick of hat tricks this season.Easy as one, two, three. Or so it may seem.Around the league, there have been 61 hat tricks through the first 770 games of the season — the most since 1995-96 (62), according to research by the NHL stats and information department. Leading the surge are Ovechkin of Washington and Laine of Winnipeg with three each.Hold on to your hat, there’s more: There has been at least one three-goal scorer in 10 of the 13 days leading into to the All-Star break.“I think the reason why,” Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen succinctly surmised, “is because scoring around the league is up.”Simple, yes. But on target, too.There have been 132 instances of a team scoring six or more goals in a game so far, which is the most since 2005-06. Teams are averaging 3.03 goals per game, which is on pace for the highest-scoring season since the 3.14 in, you guessed it Greg Joseph Jersey Elite , 1995-96. There has been an 18 percent increase in scoring since the post-expansion low of 2.57 goals per game for teams in 2003-04, before a lockout led to rule changes.Naturally, hat tricks figure to go hand-in-hand with the escalation.“It’s exciting and not something everyone has done,” said Nashville forward Austin Watson , who had his first NHL hat trick on Nov. 25 against Anaheim. “It’s a cool achievement.”Long associated with cricket and soccer, the term hat trick appears to have made its way into the mainstream hockey vernacular when a Toronto businessman offered a hat to any player who scored three goals during an NHL game while visiting his town. As the legend goes, Chicago forward Alex Kaleta went into the shop in 1946 and found a fedora he fancied, according to an NHL.com story . Only, he didn’t have the funds to purchase it. The business owner offered to give it to Kaleta free of charge should he score three goals against the Maple Leafs.Kaleta had four. Presto, a hat trick.These days, hat tricks come in a variety of forms. There’s the natural one (three straight goals by a player), traditional (any three goals, sometimes culminating with a late empty-netter) and of course the “Gordie Howe” (a goal http://www.clevelandbrownsteamonline.com/greg-joseph-jersey , assist and a fight).The achievement of a hat trick has long been celebrated with fans tossing their hats on the ice. Ever wonder where all those hats go? The Avs, for one, donate the caps to the Denver Rescue Mission.The fastest NHL hat trick took just 21 seconds by Chicago’s Bill Mosienko (1952). The most in a career? Wayne Gretzky, who had 50. Ovechkin has the most of any active player with 23.They’re far from common — this year’s total of 61 so far is just 8 percent of all games. The Great One needed 1,487 games to get his 50.All the increased scoring means the feat may someday lose a bit of its luster. But not yet.“It’s a pretty hard thing to do,” said Minnesota forward Jason Zucker, who had a hat trick on Nov. 9, 2017. “Scoring any goal in this league is a hard thing to do. To do three in one game is pretty incredible.”Ovechkin had two in a four-day window this season, while Laine had a pair over a six-day span, including a five-goal game on Nov. 24.Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog gave his first hat trick on Nov. 11, 2017, against Washington the royal treatment. He has the puck in a case with the game sheet and a picture. He said he doesn’t have his puck from the second one, which happened a month later.“I don’t think guys are going out there trying to score hat tricks Authentic Greg Joseph Jersey ,” the All-Star Landeskog said. “Guys are going out there trying to help the team win.”As for why there are so many hat tricks this season, Zucker has a simple deduction.“It’s the speed. It’s the skill. It’s the sticks, the way guys shoot pucks now,” Zucker explained. “Guys don’t even have to try to shoot pucks — the sticks do a lot of the work for us.”No need to convince Minnesota’s All-Star goaltender Devan Dubnyk of that.“Teams are discovering ways to create chances and figure how pucks actually go in the net and not just thinking if you throw 50 pucks at the net that you’re going to score a bunch of goals,” Dubnyk said. “It’s understanding how to create offense. You can see it throughout the league this year. There’s a lot of offensive creativity and it’s making it tough for defenses and tough for goalies.” COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Carey Price was terrific for the Montreal Canadiens on a night his team was outplayed for much of the game and outshot by the Columbus Blue Jackets. That’s how it happens sometimes when things are going right.Price stopped 34 shots as the Canadiens won their fourth in a row, beating the Blue Jackets 4-1 on Friday night. Surging Montreal has won five of the last six while trying to move out of the middle of the pack in the Atlantic Division. The Canadiens are a point out of second place behind Toronto.Columbus, which had its own four-game win streak come to an end, outshot Montreal 35-26, but Price stopped some shots that would have been goals on other nights for the hot Blue Jackets. The Columbus top-liners — Cam Atkinson, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Artemi Panarin — all came up empty after each recorded points in every game of the win streak.Tomas Tatar and Joel Armia each scored twice as the Canadiens won in Columbus for the first time since 2015.“It’s a hard league to win on the road,” said Tatar, who got his first goals in 11 games Myles Garrett Jersey Elite , a drought dating to Dec. 28. “We were mentally ready for the game and we played great.”Joonas Korpisalo had 22 saves for the Blue Jackets, who play the second leg of a back-to-back on Saturday before heading into their bye week and the All-Star break.Korpisalo allowed a big rebound on a slap shot by Shea Weber and Tatar tapped it in for an easy goal for Montreal 6:44 into the game.Tatar got behind the Columbus defense and beat Korpisalo again in the second period, during a stretch in which the Blue Jackets were dominating but couldn’t find the back of the net.Columbus got on the board 5:17 into the third period when Oliver Bjorkstrand knocked one into the net amid heavy traffic in front.Armia got his first after Korpisalo had abandoned the net and was going to the bench to make way for an extra skater. He added an empty-netter with 1:12 left in the game.“I like the way our team handled the third period,” Montreal coach Claude Julien said. “We didn’t stop playing, we didn’t give them much, we closed the play quickly. The second (period) was a little bit off. A big win in this building that’s been extremely hot as of late.”The Blue Jackets hit the post four times. Atkinson, the team’s stop scorer and an NHL All-Star, was 0 for 6 shooting the puck.“I think we played well enough to get at least a point out of that — but we don’t,” Columbus coach John Tortorella said.Columbus is tied for second in points with Washington and one behind the New York Islanders in the Metropolitan Division.NOTES: Columbus F Brandon Dubinsky was back in the lineup after missing four games with a strained oblique muscle. Anthony Duclair was a healthy scratch to make room. … Montreal F Paul Byron served the first of a three-game suspension for a charge and hit the head against Florida Panthers defenseman MacKenzie Weegar on Tuesday. Matthew Peca replaced him. … Montreal, with the league’s worst power play, was 0 for 3 with the man advantage.UP NEXT:Montreal: Hosts Philadelphia on Saturday.Columbus: At Minnesota on Saturday night.