Each week, VICE Sports takes a look back at an important event from sports history for Throwback Thursday, or #TBT for all you cool kids. You can read previous installments here.

The pork pies and fedoras were raining down for Alex Smart 74 years ago on Jan. 14, when he became the first rookie in NHL history to score a hat trick in his debut. Well, actually, Canada was in the middle of fighting the Second World War, so no self-respecting citizen would have discarded a perfectly good hat in the face of wartime material shortages and restrictions, but you get the idea.

When Smart got the call to suit up for the Canadiens, it was the club's 21st game of the season. The left winger had previously been playing in the Quebec Senior Hockey League. He had posted some respectable numbers but was by no means expected to make headlines.

And yet, Smart certainly made quite the impression before the 6,500 fans at the Forum as he paced the Canadiens to a 5-1 victory over the visiting Black Hawks. He potted home his first goal with 20 seconds remaining in the second period and added another marker just 14 seconds later to give the home team a 4-0 lead heading into the third period. By that point, the game was already well out of reach for Chicago, but Smart added Montreal's final goal halfway through the third frame to put the nail in the coffin. The rookie also picked up an assist on the second goal of the game to give him four points in his debut, not bad for a "tousle-haired youth," from Brandon, Manitoba, according to the Globe and Mail.

But despite his incredible first game, Smart was not long for the NHL. He played just seven more games for the Canadiens, scoring twice, before he was sent back to the Senior League. He continued to play there for the rest of the decade with Montreal and Ottawa, and was a significant contributor to the Senators' Allan Cup victory in 1949.

It took 33 years before another rookie matched what Smart accomplished in his first game, when the Nordiques' Real Cloutier tallied three in his Oct. 10, 1979 NHL debut.

There was a lot of excitement surrounding the Quebec club heading into the 1978-79 season. It was the team's first season in the NHL, as they were part of the World Hockey Association (WHA) merger that happened in the offseason that also included the Oilers, Jets, and Whalers.

Heading into Quebec's inaugural NHL game, there was also some excitement swirling around Cloutier. He was a hometown boy who had some great seasons for the Nordiques in the WHA, including a 75-goal campaign in 1978-79, and many were hoping to see him continue performing like that in the big league.

Cloutier certainly didn't disappoint the fans at the Colisee that night, even if his team did. He scored all three of the club's goals in a 5-3 loss to the Atlanta Flames.

The 23-year-old finished the season with 42 goals and 89 points, which was good enough to put him among the top 20 in the league in both categories. His output that year, however, was overshadowed by the work of another rookie, a blueliner by the name of Raymond Bourque.

Nearly three decades passed before another greenhorn pulled off what Cloutier did. For Leafs fans, this player may ring a bell: Fabian Brunnstrom. He was a highly-coveted free agent from Sweden heading into the 2008-09 season. Toronto ended up losing its bid to sign the 6'1" 205-pound defenceman, as he spurned the club's advances and opted to sign with the Dallas Stars. The Maple Leafs' consolation prize ended up being another Swedish rearguard, Jonas Frogren, who would play just half a season with the club before finishing his North American career in the AHL.

Brunnstrom, meanwhile, wasn't able to crack the Stars' lineup for the first two games of the season and served as a healthy scratch. But when he finally got in for the club's third game against the Predators, he made them wonder why they waited so long. Both teams traded goals that night and Brunnstrom broke the deadlock two times in the contest, eventually putting home the game winner as Dallas sent Nashville packing with a 6-4 loss.

Although the Swede tied the NHL benchmark, he almost made history. Brunnstrom scored a fourth goal that game but it was disallowed. He reflected on that moment in Mike Brophy's book My First Goal, saying,"I took the rebound and the puck was loose. The ref didn't see it. I put it in the net the same time that he blew the whistle. It should have been a good goal, but he disallowed it. It was a bad call. I should have scored four goals that night." But hockey isn't like horseshoes and hand grenades—almost doesn't get you into the record books.

Brunnstrom did not quite live up to his billing, either, and certainly never recaptured the magic from that first game. He only played 104 games in the NHL, and spent the majority of his career in the AHL before returning to Sweden in 2012. Today, he plays for Rungsted Ishockey in the Danish Metal Ligaen.

Just two seasons after Brunnstrom's memorable debut, Rangers rookie Derek Stepan equalled it. The 20-year-old was coming off an incredible run at the 2010 world juniors where he led the tournament in scoring and captained Team USA to its second-ever gold medal, and yet, it wasn't guaranteed he'd play the full season with the Blueshirts. Although he was named the Rangers' best rookie coming out of camp, he was the early candidate for demotion as veterans Chris Drury and Vinny Prospal were due to return from injury. That plan, however, was quickly scrapped after Stepan's first NHL game in Buffalo.

The Rangers rookie opened the scoring halfway into the first period and added two more goals in the middle frame. In the third period, Stepan was all alone on a breakaway on Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller, but he was unable to add to his spoils as his shot that went high above the net. By Stepan's own admission, he choked on that play. Nevertheless, he still bagged a hat trick in his debut and his team got the win, doubling up the Sabres 6-3.

If you don't know who the most recent rookie is to score a hat trick in their NHL debut, then you've been living under a rock this season.

So maybe just a few words on Auston Matthews for our subterranean dwellers joining us now? It was an incredible night for the Maple Leafs rookie. Heading into the season, the 2016 first overall pick was projected to be a huge boon for the team, but no one could have predicted how absolutely electric his first game would be. Although the Maple Leafs ended up losing that game in overtime, Matthews forever endeared himself to the franchise with that performance. Moreover, he made history by becoming the first rookie to score four goals in his NHL debut.

But hold up, that record scratching sound you hear are the hockey historians, myself included, telling you that's not entirely accurate. They'll say to you that long before Matthews eclipsed the original benchmark set by Alex Smart in 1943, Joe Malone and Harry Hyland each scored five goals in the NHL's inaugural games on Dec. 19, 1917. The former led his team, the Canadiens, to a 7-4 victory over the Senators, while the latter helped the other Montreal club, the Wanderers, edge Toronto 10-9 in a high-flying offensive affair. Sure, there's no question that both scored five in their respective openers, but if you ask me, these weren't nearly as impressive as the games we've seen from the rookies since.

For starters, they were both old. Malone was just two months shy of his 28th birthday, and Hyland was just weeks away from his 29th. When you remember that the average life expectancy in Canada for men in 1920 was just 59 years, these guys had practically lived half their lives.

More importantly, they were already both proven commodities. Hyland scored 30 goals in 18 games with the Wanderers in the National Hockey Association in 1913-14, his third season in that league. Malone, meanwhile, had already established himself as one of the most prolific scorers of his era. He scored 43 goals in 20 games with the Quebec Bulldogs during the 1912-13 season and had a nine-goal effort in a Stanley Cup game. That's not a typo. Malone potted nine goals as the Bulldogs steamrolled the Sydney Millionaires 14-3 in the first matchup of the championship series that they'd go on to sweep in two games.

Historical nitpicking aside, each debut is praiseworthy in its own right. It doesn't matter if the player's career arc went on a different trajectory, scoring goals in the National Hockey League is difficult, let alone in your first game as an unseasoned rookie. The fact that this has only happened seven times in 99 seasons of NHL hockey should tell you all you need to know about how much these players defied the odds and made an impact in their first games.