Anthony Duclair picked the perfect day to score his first hat trick with the Ottawa Senators.
The 24-year-old forward was dominant for the Sens on Saturday, scoring three of his team's four goals to help Ottawa earn a 4-3 overtime win over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets. Duclair notched a pair of goals in the first period before sealing the game in OT with a power-play marker.
ANTHONY. DUCLAIR. HAT. TRICK.
— NHL (@NHL) December 14, 2019
An @Enterprise hatty for @aduclair10 and a beauty at that. 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/mErAxKdWWv
Saturday's performance pushed Duclair to 18 goals on the season, which leads the Senators through 33 games. He's also his team's points leader with 25, and is on pace to easily smash his career highs in goals and points (22 and 44, respectively).
Needless to say, the Pointe-Claire, Que., native is having himself a very good year.
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What makes Saturday's hat trick performance extra special is the fact that it came against Columbus — his former team — and head coach John Tortorella. Duclair spent two-thirds of the 2018-19 campaign playing under Tortorella with the Blue Jackets, where their fiery coach was not shy about calling out the left winger for a perceived lack of effort.
“I don’t think he knows how to play," Tortorella said of Duclair on Feb. 19 — four days before the player was traded to Ottawa. "It seems to me he’s like a player that just feels he can get the puck because he’s tremendously skilled. He can skate. I just think he thinks he can do whatever the hell he wants to on the ice. He can’t do that in the National Hockey League.
“Here we are on his fourth team with another coach pissing and moaning about him, scratching him, benching him. . . . For me right now he’s off the rails. I’m not so sure if we’re going to spend a lot more time trying to get him on the rails.”
The Blue Jackets did not spend much more time trying to get Duclair back "on the rails," but the subsequent change of scenery has done wonders for the sixth-year player. Scoring three goals against the coach that publicly ripped him 10 months ago is surely the cherry on top of what's turning into a career year for Duclair.