"The men's hockey tournament at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games is underway and many fans are hoping to see the exciting feat of scoring three goals in a single game, better known as a hat trick. "I'm curious to see over in Italy for the Olympics, if we'll see a hat trick to begin with, and then second will people throw their hats?" said Ty Di Lello, a hockey historian based in Winnipeg, Canada. The international sporting event will mark the return of National Hockey League players after a 12 year absence."
"It comes as the NHL set a new record for the most hat tricks in a single month this January. Hat tricks have a rich history in the world of hockey, but it didn't start there. In fact, the phrase originated in cricket and spread to many sports, including soccer, darts and horse racing. In this installment of NPR's Word of the Week series, we trace hat trick's some 150-year-history and why it's particularly special on a hockey rink."
"In cricket, a hat trick refers to the dismissal of three batters by the same baller with three successive balls. Rodney Ulyate, a spokesperson for the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians, compares it to when a pitcher in baseball gets three consecutive strikeouts. "I gather it's a very common thing in baseball. I think you call it a no hit inning," he said. "But in cricket, trust me, it is vanishingly rare.""
The 2026 Milan Cortina men's hockey tournament has fans anticipating hat tricks as NHL players return after a 12-year absence. The NHL recently set a record for most hat tricks in a single month, increasing attention on the feat. The phrase hat trick originated in cricket, where it denotes a bowler taking three wickets with three successive deliveries, a rarity compared to baseball strikeouts. Nineteenth-century British newspapers reported cricketers being awarded hats for the accomplishment, and by 1874 the term hat trick surpassed alternatives like "hat feat" and "bowling a gallon."
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