Incredible fact about Anders Lee's hat-trick drought for Islanders

Not every player is prolific enough to get three goals in a single game. Hat tricks are just plain hard to get. It took New York Islanders captain ten NHL seasons to get one.

Now again, not every player scores a hat trick. You certainly don't expect a bottom-six forward to get one. But a player like Anders Lee, who's 28th in goal scoring across the entire league since 2014-15, and a 40 goal scorer in 2017-18, you'd think he might have at least one hat-trick to his name before game number 568 of his NHL career.

New York Islanders: How incredible Lee's hat-trick drought was

He came close a number of times. Twenty-nine times to be precise. Twenty-nine times Anders Lee scored twice in a game but missed out on that elusive third goal.

On his thirtieth try, he finally got it. Which is pretty incredible to think he went that long without a hat-trick but it gets a bit more...incredible if you will.

Of the 31 players who've scored at least 100 goals for the New York Islanders, Anders Lee was the only one to not have a hat-trick to his name. Lee wouldn't have been so lonely if Trent Hunter had scored one more goal in his Islander career (he sits at 99 goals with the Isles and no hat-trick).

That list of players includes Josh Bailey who has 166 career goals. And yes, he's got a hat-trick. He scored three goals against the Blue Jackets in a 6-4 loss back in December of 2017 (Tavares picked up the primary assist on all three goals by the way).

I know this wasn't keeping Anders Lee up at night. Not having a hat-trick to his name is the last thing on his mind on game day. But I'm sure when he scored that second goal against Columbus he probably thought about that drought at least briefly. That thought will never have to enter his mind again.