It is nice to see Jason Chimera doing what we expected him to do when we traded for him:  play a solid physical game, fight occasionally, and chip in on offense from on a fairly regular basis.  He did all of those last night and ended up with the coveted "Gordie Howe Hat Trick."  Gordie Howe, by the way, only ever had one of these in his 1,767 NHL game career. 

Don't look now, but Chimera is also riding a 3-game point streak.  His longest streaks have been 4.  He's also got 5 points in 7 games as a Cap, along with 11 PIM and a +1.  I'd say he's fitting in quite nicely.  Keep it up, Jason.

I'll quote Mike Vogel here:

"It’s nice anytime you get a goal and an assist," says Chimera. "The guys are kind of ribbing me about the Gordie Howe hat trick. Anytime you can help your team, no matter what it is, it’s nice to help out and get the ball rolling there."

Chimera was foggy on whether he’d had the Gordie before and when.

"I can’t even remember," says Chimera. "There’s not too much fighting nowadays. I can’t remember the last one I had. It’s just nice to have one. I can’t put a finger on when the last one I had was."

Well, he's never had one before, not in the NHL regular season or playoffs, anyway.  In his 468th NHL game, he achieved his first.  The closest he's been lately?  November 8, 2008, his Blue Jackets were playing Calgary and he had a goal and fought Eric Nystrom. 

Jason Chimera, for his career, has 22 multiple point games, including 11 games where he has at least one goal and one assist.  He's only played in 6 playoff games and has never scored a goal or had a fight (0-3-3, 2 PIM).

Just for your information, his career high in points in a game is 3, accomplished 3 times, and they are listed below.

Those 4-game point streaks? He's done that 4 times.  January 22-30, 2003 (3-3-6), March 7-13, 2006 (2-2-4), December 26-31, 2006 (2-2-4), and November 7-14, 2008 (1-4-5).

His 11 goal-assist games:

Dec 13 '02 COL @ EDM*, 2-1-3, 0 PIM

Jan 29 '03 MIN @ EDM*, 1-1-2, 0 PIM

Nov 13 '05 LAK @ CBJ, 1-1-2, 2 PIM

Jan 24 '06 VAN @ CBJ, 1-1-2, 2 PIM

Apr 07 '07 ANA @ CBJ, 1-1-2, 0 PIM

Oct 10 '07 PHX @ CBJ, 1-2-3, 2 PIM

Nov 14 '07 CHI @ CBJ, 1-1-2, 2 PIM

Jan 11 '08 STL @ CBJ, 1-1-2, 0 PIM

Oct 30 '08 CBJ @ COL, 1-1-2, 0 PIM

Dec 05 '09 COL @ CBJ, 1-1-2, 0 PIM

Jan 13 '10 WSH @ FLA, 1-1-2, 5 PIM

And his 11 other multiple point games:

Dec 08 '02 EDM @ ATL, 0-2-2

Feb 18 '04 EDM @ COL, 0-2-2

Oct 21 '05 SJS @ CBJ*, 2-0-2

Feb 08 '06 LAK @ CBJ, 2-0-2

Jan 26 '07 BUF @ CBJ, 0-2-2

Mar 25 '07 STL @ CBJ, 0-3-3

Oct 31 '07 CBJ @ LAK, 2-0-2

Oct 10 '08 CBJ @ DAL, 0-2-2

Nov 14 '08 CBJ @ BUF, 0-2-2

Nov 01 '09 CBJ @ WSH, 0-2-2

Nov 05 '09 CBJ @ ATL, 0-2-2

* denotes he scored the game winner.

The other times he's been close to a Gordie Howe Hat Trick: 

February 8, 2008 at San Jose, a Goal and a Fight with Craig Rivet in San Jose.

April 13, 2006 vs St. Louis, an Assist and a Fight with Jamal Mayers. 

Here is his HockeyFights.com profile. 

An interesting note about Jason Chimera is that he once fought Chris Clark in preseason in a Calgary/Edmonton game.

Another interesting note is that he has fought Jamal Mayers twice, on 11/9/05 and on 4/13/06.  We play Mayers and the Maple Leafs on Friday.