<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;NEW YORK \u2013 Before Auston Matthews stomped along and formed an even better club by himself Wednesday night, only four players in NHL history had ever scored hat tricks in their debuts. One of them\u2013the most recent one, six years ago\u2013now sits in his locker at Madison Square Garden, after the Rangers' season-opening 5-3 win over the Islanders, remembering what he can.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CFeels like a long time ago,\u201D forward Derek Stepan says. \u201CWhen you\u2019re in the moment, you don\u2019t really know what\u2019s going on. The puck just seems to find you.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Stepan laughs. He\u2019s thinking about the highlights he watched Wednesday night, when the 2016 No. 1 pick filleted the Senators with four goals, all before second intermission. \u201CMine was a much uglier hat trick than his. Much uglier.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is fairly accurate. Fresh out of the University of Wisconsin, Stepan made New York\u2019s roster for opening night\u2013Oct. 9, 2010, in Buffalo\u2013but still worried about job security.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CNo way you can\u2019t be nervous,\u201D he says. \u201CI was a bubble guy. I was just trying to make the team. Scoring was the least of my worries.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Midway through the first period, the puck rimmed around to defenseman Dan Girardi, who whipped a wrister from the blue line. The shot hit Stepan, zoomed to his right, banked off Sabres defenseman Tyler Myers, and slid into the net.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI wanted it to be that it bounced in off the other team, because I think that\u2019s how everyone scores their first one,\u201D Stepan said at the time \u201CYou know, off the shin pad, off the elbow pad, off someone else.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The others came smoother. With roughly five minutes left in the second period, Stepan gathered a rebound to the right of the crease and cleverly chipped it over goalie Ryan Miller, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner at the time. Three minutes later, Sean Avery found Stepan in the slot. Soon, a single hat hit the ice. Television cameras captured his mother, stepfather, and then girlfriend/current wife cheering, surrounded by quiet Sabres fans in the stands. Unlike Matthews\u2019 Maple Leafs, who lost in overtime, the Rangers beat Buffalo with ease, 6-3.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;GALLERY: Greatest rookie debuts in sports history&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI remember it being really special for him and the team, everyone rallying around him,\u201D Girardi says. \u201CIt was something that doesn\u2019t happen very often.\u201D Of course, the veteran can\u2019t help but pivot to the kid who outshined everyone. \u201CObviously watching what happened yesterday, that\u2019s a once-in-a-lifetime play by that guy there. I think everyone\u2019s going to have their eyes on him from now on.\u201D (Thanks to NBCSports moving Matthews\u2019 home debut onto national television, more certainly will Friday.)\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When the Rangers returned to the locker room, reporters had history ready. Stepan soon learned he had joined Montreal\u2019s Alex Smart (1943), Quebec\u2019s Real Cloutier (1979) and Dallas\u2019 Fabian Brunstromm (2008) as the only players to enter the NHL in such explosive fashion. (Trivia interlude: Avery had a secondary assist for Brunstromm, making him the only player with assists on multiple debut hat tricks.) At the time, Stepan was also the first to do so on the road. But even then, the magnitude of his magical night didn\u2019t quite resonate.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CIt\u2019s later,\u201D Stepan says. \u201CIt\u2019s down the road, when you\u2019re out of the building and get to exhale. You look at your phone. I got back to the airport, I sat down and it just sinks in. Like, 'What the heck just happened?'\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even though Matthews entered training camp far from the roster bubble, all but locked into Mike Babcock\u2019s opening-day lineup from the moment Toronto called his name, Stepan figures that Wednesday night in Ottawa the teenager felt something similar.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CRight now, I\u2019m sure he\u2019s just thinking about his next game,\u201D Stepan says. \u201CMaybe later down the road he\u2019ll look back on it and go, 'Geez, that was insane.'\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The league would already agree. Players rushed to tweet commentary on Matthews\u2019 masterpiece, which included a thorough undressing of Ottawa\u2019s Norris Trophy-caliber captain, Erik Karlsson. Apparently out of fear,&amp;nbsp;Florida goalie Roberto Luongo abdicated all goaltending responsibilities against the Leafs for the rest of the season. Minor leaguer Garret Sparks compared Matthews to \u201Cone of the 99 overall\u201D creations from an NHL video game.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CF---ing unbelievable,\u201D one Eastern Conference player texted SI during the game. \u201CKid\u2019s got a lot of game, that\u2019s for sure.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Amid the clamor was Tampa forward Ryan Callahan, who was on the Rangers for Stepan\u2019s hat trick.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CYou jerk,\u201D Stepan texted him back, smiling as he recounted the story. This mirrored the ribbing teammates started giving him six years ago in Buffalo, particularly after he&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;twice &lt;/i&gt;missed out on a fourth goal\u2013shooting high on a breakaway, and hitting the post of an empty net.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this way, Stepan\u2019s hat trick helped the \u201Cbubble guy\u201D\u2013who wound up playing all 82 games that season \u2013grow closer with fellow Rangers.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CComing in as a rookie, out of college, you\u2019re trying to get to know him better,\u201D Girardi says. \u201CAs a rookie you have to fit in, take your lumps, this and that. It showed he could play in this league, no problem. It was a joke: \u2018It\u2019s not that hard of a league, right?\u2019\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Again, here comes the pivot.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI\u2019m guessing that\u2019s what the feeling is for ol\u2019 Auston there. The game seems pretty easy for him right now.\"\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/nhl/2016/10/14/auston-matthews-toronto-maple-leafs-rookie-debut-derek-stepan-hat-trick>