Hockey Trivia: NHL Streaks and Longevity

Everyone or every team can have their fifteen minutes in the spotlight. It’s the ones that stretch out the fifteen that are truly great. This is your chance to test and expand your NHL hockey knowledge regarding streaks, both individual and team.

Q. At 35 games, what team has the longest undefeated streak during a regular NHL season?

A. The 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers not only set the record for the NHL but for all of North American professional sports. The team went 25-0-10 during the streak while going only 13-12-10 for the rest of the season. The Flyers went on the Stanley Cup finals that season before bowing out to the New York Islanders.

It was Pat Quinn’s first full season as an NHL head coach and he was awarded his first of two Jack Adams Awards as coach of the year. The core of players that formed the Broad Street Bullies were still on the roster. This group included Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber, Reggie Leach and Rick MacLeish. Ken Linseman was Philadelphia’s offensive leader with just 79 points in 80 games. Pete Peeters and Phil Myre split the goaltending duties.

Q. What team holds the NHL record for the longest regular season winning streak at 17?

A. The 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins set the mark. The Penguins ended up with the best record in the NHL that season but were upset by the New York Islanders in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Scotty Bowman coached the Penguins, who were coming off consecutive Stanley Cup championships in 1990-91 and 1991-92. At his side as assistant coach was long time Penguins leader Rick Kehoe. Mario Lemieux led the way offensively with 160 points over just 60 regular season games.

Q. Who is the NHL’s Iron Man, having played 964 consecutive regular season games between 1975 and 1985?

A. Doug Jarvis started his streak of 964 games from his first game as a rookie during the 1975-76 NHL season. Jarvis played for the Montreal Canadiens, Washington Capitals and Hartford Whalers before finishing off his NHL career in 1987.

Jarvis broke the record previously held by Garry Unger. Unger played 914 consecutive games. There have been just 19 players in National Hockey League history to play 500 or more in a row. Steve Larmer is the only other player with more than 800 straight with 884 Craig Ramsay is the only player with 700 or more with 776. Interestingly, all-time games played leaders Gordie Howe, Mark Messier and Ron Francis are not included in the group of 19.

Q. With 502 consecutive regular season games played, which goaltender will most likely hold that NHL record through time?

A. Glenn Hall will undoubtedly forever hold this record. The days of the goaltender playing every game of the season are almost half a century gone. Hall played all 70 of his team’s regular season games from 1955-56 to 1961-62. The first two years were played with the Detroit Red Wings and the rest was with the Chicago Black Hawks. Glenn Hall played in the NHL from 1952-53 to 1970-71 with the Red Wings, Black Hawks and St. Louis Blues.