Hockey Trivia: Keystone State

The state of Pennsylvania is home to two NHL hockey teams, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers. Both teams entered the league during the expansion season of 1967-68. They are not the first NHL teams to play out of these cities. In the early days of the National Hockey League, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Philadelphia Quakers existed for a short period of time.

Test and expand your hockey trivia knowledge with these four questions with a Keystone State theme.

Q. What was the first team to beat the St. Louis Blues?

A. The Pittsburgh Penguins entered the league along with the St. Louis Blues and four other teams in 1967-68. St. Louis played their first ever game against the Minnesota North Stars and the game ended in a 2-2 tie. The Blues faced the Penguins in their second game and Pittsburgh won by a score of 3-1.

Q. What team did the St. Louis Blues record their first ever win against?

A. The next night, after the Blues fell to the Penguins for their first loss, the Blues scored a 4-2 victory in the home and home weekend set. Ironically, both teams won in the other team’s arena.

Q. Mark Recchi has scored 50 goals in a season once in his long, illustrious career. What team was he playing for when he accomplished this?

A. In 1992-93, Recchi scored 53 goals for the Philadelphia Flyers. Other than that season, the closest Mark would get to the 50 goal plateau were two 40 goal seasons, one with the Flyers and one with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He finished up his NHL career with 577 goals over 22 seasons.

A true representative of the Keystone State in the National Hockey League, Recchi spent parts of 16 of his 22 seasons with teams in Pennsylvania. Mark was a fourth round pick of the Penguins at the 1988 NHL Entry Draft, 67^th overall, and started his career in Pittsburgh in 1988-89. He was traded to the Flyers midway through 1991-92 and played with them until being traded to Montreal during the 1994-95 season. Recchi was returned to Philadelphia by Montreal midway through 1998-99 and remained with the club until the end of the 2003-04 season. He then spent parts of three more years with the Penguins between 2005-06 and 2007-08.

Q. What Flyers player had three consecutive 50+ goal seasons in the mid 1990’s?

A. John LeClair had 51 goals in 1995-96, 50 in 1996-97 and 51 in 1997-98. In keeping with the Keystone State theme, LeClair finished up his career with the cross-state Pittsburgh Penguins. After starting his NHL career in Montreal in 1990-91, John was traded to Philadelphia during the 1994-95 season, ironically in exchange for Mark Recchi. He remained with the Flyers until 2003-04 and joined Recchi in Pittsburgh for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons before retiring.