Image: NHL
About This Quiz
"America's favorite pastime." "America's team." "The USA Dream Team." Those are some pretty powerful — and popular — phrases where American sports are involved. And yet, none of them references hockey. America's favorite pastime? Baseball. "America's team?" The Dallas Cowboys of the NFL if you Google that term. (Go ahead, we'll wait.) The USA Dream Team? A collection of professional basketball players who dominated the Olympics like no team before it.
So, is there room for hockey? The National Hockey Association, its fans and its home cities say "yes." In 2021, the NHL will expand to a total of 32 teams, matching the same number of teams in the NFL. Revenue from the NHL topped $4 billion during the 2018 season — almost double from the 2006 slate of games. Statistics show it's one of the top two attended indoor sports in the country, with more than 22 million guests checking out a game during the 2018 season.
Even at a youth sports level, hockey's popularity continues to grow. So, with hockey fever sweeping the nation and you, a rabid hockey fan opting for this quiz (you wouldn't be here if you weren't, right?), we want to put your NHL fandom to the test. In which of these cities could you drop the puck? Which cities are strangers to the game? Stick it to this quiz before the next Stanley Cup rolls around!
Newark
Detroit
Toronto
Washington, D.C.
If you travel to the nation's capital of Washington, D.C., you'll observe plenty of history ... and a good dose of sports, too. The Capitals, known as the Caps to their fans, have been around for a while now: They were founded in the mid-1970s.
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Barboursville
Asheville
Nashville
The Predators have been part of the city of Nashville since the town was awarded an expansion franchise in 1998. In 2017, the Predators made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals, but ultimately lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Knoxville
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Las Vegas
It would be a good gamble, too. In the Golden Knights' first year in the NHL, they advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals before suffering defeat at the hands of the Washington Capitals.
Atlantic City
Reno
Gulfport
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Seattle
Portland
San Diego
Los Angeles
It's no secret that the Los Angeles sports market has seen an influx of teams to cheer for lately, with both the Chargers and the Rams of the NFL relocating to the city. They sometimes overshine the Los Angeles King, the city's NHL franchise.
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Pittsburgh
Philadelphia
Ah, the City of Brotherly Love. They host numerous sports franchises here, including the NHL's Flyers. This team came about as a result of a league expansion in the late 1960s and have enjoyed decent success since, appearing in the most conference finals of any expansion team.
Portland
Phoenix
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Baltimore
Boston
Boston may be one of the most complete "sports towns" out there, with professional franchises ranging from basketball and baseball to football and hockey. The Bruins won a conference championship as recently as the 2018 season.
Bakersfield
Baton Rouge
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Indianapolis
Columbus
Residents of Columbus, Ohio, love their Buckeyes, but there's plenty of room for other sports teams as well. The Columbus Blue Jackets became a member of the National Hockey Association in 2000.
Denver
Buffalo
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Ottawa
Toronto
Winnipeg
Montreal
Montreal, Quebec, is home to a professional hockey team known as the Canadiens, though there are plenty of other Canadian hockey teams for fans from that country to cheer for. The Canadiens are actually older than the NHL itself.
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Denver
The Colorado Avalanche, an appropriate team name for a place known for its cold, snowy conditions, calls Denver home. The team shares a home with the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets.
Vail
Albany
Toledo
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San Angelo
San Jose
The San Jose Sharks, a team that initially began playing in the Cow Palace, relocated to a more aptly-nicknamed facility in the early 1990s that they call the "Shark Tank." The Sharks reportedly earned their nickname for the various species of sharks that inhabit the Pacific Ocean.
San Francisco
San Antonio
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Quebec
Bangor
Toronto
One of the "Original Six" that started the NHL, the Toronto Maple Leafs (or "Leafs" as their fans know them) underwent multiple name changes before settling on the name we know them as today. Some of the other monikers they wore included the Arenas and the St. Patricks.
Montpelier
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Fargo
Fairbanks
Detroit
Ask anyone in the Midwest how to get to "Hockeytown" and they'll point you in the direction of Detroit, Michigan. The town, home to the Red Wings, earned the nickname as the result of marketing efforts for the team itself, but the moniker stuck.
Sioux City
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New York
Chicago
Austin
Could you still "Keep Austin Weird" with a professional sports franchise in town? The NHL may want to consider it. Austin, which is also Texas' state capital, is the largest city of its size without any type of professional sports team.
Pittsburgh
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Orlando
Miami
Tampa
You may not immediately associate cold-weather sports with a team located in Florida, but the Tampa Bay Lightning are here to prove that the Sunshine State knows its hockey, too. The Lightning earned a Stanley Cup title during the 2003-2004 season.
Pensacola
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Birmingham
Charlotte
Pittsburgh
New York
In an ode to its Long Island fan base, the so-named New York Islanders began playing professional hockey in New York in the early 1970s. They're not alone, however; the New York area has two other professional hockey franchises.
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Jacksonville
Roanoke
Ottawa
The name "Senators" is not new and, again, we're not referring to the political arena. The original Ottawa Senators were members of the NHL in the early 1900s. The second, and current, iteration of the Senators began in 1990 when the city was awarded a new franchise.
Boise
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Fort Lauderdale
Fresno
Anaheim
You can thank the Walt Disney Company for not only the Ducks franchise, but its name, which was derived from a 1992 film called, "The Mighty Ducks." Disney eventually sold the franchise, but the Ducks name lives on.
Orlando
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Chicago
St. Louis
Kansas City
In the late 2000s, the ownership of the Pittsburgh Penguins considered moving the franchise to Kansas City, but ultimately opted to stay put. Kansas City is another town where the NHL once existed before flopping; a team called the Scouts lasted two years there in the 1970s.
Detroit
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Milwaukee
Baltimore
Separated from Washington, D.C., by only an hour, you might say that residents of Baltimore could easily adopt the Capitals as their home franchise. But, nothing would make the sports-crazed city of Baltimore happier than having its own franchise.
Tallahassee
Houston
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Detroit
Nashville
Memphis
St. Louis
The St. Louis Blues earned their nickname, appropriately, from a blues song titled, "Saint Louis Blues." The team, and the music, has been part of the St. Louis community since the 1960s.
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Topeka
Chicago
The Windy City, better known as Chicago, hosts the Blackhawks of the NHL, a team with a storied history that dates back to the 1920s. The Blackhawks are one of the NHL's "Original Six" teams.
Gary
Oklahoma City
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Colorado Springs
Las Vegas
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002, but remain NHL-less. It's somewhat ironic since ice hockey is closely tied to the concept of winter sports. If you want to see pro hockey here, you'll have to head six hours away to Las Vegas.
Cheyenne
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Biloxi
Seattle
The Seattle community is gearing up to support its new NHL team which, at the time of this quiz's publication, didn't even have a name yet. They are expected to begin play as part of the 2021 season.
Knoxville
Albany
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Calgary
Edmonton
Halifax
There are a lot of pro hockey teams in Canada, but the city of Halifax is not home to one of them. Surprising, though, since it's Nova Scotia's largest metro area and has produced NHL superstars such as Sidney Crosby.
Ottawa
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Nashville
Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia, has last not one, but two NHL franchises due to relocation: The Flames, who moved to Calgary in 1980, and the Thrashers, who relocated to Winnipeg in 2011. What is it about Atlanta that makes NHL franchises want to leave the country? We may never know.
Los Angeles
Dallas
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Anchorage
Portland
Surely you got our "Trail Blazers" hint in that question, right? Portland has been home to the Trail Blazers of the NBA since the 1970s. It's a city that has the fans, the facilities and the fun to welcome another pro sports team.
Sante Fe
Tacoma
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Hartford
Hartford, Connecticut, was home to a NHL team until the Whalers pulled up its anchor and headed south. They're still associated with water, however, having become the Hurricanes. The team calls Raleigh, North Carolina home.
Bridgeport
Cambridge
Vancouver
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Minnesota
Cleveland
Fans of Cleveland sports team don't seem to have the best of luck, so maybe we're saving them from themselves with the lack of a pro hockey team. They appear to have their hands full with the existing Browns, Indians and Cavaliers.
Detroit
St. Louis
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Buffalo
Winnipeg
Calgary
Saskatoon
Poor Saskatoon. They're cranking out the NHL talent, but don't even have a franchise of their own to support. With nearly 500 NHL athletes born here, we're guessing residents of the province are fans of numerous other franchises.
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Annapolis
Honolulu
San Francisco
Sure, there are NHL franchises in fairly close proximity to the City By the Bay, but not one in the sprawling town itself. Might we suggest the Golden Gates as a name for a potential San Fran hockey franchise?
Green Bay
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St. Paul
St. Paul, Minnesota, is wild — at least by NHL standards. The Minnesota Wild was founded in the late 1990s, starting play a few years later. To bring out its new team, the arena played Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild," a fitting intro indeed.
Green Bay
Des Moines
Winnipeg
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Austin
Dallas
San Antonio
Houston
Houston is no stranger to professional sports ... just to professional hockey. The town is already home to the Rockets, Astros and Texans, and could surely find room in their heart for an NHL franchise.
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Glendale
The Arizona Coyotes were once the Phoenix Coyotes, a nod to the team's former location before heading to Glendale. The franchise was renamed the "Arizona Coyotes" in 2014, but have called Glendale home since 2003.
Mesa
Tuscon
Tempe
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Newark
Louisville
Buffalo
Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has done a good job of funneling talent from its minor league affiliate, the Admirals, to the Nashville, but minor league hockey is all this town has in terms of on-the-ice fun. Hey, there's always the Bucks, the town's NBA franchise.
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Springfield
Sacramento
Indianapolis
Wayne Gretzky made his first professional goal in Indianapolis, even though the city doesn't have its own NHL franchise. How's that, you ask? Gretzky played for Indy's Racers at the time, part of the World Hockey Association.
Olympia
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You Got:
/35
