Hockey
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189 free Hockey trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free hockey trivia questions with answers. From Wayne Gretzky's untouchable records to the Miracle on Ice, hockey has delivered some of the most thrilling moments in sports history. This quiz starts with easy hockey trivia for kids and new fans: how many periods in a game, what a hat trick is, what the Zamboni does, which trophy the champion lifts. Then it skates into the harder stuff: the Original Six, the biggest trade in NHL history, record-holding goalies and the men behind the game's most famous photographs. There are 189 questions, so it works for a youth team bus ride, a family quiz, a classroom or a bar. Every answer has been checked against a real source and each question shows where it came from.
30 of 189 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which NHL player holds the all-time record for most career goals?
Alex Ovechkin
Alex Ovechkin scored No. 895 on April 6, 2025, in his 1,487th game, exactly as many as Wayne Gretzky played, and the game came to a standstill with Gretzky in the building to watch.
Q 02Which piece of protective equipment did the NHL make mandatory for all new players in 1979?
Helmets
Helmets became compulsory for anyone who signed after June 1, 1979, but veterans could carry on bareheaded, and Craig MacTavish did so until he retired in 1997.
Q 03What is unusual about substitutions in hockey?
They happen during play
They happen during play: skaters hop the boards 'on the fly', and since only five skaters and a goaltender are allowed, a mistimed change draws a too-many-men penalty.
Q 04Where did the United States beat the Soviet Union in the 1980 'Miracle on Ice'?
Lake Placid
Lake Placid, a village in upstate New York hosting its second Winter Games, saw the upset, but the gold was not yet won: the Americans still had to beat Finland two days later.
Q 05What is a "hat trick" in hockey?
Three goals in one game
Three goals in one game is a hat trick, a term borrowed from cricket, where a bowler who took three wickets with successive balls was traditionally rewarded with a hat.
Q 06Which NHL club has won the Stanley Cup the most times?
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup 24 times, more than any other club, and the first of those titles, in 1916, came before the NHL even existed.
Q 07Which penalty gets a player ejected for the rest of the night?
Game misconduct
A game misconduct ends a player's night, yet his team does not play short for it: a substitute may replace him at once, and the scoresheet charges him ten penalty minutes.
Q 08What nickname is given to the area directly in front of the goal where most goals are scored?
The slot
The slot is the area directly in front of the goaltender between the faceoff circles. It is prime scoring territory because shooters have the best angle on the net from this position.
Q 09Which player was nicknamed "Le Magnifique"?
Mario Lemieux
Mario Lemieux, 'Le Magnifique', missed two months of 1992-93 for cancer treatment, flew to a game on the day of his last radiation session, and still finished the season as the league's top scorer.
Q 10What is hockey's penalty box commonly nicknamed?
The sin bin
The sin bin is the penalty box, and a player sent there for a major penalty must sit out every second of it, however many goals the other team scores in the meantime.
Q 11Which Bobby Orr moment does one of hockey's most famous photographs show?
His overtime goal to win the 1970 final
His overtime goal to win the 1970 final is the picture: Orr flies through the air, arms raised, because defender Noel Picard tripped him just as the puck went in.
Q 12What is "icing" in hockey?
Shooting the puck down the ice untouched
Shooting the puck down the ice untouched from your own half stops play, but a shorthanded team may do it freely, which is why penalty killers fire the puck the length of the rink.
Q 13Which team acquired Wayne Gretzky from Edmonton in the 1988 deal known simply as 'The Trade'?
Q 21Which NHL star's blond hair, skating speed and end-to-end rushes earned him the nickname 'the Golden Jet'?
Bobby Hull
Bobby Hull took $1 million in 1972 to jump to the rival World Hockey Association, and was left off Team Canada for that year's Summit Series as a result.
Q 22What happens during a shootout in the NHL?
Each team takes three penalty shots
Each team takes three penalty shots, then sudden-death rounds if still level; the NHL has used the shootout since 2005-06, but never in the playoffs, where games run on until someone scores.
Q 23Who scored the overtime 'Golden Goal' for Canada against the United States in the men's final at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics?
Los Angeles Kings
The Los Angeles Kings sent Edmonton players, draft picks and $15 million, and Gretzky's popularity in California is credited with spurring the NHL's spread across the American Sun Belt.
Q 14What is the name of the trophy awarded to the NHL's most valuable player during the regular season?
Hart Memorial Trophy
The Hart Memorial Trophy is a replacement: the original Hart Trophy, donated in 1923 by the father of coach Cecil Hart, was retired in 1960, so 'Memorial' was added to its successor.
Q 15What drove the Montreal Wanderers out of the NHL's first season?
Fire
Fire destroyed their arena on January 2, 1918, four games into the season; already short of players, the Wanderers defaulted two matches and disbanded, leaving the NHL with three teams.
Q 16Which goaltender holds the NHL record for most career wins?
Martin Brodeur
Martin Brodeur handled the puck so well that in 2005 the NHL painted a trapezoid behind each net to limit where goaltenders may play it, a change widely nicknamed the 'Brodeur rule'.
Q 17Which NHL team plays its home games at Madison Square Garden?
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers were founded in 1926 by Garden promoter Tex Rickard, and the city's press promptly dubbed his new club 'Tex's Rangers', a pun on the Texas Rangers that stuck.
Q 18What is a "power play" in hockey?
Playing with an extra skater during a penalty
Playing with an extra skater during a penalty is a power play, and scoring on one usually ends it: a goal releases a player serving a minor penalty.
Q 19Who coached the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to the "Miracle on Ice" gold medal?
Herb Brooks
Herb Brooks had been the last player cut from the 1960 US team that won Olympic gold; twenty years later he coached a young team of amateurs past the Soviets.
Q 20Which part of the rink was nicknamed Wayne Gretzky's 'office'?
Behind the net
Behind the net was 'Gretzky's office': he would park there with the puck, shielded by the goal, and wait for a teammate to break free, since defenders dared not leave the front of the net to chase him.
Sidney Crosby
Sidney Crosby scored off Jarome Iginla's pass 7:40 into overtime, which was only needed because Zach Parise had tied the final for the Americans with 25 seconds left in regulation.
Q 24What is the blue line in hockey used for?
It divides the rink into three zones
It divides the rink into three zones, an idea from the Patrick family's Pacific Coast league, which painted two blue lines so that forward passes could be allowed in the centre zone.
Q 25Which award goes to the NHL's best defenceman each season?
Norris Trophy
The Norris Trophy first went to Detroit's Red Kelly in 1954; traded to Toronto in 1960, he switched to centre and won four more Stanley Cups as a forward.
Q 26Despite the name, what were hockey's 'Original Six'?
The NHL's only teams from 1942 to 1967
The NHL's only teams from 1942 to 1967 were not its founders: of the six, only Montreal and Toronto played in the first season of 1917-18, and the other four joined in the 1920s.
Q 27What is "offsides" in hockey?
Entering the attacking zone before the puck
Entering the attacking zone before the puck is judged by the skates, not the stick: a player stays onside as long as one skate is still on or behind the blue line.
Q 28Which Bruins centre's season points record did Gretzky break in 1981?
Phil Esposito
Phil Esposito, traded away by his first NHL club in 1967, scored 152 points for Boston in 1970-71, and the mark stood for a decade until Gretzky's 164 in his second NHL season.
Q 29What is a "Gordie Howe hat trick"?
A goal, an assist and a fight
A Gordie Howe hat trick is a goal, an assist and a fight in one game; Howe himself managed it only twice, in October 1953 and March 1954.
Q 30Which team drafted Connor McDavid first overall in 2015?
Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers finished third from bottom yet won the 2015 draft lottery, landing Connor McDavid as their fourth first-overall pick in six drafts.