Expansion Era: 1967-68 Onwards Quiz

Answer: Stan Mikita

Mikita of the Chicago Blackhawks led the league with 87 points (he also led the league in goals with 40). Phil Esposito of the Boston Bruins had 84 points (35 of them were goals), Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings had 82 points (scoring 39 goals), and Rod Gilbert of the New York Rangers had 77 points (scoring 29 goals).

Answer: 4 goal

The Canadiens finished with the best record in the league finishing with a 44-22-10 record for 94 points, while St.Louis finished 3rd in their division and 8th out of 12 teams going 27-31-16 for 70 points. St. Louis was in all four games losing the first game 3-2 in overtime, the second game 1-0, the third game 4-3 in overtime, and the fourth game 3-2.

Answer: 1

All 6 teams were in the NHL West division, and in the second year of the divisonal format. St. Louis won the divison with 88 points, which was 19 more than the second place Oakland Seals, who went 29-36-11 for 69 points. St.Louis was the only team with a winning percentage over .500, going 37-25-14.

The Philadelphia Flyers finished 3rd going 20-35-21 for 61 points, Los Angeles Kings finished 4th with a 24-42-10 record with 58 points, Pittsburgh Penguins(20-45-11), and the Minnesota North Stars(18-43-15)each finished with 51 points.

Answer: True

In fact, 3 players finished with at least 100 points. Phil Esposito of the Bruins had 126 points, while scoring 49 goals. Bobby Hull of Chicago was second in points with 107 points, but led in goals with 58, and Gordie Howe of Detroit was third with 103 points, with 44 of them goals.

This was with the NHL making the jump from 50 games to 60 games in 1946-47, and played 70 games in 1949-50 up until 1967-68. The NHL jumped to the 76 games all 12 teams played that year.

Answer: Los Angeles Kings

After helping the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup, Sawchuk went with Los Angeles only playing 1 season with the Kings, until moving to Detroit, the team he started his career with. Then played the following year with the Rangers until calling it a career. Rutledge was in the Rangers farm system until playing 3 seasons with the Kings, and after that he moved to the defunct World Hockey Association for 6 years.

Answer: Vancouver Canucks and Buffalo Sabres

The Canucks and the Sabres joined the NHL in the East division, moving Chicago to the West division. Vancouver in their first season went 24-46-8 with 56 points missing the playoffs. Buffalo also did poorly going 24-39-15, ending up with 63 points also missing the playoffs.

Answer: False

They joined the NHL a year later in 1972-73, and both doing pretty bad in their first year. The Atlanta Flames went 25-38-15 with 65 points, and finishing out of the playoffs. Their expansion cousins were worse going 12-60-6, finishing with 30 points, the worst in the league.

Answer: Washington Capitals

The Capitals were so bad in the 1974-75 season, that they only scored 181 goals, worst in the league, and allowed 446 goals. This was 105 more than the second worst team which was the Minnesota North Stars. Kansas City wasn't much better entering the same year as the Capitals in 1974-75 season, going 15-54-11 with 41 points.

They scored only 3 more goals than the Capitals with 184, while allowing 328 goals. San Jose's first year was also pretty bad going 17-58-5, with 39 points in 1991-92, and in their second season was worse going 11-71-2 with 24 points.

Answer: False

In the 1993-94 season, the Florida Panthers just missed out of the playoffs by 1 point from the New York Islanders. The Panthers posted the best season by an expansion team going 33-34-17, despite just missing the playoffs.

Answer: Columbus Blue Jackets

In the 2000-01 season, Columbus went 28-39-9, posted 71 points more than the other 3 teams. Minnesota, the team that joined Columbus in 2000-01, had a reasonable season going 25-39-13 with 68 points. Nashville and Atlanta joined the year before in 1999-00, going 28-40-7 with 70 points, while Atlanta had a dismal 14-57-7 collecting only 39 points, which was 15 points less than the 2nd worst team the Tampa Bay Lightning.