Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL)

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Pittsburgh Pirates & Philadelphia Quakers
Image:Pittsburghpirateslogo.gif
Played	1925 to 1931
Home ice	Duquesne Gardens (Pittsburgh) </br>Philadelphia Arena (Philadelphia)
Based in	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania & Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Colors	Canary yellow with black horizantal stripes (1925-1928) </br>Orange with black stripes (1928-1930)
League	National Hockey League

The Pittsburgh Pirates were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL), based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1925-26 to 1929-30. The nickname comes from the baseball team also based in the city. For the 1930-31 season the team moved to Philadelphia and played one season as the Philadelphia Quakers.

Founded: 1925

Arena: Duquesne Gardens

Uniform colors: Canary yellow with black horizontal stripes

Logo design: A large P

Stanley Cup wins: none

Stanley Cup finals appearances: none

1 Franchise History
2 Notable players
- 2.1 Hall of Famers
- 2.2 Team captains
3 See also
4 References

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Franchise History

The Pittsburgh Pirates' history traces back to the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets of the US Amateur Hockey Association. The Yellow Jackets' owner was a former referee named Roy Schooley. When Schooley encountered financial problems, his team was purchased by attorney James F. Callahan. Callahan renamed the team the Pittsburgh Pirates, after the name from the baseball team.

The US Amateur Hockey Association folded and the Pittsburgh Pirates were granted a franchise by the National Hockey League (NHL) on November 7, 1925 and became the NHL's third US-based team. The other two teams were the Boston Bruins (1924 - present]] and the New York Americans (1925 - 1942). The Pirates first season was the 1925-26 NHL season. In 36 games, they had an impressive 19 wins, 16 losses, and 1 tie for third best in the league. With a 0.542 winning percentage, that first season would arguably be the team's best. They made the playoffs that year but lost in the first round of the quarter finals to the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Montreal Maroons.

After a good start to their franchise history, things went downhill from there. In six seasons of existance (including the one season as the Philadelphia Quakers), they were above .500 only twice and made the playoffs only twice. The Pirates' third season (1927-28) was that other season. In 44 games, they had 19 wins, 17 losses, and 8 ties. But again, would bow out of the playoffs in the first round to the eventual Cup champions, the New York Rangers.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have left their mark in the NHL record books and NHL history with many firsts and other notable achievements. Odie Cleghorne, the Pirates' coach (and occasional player) for the first four seasons, was the first NHL coach to change his players on the fly. This was an ingenius idea. He was also the first coach to use three set forward lines, which was a huge change from the standard, which was to simply leave the best players out for as long as possible. The Pirates also set an NHL record in salaries by signing defenceman Lionel Conacher to a three-year deal worth $7,500 a year. While playing against the New York Americans on December 26, 1926 an NHL record for most shots in one game occurred. The two teams combined for 141 shots in a 3-1 New York win. Roy Worters made 70 saves for the Pirates and Jake Forbes made 67 saves for the Americans. That is a record that still stands today. Also, the legendary goaltender George Vezina of the Montreal Canadiens played his last game against the Pirates in a 1-0 loss. Vezina had started the game with severe chest pains and left the game during the first intermission with a high fever. He died four months later from tuberculosis.

In 1928 finacial problems forced the original owner, Callahan, to sell the team to an ownership group which included a fight promoter and ex-lightweight boxing champion, Benny Leonard. Despite the sale of the team, things didn't improve on the ice. The 1929-30 season saw Pirates achieve their worst win-loss record to date with 5 wins, 36 losses, and 3 ties in 44 games. Things didn't improve financially either. With the stock market crash of 1929 followed by the Great Depression, the owners found themselves in finacial difficulties. Attendance was down and they tried selling off their star players to make ends meet. The team was $400,000 in debt and it was then decided to move the Pittsburgh Pirates to Philadelphia and rename them the Philadelphia Quakers (The name Quakers coming from the historical importance of the religious community in the founding of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania) in attepts to save the fanchise. The move was made on the premise that the team would only stay in Philadelphia until a new arena was built in Pittsburgh.

The move to Philadelphia for the 1930-31 NHL season didn't help. The money problems continued as well as the on-ice problems. They only played one season in Philadelphia, did not make the playoffs, and had a franchise worst 4 wins, 36 losses, and 4 ties in 44 games. The Quakers were the definition of futility. It took the team three games to score its first goal and six games to get its first win. They had the worst offence (76 goals for) and worst defence (184 goals against) in the league. Their 0.136 winning percentage is the second lowest in NHL history. At the end of that season (1930-31), the Philadelphia Quakers, along with the Ottawa Senators, announced that they were suspending operations of the team for the 1931-32 NHL season. While the Senators came back briefly as the St. Louis Eagles, the Quakers franchise never iced a team again.

The Quakers, though, were given permission to suspend operations for future seasons at the beginning of each season. So, at each of the next five preseason NHL governors meetings, they announced that they were suspending operations for that season. They finally gave up the ghost and officially cancelled the franchise when the new arena in Pittsburgh failed to materialise on the 7th of May, 1936.

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