The Team That Played ONE Game | Weird Stories of Hockey

On March 20th, 1979, one very odd team comprised of some of the most- and least-known hockey players ever played their one and only game in a North American National League.
*Technically the WHA, but if there's are guys named Wayne Gretzky and Dave Semenko playing on a team called the Edmonton Oilers, it's basically the NHL.
Thank you to Tombstone for their awesome cover of Finland's national anthem, "Maamme"!
If you enjoyed, hit like or subscribe! :)
DISCORD: / discord

[@YG-mi3vj]

You've convinced me: Seppo Repo is the GOAT 🙌

[@NolanEgbert]

I’ll forgive the slightly deceptive title for the absolute joy in finding out about this bizarre oddity in NA pro hockey history. Great vid!

[@calebos268]

Seppo Repo's name is the 70s equivalent to Kaapo Kakko. Absolute goated names

[@masterzane4369]

I’m not gonna lie, when the Finland graphic popped up I lost it 😂

[@Stonedead1991]

Repo had a weird career, he played for example in Japan in the 80's and was the man who scored the title winning goal for his team TPS in the first season of Finnish League (Liiga). Plus he had a moustache.

[@TheMemeBorrower.]

I am so happy I randomly stumbled upon this channel. You, my friend have some incredible, quality hockey content. I would not be surprised to see your channel blow up in subscribers within the next year.

[@PinholesGraham]

I can only hope! Glad you enjoyed :)

[@JTDutch]

The Oilers had an incredible, but very nice, number of shots on goal in this game ... 69. They had 33 shots on goal in the second period alone. 33 shots in 20 minutes. They had outshot Finland 51-7 after two periods. And Gretzky had "only" one point, a goal to give Edmonton a 7-1 lead in that wild second period.

[@RonanDahlman-ci1ql]

The Three Mile Island comment came way out of left field and I loved it.

[@marcpower4167]

Noticed the Ottawa Civics in this video, that was a weird one too. They moved from Denver suddenly without even announcing it publicly as part of a deal where the owner was trying to sell the team. Supposedly, the players didn't even know. But the deal fell through, and the team folded, after playing only 7 games as the Civics

[@strixie02]

I'm from Finland and I had never heard of this game. Good stuff

[@PinholesGraham]

Thank you! Did you know all the Finnish references? :)

[@strixie02]

@@PinholesGraham Most of it was perfectly on point. Hearing the metal version of the finnish national anthem made me laugh. Well done.

[@carl-johanfougstedt199]

Same as Trooper. I´m a finn and this was news to me.

[@enchanted2k797]

this will be the best hockey youtube account ever

[@TheEmoCat]

this feels very jon bois-esque and i love it. +1 sub.

[@mattr.8470]

This channel is amazing. I wanna say I subbed before it blows up

[@Dharmaville]

love the time and effort you put into these, hockey has so many weird stories

[@Rextum]

As a Finn, I approve of this video 100%. Also, Finnish hockey has come a loooong way from the late 70s to an olympic gold medal team in 2022.

[@Crapy7]

love your channel man. you’re gonna blow upppp 🔥

[@bostonhockeyco]

This is actually cool!

[@moody9442]

end killed me

[@PinholesGraham]

It almost killed me, too XD

[@darkazon5343]

As a finnish person, I was not expecting this at all

[@lbyerly1]

I’ve watched all your vids now to this point… In a day. I need more lol.

[@nikevisor54]

Holy yes! More content like this please :)

[@spencerschannel8856]

WE FINALLY HAVE A GOOD NHL YT PAGE LFG

[@Jame5man]

This is easily the most WHA story imaginable

[@seanboland4671]

Gets tobgue tied on tuhoimaa but doesn't skip a beat on jrykkio 😂

[@dendyxyz]

Fuuck yeah buddy. Good vid, glad I found ur channel

[@icewyre]

Matti Hagman and Jari Kurri after losing in one game: "If you can't beat em', join em'!" Sad that Hagman missed out on the Stanley Cups, though. Looks like he went out the year the Kings had that unbelievable comeback - the elimination of the Oilers and the end of Hagman.

[@icewyre]

I just looked it up, and the Miracle at Manchester was literally the last game of Matti Hagman's career. He never played in the last 2 games of that series.

[@PinholesGraham]

What a way to go lol

[@Pajo25ify]

@@icewyre he literally played 10 more seasons after that game though.

[@icewyre]

@@Pajo25ify did I really need to specify 'NHL' career. Context, my guy. Context. That's like me telling you, "actually, it was 9 seasons." Cuz... yeah it was 9.

[@Pajo25ify]

@@icewyre yes it is definitely needed to specify. Now you don't necessarily have this attitude, but it's common when north american hockey fans talk about hockey they have the attitude that everything other than NHL = beer league.

[@gregfranke3574]

Finland actually played 5 games the year before in a WHA tour: beat Cincinnati, Birmingham, and Indianapolis, lost to New England and Houston. Sweden also played 5 games going 1-4, so they may actually hold the record for fewest games, because they played no games the next year. Also, you can't really just call the WHA the NHL, that would be like calling the AFL the NFL before the merger, or the ABA the NBA. They were entirely separate entities. You can say major league games because the WHA was indeed a strong major league. Still an interesting video...

[@coastaku1954]

Yeah but again, if Wayne Gretzky is playing on a team called the Oilers, it's the NHL

[@gregfranke3574]

@@coastaku1954 not at all; WHA Oilers were not the NHL Oilers and they didn't play in the NHL.

[@coastaku1954]

@@gregfranke3574 Oh my god, take a fucking joke

[@TylerAven10]

His verbiage was very specific in the intro, making sure that he never said that it was an NHL game or NHL team.

[@gregfranke3574]

@@TylerAven10 but if his verbiage is so specific, how can he then say "if Gretzky was on the Oilers, it's the NHL" which he's just stated they weren't. Can't have it both ways. From a historical standpoint, it's just wrong. Trying to be witty perhaps, but accuracy counts more...

[@mattcolasante8548]

Your like the Jon Bois of hockey. Like even your voice sounds like a pitched up version of his

[@patriksodin9349]

This is great

[@Pajo25ify]

Matti Hagman was an absolute beast. Never got a truly fair chance in the NHL and decided to play in Finland instead. In 1980-1981 he had a better p/60 than Gretzky.

[@Statsy10]

That was an awesome video! Who knew?

[@noblinkreal]

Let’s talk about the WHA team that played 0 games, the Miami Screaming Eagles.

[@Statsy10]

"Never been beaten." 😂

[@AdrianWalsh-qz9fr]

U know I never heard of any of these teams before !!!

[@tvviewer4500]

You didn't have to make it seem like seppo repo is a nobody - he is seppo repo

[@raybrown1827]

Could you do a video on the Denver Spurs/civics I think that would be a interesting video

[@firstnamemclastname9490]

If a league has Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers it's the NHL you say? JETS HAVE 3 CUPS CONFIRMED. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAH. no it's not the coyotes.

[@Vanhapjuuma]

Although you can't just make up that a team played only one game in the NHL but actually didn't because they played in the WHA, this was interesting. Didn't read the comments beforehand so this took me by surprise. Coming from Finland and a hockey fan, even I didn't know this. Good job, you deceiver (I must add).

[@wild_insomnia]

Seppo is the MAN !

[@KibblezanBitz]

I haven't gotten to the reveal yet, but I'm betting it's Team Finland or whatever playing that one game that counted toward the WHA regular season standings.

[@ericksheldon3870]

You’re never gonna believe this

[@markdoney4918]

Also missed the Montreal Wanderers who played 6 games in the first season of the NHL before their arena burnt down

[@PinholesGraham]

Hib Milks vs Seppo Repo - who wins?!

[@28_Spokes]

Don’t messo with Seppo

[@davekuhn9342]

I don’t know that no one remembers these guys; some guy name Jari Kurri played for em…

[@enchanted2k797]

your videos are amazing please dont stop making them

[@kevnoxious]

But the game was not played in the NHL

[@mosesbacke2311]

Don't confuse the NHL and the WHA. That's not right to neither. The 1978/1979 season was of course odd, because everybody knew the WHA was folding, so they could do what ever they wanted. And of course the league was small with only six teams finishing the season. But the Original Six wasn't more than six teams either. Seppo Repo may not be famous in Canada or the USA, but he played a whole decade in the National team of Finland. He was a member of the Finnish Canada Cup team of 1976. One of the real guys. I think Phoenix Roadrunners tried to do with Finns what Winnipeg Jets had been very successful doing with Swedes. Not a bad thought, but it didn't work out.

[@tomj3089]

bro no shot you're from the hamilton region,, are you????

[@PinholesGraham]

I'm from Virginia, haha. But I know a lot people in Canada want an NHL team in Hamilton :)

[@stylekiller21]

Jon bois would be proud

[@ZACKMAN2007]

You added wha teams?

[@JohnDaubSuperfan369]

Joopa joo, suomi mainittu, torille ja sassia jne jne... Since when is the World Hockey Association considered to be part of the National Hockey League?

[@PinholesGraham]

2:45 Also, note the asterisk in the title; it leads to the video description.

[@JohnDaubSuperfan369]

@@PinholesGraham Just because Gretzky played in the WHA it's still not the NHL in any way, Gordie Howe played for the same team in both leagues as well. Just a tad clickbaity, given that most hockey fans probably don't even understand the function of an asterisk.

[@rudymiller4434]

Need to change the title to NHL/WHA or take out all of the WHA teams entirely as it is misleading for viewers who know next to nothing about Hockey in North America.

[@arii_mariii]

Yeah I’ve got a bit of a defunct team hyperfixation and was so confused looking at this the first time lol

[@xdudo360]

where can i find that chart? google is being a b*tch about it :D

[@PinholesGraham]

Which chart in question? Happy to help :)

[@xdudo360]

@@PinholesGraham all time games played by franchise, including he defunct teams (00:07 and 00:016)

[@PinholesGraham]

I made it myself! I got the data from here: www.hockey-reference.com/teams/index.html

[@xdudo360]

@@PinholesGraham thanks a lot

[@GilesMcRiker]

So basically this was one of many intl exhibition game played in the WHA. Man talk about desperate clickbait trash....

[@KibblezanBitz]

It was a regular season game of a major pro league. The hockey equivalent of the ABA.

[@markdoney4918]

The wha is not the NHL

[@kenkunz1428]

The headline is complete BS. No NHL team ever played just one game.

[@skinnie2838]

Finland is definitely not the happiest country