Hockey Reference might be my favorite web site, not counting the one that pays me, and even then it’s close. There’s a ton of information, everything is easy to find and loads quickly, and I can get lost for hours going down rabbit holes of trades, records and oddities. I happily subscribe to their stathead service. I even have a browser shortcut that lets me automatically search the site, which I use roughly a dozen times a day. If you like my work here, thank the fine folks at Hockey Reference. I couldn’t do it without them.
All that said, occasionally they get weird.
Often, it’s on purpose – their “Frivolities” section is great fun. Other times, it’s practical, like that FAQ thing shoehorned onto every player page that seems to be some sort of SEO play. But their most recent addition is just plain wacky, and we’re going to have some fun with it today.
At some point in the last few weeks, Hockey Reference started adding nicknames to their player pages. And, uh, let’s just say they’re casting a wide net.
As best I can tell, our friends at Hockey Reference have (perhaps automatically) scraped the internet for any and all references to player nicknames, and included everything they could find. We all know that we’re living through the worst and least creative era of hockey nicknames ever, one where everyone is just called Smither or Jonesy. But apparently we’re all wrong, because the Hockey Reference player pages think that every star has a bunch of nicknames. And I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard of most of them.
I’m betting you haven’t either. But I’m going to give you a chance to prove me wrong with today’s quiz. I’ll give you 20 nicknames plucked from actual Hockey Reference player pages, you tell me the player that (they claim) the nickname applies to. Take the quiz, then scroll back up here to check your score and see how you did.
0 right: You are the Red Light Racicot of nickname knowers.
1 – 4 right: You are Jumbo Joe.
5 – 9 right: You are the Pocket Rocket.
10 - 13 right: You are the Finnish Flash.
14 – 16 right: You are the Missing Link.
17 – 19 right: You are the Grim Reaper.
20 right: You are the Chicoutimi Cucumber.
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