Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL) Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL) The Pittsburgh Pirates were an American 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, Pennsylvania, and played one season as the Philadelphia Quakers. The Pittsburgh Pirates are traced back to the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets of the US Amateur Hockey Association. The Yellow Jackets' owner was Roy Schooley, a former referee. Even though the team won the USAHA Championship in 1924 and 1925, Schooley encountered financial problems.
Ice hockey in the United Kingdom finished better than twelfth in the World Championships since 1962. Ice hockey is played professionally in the United Kingdom in the Elite Ice Hockey League, a ten-team league which was founded in 2003. Ice hockey was first played in Canada during the early nineteenth century, based on similar sports such as field hockey that were played in Europe. The sport was originally played with a stick and ball, but in 1860 a group of English veterans from the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment played a game in Kingston, Ontario, utilising a puck for what is believed to be the first time.