another banger of a trivia question

[scoop 3,447]

Well, I needed something to write about for my VHL.com article this week, and I've just stumbled across yet another poorly written trivia question. This one at least it is clear what it is going for, but two of the answers here are technically correct. See the question below.

 

 

There is only one longest playoff game but this question seems to define "longest playoff game" as any game that appears on this spreadsheet, as found in this thread that includes a lot of historical playoff information. The Cologne Express participated the three longest playoff games, but the Oslo Storm also participated in "all the longest playoff games" because only that matchup between Cologne and Oslo is, by definition, the one and only longest playoff game. The question says nothing about the second and third longest.

 

Now, what if there was a trivia question (and so help me, if I see this down the road) that asked "How many of the longest playoff games in league history have the Malmo Nighthawks participated in?" The answer, by the logic of the question pictured above, would be 1, because that's how many times they appear on that spreadsheet. In reality, the Nighthawks participated in the 11th longest playoff game.

 

At least this trivia question has a decent subject matter for trivia. Though it really should just be asking about the longest game. I think simply asking how many overtime periods were in the longest game or asking who won the longest game would be better. As it is worded, it technically has two correct answers but it is very clearly going for the Cologne Express as the answer, because they also played in the second and third longest.

 

But hey, at least it's not asking about something so mundane as draft lottery odds.