Two people who had never met, living just miles apart in the same city, had the same family photo hanging in their homes.

And this wasn’t just any old photo.

The black and white picture, one creased and rippled with age, showed legend Lester Patrick flanked by his two curly-haired sons, each clad in a Rangers hockey sweater.

It was a vintage print passed down through generations.

One that ended up in the homes of two then-strangers with a connection.

Last year in a tale that involves a funeral, Facebook and a famous family tree, two descendants of hockey royalty finally came face to face.

And as Christine Castillo looked at the photos hanging in her distant cousin Gar Vallone’s West Nashville home, she saw her great-grandfather framed on the wall.

Her great-grandfather, a man who spent 50 years in hockey as a player, coach and general manager and who, along with his brother Frank, was a pioneer in the sport’s development.

Turns out that man was Vallone’s great-great-uncle and his brother, Frank, was Vallone’s great-grandfather.

“It’s such a cool story,” Castillo says.

Particularly cool as excitement percolates from the Nashville Predators playoff hockey bid. And even more interesting when you realize that Predators General Manager David Poile actually has a trophy in his office that is the likeness of that same great-grandfather — a prestigious award for outstanding contributions to hockey.

Who knew the kin of hockey kings lived here?

Their meeting is just one link in a prestigious lineage. It happened when Castillo’s mom joined Facebook and befriended Vallone, whom she had met 20 years earlier at a funeral for a family member. In his profile photo, she noticed a familiar Ensworth shirt and made the connection. She called her daughter and said, “You’re not going to believe this.”

Turns out that Vallone lived in Nashville, where the former minor league ballplayer worked as a Montessori teacher and coached varsity baseball at Ensworth. His kids played in the same flag football league as Castillo’s. And “come to find out he lives three miles from us,” Castillo says.

The family roots, however, trace much farther away than that — all the way to Canada more than a century ago where the Patrick brothers pioneered hockey as a big business.

Sons of a lumberman living in Victoria, Lester and Frank Patrick founded the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, which became a prominent force in hockey in the 1920s. They established the penalty shot, created numbered jerseys and invented hockey’s blue line, which separates the ice rink into three zones and helps determine offside penalties — all elements still used in the modern game.

And they became dominant forces in the National Hockey League as leaders, innovators and eventually Hall of Famers.

The Patricks’ descendants — many are Stanley Cup-winning players, Olympic and NHL coaches, team general managers and owners — continued the puck prowess. Just Google the names Lynn and Muzz, Craig and Dick, and you will find unparalleled legacy.

“I think you could make a legitimate case that the Patricks are the most successful family in the history of sports, not just hockey but all sports,” Vallone says. “… It’s totally crazy. No family in major sport comes close.

“… It’s neat to tell their story and be able to lay claim to a tiny, tiny part of it.”

The family stories hold significance for Vallone and Castillo.

Castillo remembers as a young girl getting Cracker Jacks and sitting in the hockey arena during St. Louis Blues games, always looking for her gramps, Lynn, who was the team’s coach.

She remembers in second grade when she flipped on the 1980 Olympics and saw her Uncle Craig, assistant coach of the gold-medal-winning United States hockey team that defeated the Soviet Union in the “miracle on ice.”

And she remembers her mom preparing to give the presentation speech at one of the Lester Patrick award ceremonies.

Vallone, too, has a vivid memory of attending a Lester Patrick ceremony. Then a minor league ballplayer drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Vallone watched Wayne Gretzky receive the honor. Gretzky came to play hockey in LA when Vallone was 15. By then Vallone had used his athletic genes to pursue a different stick-wielding sport.

Neither his children nor Castillo’s play hockey — their young boys having gone the baseball route instead — but the athletic legacy is strong and they all attend Predators games.

Just a few days ago, Vallone and Castillo shared those Patrick family stories again — this time with Poile at Bridgestone Arena. It was an orchestrated meeting in the general manager’s office, a chance for the Nashville trio to connect over shared history.

On the wall in Poile’s office there are pictures of Castillo’s grandfather, who coached Poile’s father, Bud, on the Rangers. And on a shelf near Poile’s desk is the trophy of Lester Patrick.

Poile received the honor in 2001 alongside NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and now-retired NHL coach Scotty Bowman, who holds the record for most wins in league history.

“The honor is fabulous, and who I got in with is fabulous,” Poile says. “It is the recognition of what you have done for hockey and committed to hockey over the years — just the like Patricks. It is symbolic of what they accomplished.”

Poile now hopes that another part of the Patrick legacy will come to Bridgestone — the Stanley Cup.

It is Patrick family lore that as teenagers Lester Patrick’s two boys, Lynn and Muzz, got a hold of the Stanley Cup and did some mischief with it one summer.

In those days, a general manager would just bring the Cup home after the team had won it. After Lester Patrick’s Rangers won it in 1928, he put it in the basement for the summer. Lynn and Muzz took a nail and scratched their names on it.

That was the first time of many that the Patrick name was inscribed on the Stanley Cup.

Soon it will be time to see who’s next.

Reach Jessica Bliss at 615-259-8253 and on Twitter @jlbliss.

Patrick legacy

Lester Patrick had two boys, Lynn and Muzz. The line to Christine Castillo comes through Lynn, who had a daughter Karen, who had Christine.

Frank Patrick had three children. The line to Gar Vallone comes through Frank’s daughter Gloria, who had a daughter, Nancy, who had Gar.