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Hockey Night in Canada began airing on Saturday nights onCBC Television in1952. National coverage of the NHL in the U.S. was limited to Saturday afternoon regular season games onCBS, running for four seasons from1956–57 to1959–60.
In the1952–53 season,CBC began televisingHockey Night in Canada as asimulcast to the radio calls, joining the games in progress either 30 minutes or 60 minutes after the opening faceoff. Until1961, the CBC was the only operating television network in Canada. Not only that, it was likely that not allToronto Maple Leafs andMontreal Canadiens playoff games were televised in the early years, including to their local markets.
CBC's coverage of Games 3, 4 and 5 of the1954 Stanley Cup Finals were joined in progress at 9:30 p.m. (approximately one hour after start time). Meanwhile, CBC joined Game 6 in at 10 p.m. (again, one hour after start time). Game 7 was carriedDominion wide (nationwide) from the opening face-off at 9 p.m. Since Game 7 was played onGood Friday night, there were no commercials (Imperial Oil was the sponsor).
Game 3 of theDetroit-Torontoplayoff series and Game 5 of theBoston-Montreal series were televised nationally.
Game 4 of theMontreal-New York Rangersplayoff series was not the potential clincher, nor was it played inMontreal. Therefore, there was a possible chance that the game wasn't going to be televised.
CBS first broadcast National Hockey League games on Saturday afternoons for four seasons from1956–57[1] to1959–60.[2][3][4][5][6][7]Bud Palmer served as the play-by-play announcer,[8][9][10] andFred Cusick provided color commentary, pregame, and intermission interviews for the first three seasons. In1959–60, Cusick moved over to play-by-play whileBrian McFarlane came in to do color commentary, pregame, and intermission interviews. The pregame and intermission interviews were done on the ice, with the interviewer on skates. No playoff games were televised during this period, and all broadcasts took place in one of the four American arenas[11] at the time.
As previously mentioned, CBS covered the1956–57 season on Saturday afternoons, starting on January 5.[12][13] For the next three years, CBS continued airing games on Saturday afternoons starting on November 2, 1957, October 18, 1958, and January 9, 1960.[14]
Games 1, 2, and 4 of theMontreal-New York Rangersplayoff series were not likely seen outside theMontreal region if not televised at all.
Games 1–3 of theMontreal-Detroitplayoff series were likely not seen outsideQuebec.
CBC's telecast of Game 7 ofToronto-Bostonplayoff series atBoston Garden joins just before the start of the second period.Bill Hewitt andFoster Hewitt were simulcasting on Toronto'sCKFH andCBC Radio, and one of them welcomes the television audience.
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