During the1979–80 and1980–81 seasons, four more Canadian teams, theEdmonton Oilers,Quebec Nordiques,Winnipeg Jets, andCalgary Flames, joined the NHL. The Oilers and Flames were featured frequently as the two teams were contenders the 1980s; in contrast, as the Nordiques were owned byCarling-O'Keefe, a rival to the show's sponsorMolson and whose English-speaking fanbase was very small (being located in a near-exclusively Francophone area of Quebec), the Nords were rarely broadcast, and never from Quebec City during the regular-season.
AfterWayne Gretzky was traded to theLos Angeles Kings in1988, the network began showing occasionaldouble-headers when Canadian teams visited Los Angeles to showcase the sport's most popular player. These games were often joined-in-progress, as the regular start time forHNIC was still 8 p.m. Eastern Time, and the Kings home games began at 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time (10:30 Eastern). Beginning in the1994–95 season, weekly double-headers became the norm, with games starting at 7:30 Eastern and 7:30 Pacific, respectively. In1998, the start times were moved ahead to 7 p.m. ET and PT.
In the U.S., theUSA Network continued to be the national rightsholder for the1980–81 and1981–82 seasons, whileESPN made deals with a selected number of individual teams to air their games during that period. In1982, USA outbid ESPN for the NHL's American national television cable package. The rights were then passed on to ESPN in1985 beforeSportsChannel America took over in1988.
In1979–80, theNational Hockey League replaced theirsyndicated coverage packageThe NHL Network with a package on USA.[1] At the time, the USA Network was calledUA-Columbia.[2] As the immediate forerunner for the USA Network, UA-Columbia, served as the cable syndicated arm of not onlyMSG Network inNew York, but alsoPRISM channel inPhiladelphia, and whatever pay/cable outlets were around in1979.
USA's coverage began as a Monday night series[3] withDan Kelly[4] doing play-by-play alongside a variety of commentators includingPete Stemkowski,Lou Nanne andBrian McFarlane. Scott Wahle was the intermission host.
ESPN initially covered the NHL during the1979–80,1980–81 and1981–82 seasons by making deals with individual teams.[5][6] This included elevenHartford Whalers home broadcasts in 1980–81 and 25 the following year.[7] During this time,USA alsobroadcast National Hockey League games. In order to prevent overexposure, the NHL decided to grant only one network exclusive rights. In April 1982, USA outbid ESPN for the NHL's American national television cable package ($8 million for two years).[8][9]
The independentHughes Television Network broadcastNational Hockey League games[10] aired under the titleThe NHL '80.[11] Hughes broadcast Thursday night games,[12] theAll-Star Game,[13] someplayoff games, and Games 1-5 of theStanley Cup Finals.[14] Hughes technically, usedCBC'sHockey Night in Canada feeds for the American coverage of the first five games of the Stanley Cup Finals. The first broadcast involved theAtlanta Flames against theChicago Blackhawks on January 25.
On April 9, 1980, CBC carried theACTRA awards ceremony. This caused Game 2 ofHartford-Montreal andEdmonton-Philadelphia playoff games not to be televised. Meanwhile, theToronto-Minnesota game was shifted toCHCH inHamilton while theVancouver-Buffalo game was televised by CBC regionally inBritish Columbia as usual. The ACTRA awards show wastape-delayed intoprime time on thewest coast.
During the1980 Stanley Cup Finals,Bob Cole,Dan Kelly andJim Robson shared play-by-play duties for CBC's coverage. Cole did play-by-play for the first half of Games 1–2. Meanwhile, Kelly did play-by-play for half of Games 1–5 (Kelly also called the overtime period of Game 1). Finally, Robson did play-by-play for the half of Games 3–4 and Game 6 entirely. In essence, this meant that Cole or Robson did play-by-play for the first period and the first half of the second period (except for Game 5 in which the roles of Kelly and Robson were switched). Therefore, at the closest stoppage of play near the 10-minute mark of the second period, Cole or Robson handed off the call to Kelly for the rest of the game.
CBS only aired one other NHL game following Game 2 of the 1979 Challenge Cup. That would take place on May 24, 1980, with Game 6[15] of theStanley Cup Finals between thePhiladelphia Flyers and theNew York Islanders.[16][17] CBS was mainly influenced by theUnited States men's Olympic hockey team's surprisegold medal victory (dubbed "The Miracle on Ice") inLake Placid several months prior.[18] CBS agreed to pay $37 million to broadcast the sixth game. In return, the NHL happily moved[19] the starting time fromprime time to the afternoon.[20] The Saturday afternoon game was the first fullAmerican network telecast of an NHL game since Game 5 of the1975 Stanley Cup Finals aired on NBC. As previously mentioned, when CBS broadcast Game 2 of the 1979 Challenge Cup, it was only seen on CBS for the third period.
Game 6 was won in overtime by the host Islanders,[21] which captured the first of their four consecutiveStanley Cups. By this time, Dan Kelly[22] was joined by formerNHL on NBC commentator,Tim Ryan.[23] Kelly didplay-by-play for the first and third periods as well as overtime.[24] Meanwhile, Tim Ryan did play-by-play only for the second period.Minnesota North Stars general managerLou Nanne[25] was the color commentator throughout the game.
Game 6 pulled a 4.4 rating on CBS.[26] After the game ended, except for itsowned-and-operated stations inNew York City andPhiladelphia, CBS discontinued the telecast and went to a previously scheduledgolf telecast.[27] New York and Philadelphia viewers saw apost-game show before the network joined the very end of the golf broadcast. Given that the game went into overtime, CBS cut away from hockey during the intermission between the end of regulation and the start of overtime to present ten minutes of livegolf coverage, with the golf announcers repeatedly mentioning that the network would return to hockey in time for the start of sudden-death.
As previously mentioned, Game 6 of the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals turned out to be the last NHL game (to date) to be televised on CBS. It was also the last NHL game on American network television until NBC televised the1990 All-Star Game.[28][29][30]
For the1980–81 season,[31] some Sunday night games were added. Dan Kelly once again, did most of the play-by-play alongsideMike Eruzione.[32][33] Dick Carlson andJiggs McDonald also did play-by-play work on occasion. In addition,Don Cherry was a commentator for at least one game. Meanwhile, Jim West was the host for most games.
With USA's coverage of the1981 Stanley Cup Playoffs, it marked the first time that there was "blanket" American television coverage of the NHL playoffs. In other words, often, whenever a game was played, it was televised on a national outlet (whether it was broadcast or cable). USA however, didn't televise Game 1 of the playoff series betweenPhiladelphia Flyers andCalgary Flames (April 16) because they were instead broadcasting abaseball game between thePittsburgh Pirates andPhiladelphia Phillies. Meanwhile, they also skipped Games 2–6 (on April 17, 22 and 24) of the Philadelphia–Calgary series because of theircoverage of theNBA playoffs. USA also didn't televise Games 2 and 5 of the playoff series between theCalgary Flames andMinnesota North Stars (April 30 and May 7 respectively) because of baseball games involving theMinnesota Twins vs. theBoston Red Sox and theLos Angeles Dodgers vs. thePhiladelphia Phillies respectively.
In the1981–82 season,[34]Al Trautwig[35] took over as studio host. Dan Kelly did play-by-play with eitherGary Green[36][37] orRod Gilbert on color commentary. For theplayoffs, Dick Carlson andAl Albert[38] were added as play-by-play voices of some games. Meanwhile,Jim Van Horne hostedStanley Cup Finals games played in Vancouver.
In April 1982, USA outbidESPN for the NHL's American national television cable package with $8 million (at least $2 million more than what ESPN was offering).[39]
Aside from the1982 Stanley Cup Finals, CBC's only other nationally televised postseason games (all other games were seen regionally) from that year were the April 23Boston-Quebec game (Game 6), the April 25 Quebec-Boston game (Game 7), and the May 6Vancouver-Chicago game (Game 5).
Things pretty much remained the same for USA during the1982–83 season. Dan Kelly and Gary Green called most games, while Al Albert did play-by-play on severalplayoff[40] games and hosted theStanley Cup Finals from theNassau Coliseum.[41][42] USA didn't cover any playoff games on April 7, 1983, because they werebroadcasting second round highlights ofThe Masters followed by aWest CoastNBA telecast.
In the1983–84 season, USA covered over 40 games[43] including theplayoffs.[44] While Gary Green did all games, Dan Kelly and Al Albert did roughly 20 games each. Meanwhile, Jiggs McDonald helped broadcast at least one game.
Because USA was airingMasters highlights, Game 1 of the 1984 playoff series between theMinnesota North Stars andSt. Louis Blues (April 12) and Game 2 of the playoff series between theNew York Islanders andWashington Capitals (April 13) were aired ontape delay at 10 p.m.Eastern Time.
In the1984–85 and1985–86 seasons, the NHL returned toCTV, with regular season games[45] on Friday[46] nights (and some Sunday afternoons) as well as partial coverage of the playoffs andStanley Cup Finals.
CTV/Carling O'Keefe[47] initially signed a contract well into the 1984–85 season. As a result, they wanted to cram as many games as possible (beginning in February) in the brief window they had. 1985-86's coverage didn't begin until November, so to avoid conflicts with CTV's coverage of theMajor League Baseball postseason and theCanadian Football League.
WhileMolson continued to presentHockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights on the CBC, rival breweryCarling O'Keefe[48] began airingFriday Night Hockey on CTV. This marked the first time in more than a decade that CBC was not the loneover-the-air network broadcaster of the National Hockey League in Canada.
The deal with CTV was arranged by theQuebec Nordiques (who were owned by Carling O'Keefe[47]) and all 14 U.S.-based NHL clubs,[48] who sought to break Molson's monopoly[49] on NHL broadcasting in Canada. All of CTV's regular season telecasts originated fromQuebec City or theUnited States, as Molson shut them out of the other six Canadian buildings (as Carling did to them in Quebec City).
For USA's final full season of NHL coverage in1984–85,[50][51] Dan Kelly[52] and Gary Green[53] once again, did most games, while Al Albert and Green called the rest. In all, the USA Network covered about 55 games, including 33 in the regular season.[54] Also,Hartford Whalers goaltenderMike Liut was added as a studio analyst for theStanley Cup Finals.[55][56]
Meanwhile, for increased publicity opportunities, theStroh Brewing Company[53] turned to such sports as hockey—which had been overlooked byAnheuser andMiller—and sponsored broadcasts of National Hockey League games on the USA cable network.[57]
Seldom during the early rounds of the playoffs did USA carry an away game of one of the three New York-area teams (New York Rangers,New York Islanders, orNew Jersey Devils) sinceWOR-TV New York, at the time available on most of the nation's cable television systems, often carried that away game of the New York-area team both locally in New York and on its "superstation" feed. One exception was a playoff game between two of the New York-area clubs, since WOR was usually barred from carrying it since the home team's cable-television contract superseded the visiting club's over-the-air television deal.
In1984–85,Dan Kelly andRon Reusch called thePhiladelphia-Quebec Wales Conference Final series on CTV. They also televised Games 3, 4 and 6 of theMontréal-Québec Adams Division Final and Games 2 and 5 of the Philadelphia-New York Islanders Patrick Division Final.
During1985 Stanley Cup Finals,CBC televised Games 1 and 2 nationally while Games 3, 4, and 5 were televised inEdmonton only.CTV televised Games 3, 4, and 5 nationally while games wereblacked out inEdmonton. Dan Kelly, Ron Reusch, andBrad Park called the games on CTV. In1986, CBC only televised Games 1 and 2 inMontreal andCalgary. CBC would go on to televise Games 3, 4 and 5 nationally. When CTV televised Games 1 and 2,[58] both games wereblacked out in Montréal and Calgary. Like the year prior, the same trio called the games for CTV.
After the 1984–85 season, the NHL Board of Governors chose to have USA andESPN submit sealed bids. ESPN won by bidding nearly $25 million for three years, about twice as much as USA had been paying. The contract called for ESPN to air up to 33 regular-season games each season as well as the NHL All-Star Game and the Stanley Cup playoffs.[5][59]
OnNew Year's Eve 1985, CTV broadcast one such game between theMontreal Canadiens andCSKA Moscow inMontreal.[60] Although CTV aired the game (as a "Special Presentation of CTV Sports"), it was not considered an official part ofNHL on CTV package, because the broadcast was presented by Molson instead of Carling O'Keefe. However, the regularNHL on CTV on-air talent were still utilized.
As previously mentioned, the contract called for ESPN to air up to 33 regular season games each season as well as the NHL All-Star game and the Stanley Cup playoffs.[5][59] The network choseDan Kelly andSam Rosen to be the network's first play-by-play announcers,Mickey Redmond andBrad Park were selected to be the analysts, andTom Mees andJim Kelly were chosen to serve as studio and game hosts respectively.[52] ESPN designated Sundays asHockey Night in America, but also aired select midweek telecasts. ESPN aired its first game, an opening-night matchup between theWashington Capitals andNew York Rangers, on October 10, 1985.[61]
However, ESPN did not have fixed broadcast teams during the 1985–86 season.Sam Rosen,Ken Wilson,Jim Hughson,Dan Kelly,Mike Lange,Jiggs McDonald,Jim Kelly,Mike Emrick, andMike Patrick handled the play-by-play andMickey Redmond,Bill Clement,John Davidson,Gary Dornhoefer,Phil Esposito, andBrad Park provided color commentary.[62][63]
The1985–86 Canadian coverage of theAll-Star Game was to be provided byCTV. However, CTV had a prior commitment to carry the third and final episode ofSins,[64] a U.S.miniseries. As a result,TSN took over coverage of the game inHartford.[65][66]
Dan Kelly,Ron Reusch, andBobby Taylor called theCalgary-St.Louis Campbell Conference Final series on CTV. CTV's coverage was blacked out[67] in Calgary, where CBC provided coverage. For theCalgary Flames-Winnipeg Jets first-round series in1985–86, CBC, who initially had the rights to the series, ultimately passed as they were already maxed out with three other series (Montreal-Boston,Chicago-Toronto, andEdmonton-Vancouver). The rights to the Calgary-Winnipeg series were eventually sold to the CTV affiliates in Calgary (CFCN) and Winnipeg (CKY) as well as Carling O'Keefe.
Following the 1985–86 season, CTV decided to pull the plug[68][69] on the venture. Their limited access to Canadian-based teams[70] (other than Quebec, whose English-speaking fan base was quite small) translated into poorratings. For the next two years, Carling O'Keefe retained their rights, and syndicated playoff telecasts on a chain of local stations that would one day become theGlobal Television Network under the namesStanley Cup '87 andStanley Cup '88, before a merger between the two breweries put an end to the competition.
Despite CTV pulling the plug on their two-year-long venture with the NHL, Carling O'Keefe retained their rights (there were two years remaining on the contract with/without CTV).[71]
Things became problematic when the 1987 Stanley Cup playoffs opened with Carling O'Keefe still without a network of some sort. The problems arguably peaked when theMontreal-Quebec second-round playoff series opened without Molson being allowed to broadcast fromQuebec City, leaving Games 3 and 4 off of English-language television altogether. This led to a hastily arranged syndicated package on a chain of channels[72] that would one day form the basis of theGlobal Television Network. The deal between Carling O'Keefe and theCanwest/Global consortium (with a fewCBC and CTV affiliates sprinkled in for good measure) came just in time for Game 6 of the Montreal-Quebec series on April 30.
It must be stressed that Global, technically, didn't become a national network until1997. During the 1980s, Global consisted of asingle station in Toronto with some rebroadcast transmitters through Ontario, CanWest was a chain of independent channels in Western Canada, and the two often combined to carry syndicated programming, such as this NHL package and theCanadian Football Network, which would also begin in 1987. These NHL broadcasts were aired under the namesStanley Cup '87 andStanley Cup '88, before a merger between Carling O'Keefe andMolson (the presenters ofHockey Night in Canada onCBC as previously mentioned) put an end to the competition.
In 1987, coverage also included all five games of theCampbell Conference Final[73] between theEdmonton Oilers andDetroit Red Wings,[74] and Games 3–5[75][76][77] of theFinals between the Oilers andPhiladelphia Flyers.
In 1988,[78] coverage included theSmythe Division Final between theEdmonton Oilers andCalgary Flames (which Global carried nationally, except for the Edmonton and Calgary markets, where the CBC retained exclusive rights),[79] Game 5 of theNorris Division Final between theDetroit Red Wings andSt. Louis Blues,[80][81] the Campbell Conference Final between the Oilers and Red Wings, and Games 1[82] and two of theFinals between the Oilers andBoston Bruins.[83] They also had the rights to Games 6 and 7 of the Finals, which were not necessary.
On April 18, 1988 (during Game 1 of theMontreal-Boston playoff series) at approximately 8:08 p.m. local time, there was a power outage in the province ofQuebec. While darkness envelopedMontreal and theForum itself, the Forum's reserve generators kicked into gear. The generators were only able to illuminate the rink surface with enough power to keep the game moving. Ultimately, CBC was left with no choice but to abandon coverage following the 1st period.Chris Cuthbert was assigned by CBC to report and provide updates on Game 1 ofWashington-New Jersey playoff series. However, when the Quebec blackout affected CBC's coverage of the Game 1 of the Boston-Montreal playoff series, CBC decided to throw to Cuthbert and the solitary camera beside him in his coverage position to work the remainder of game 1. The whole process was totally done off the cuff. In other words, there were no graphics, no replay capabilities, and no analyst.
Unlike the split CTV/CBC coverage of1984–85 and1985–86, the Canwest-Global telecasts were network exclusive, except for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals if they were necessary. When CBC and Global televised Game 7 of the 1987 Stanley Cup Finals,[84][85] they used separate production facilities and separate on-air talent.
SportsChannel America was the exclusive American broadcaster of the1989 All-Star Game. Thefollowing year, they covered the first everNHL Skills Competition and Heroes of Hockey game. SportsChannel America would continue their coverage of these particular events through1992. In1991, SportsChannel America replayed the third period of theAll-Star Game on the same day that it was played. That was becauseNBC broke away from the live telecast during the third period in favor ofGulf War coverage.
In1989, SportsChannel America provided the first ever American coverage of theNHL Draft.[86] In September 1989, SportsChannel America covered theWashington Capitals' training camp in Sweden andpre-season tour[87] of the Soviet Union. The Capitals were joined by the Stanley Cup championCalgary Flames, who held training camp inPrague, Czechoslovakia and then ventured to the Soviet Union. Each team played four games againstSoviet National League clubs. Games were played in Moscow,Leningrad,Kyiv andRiga. The NHL clubs finished with a combined 6–2 record against the top Soviet teams, including theRed Army club andDynamo Moscow. Five of the eight contests were televised by SportsChannel America.
Unfortunately,SportsChannel America was only available in a few major markets,[88][89][90] and reached only a 1/3 of the households thatESPN[30] did at the time.[91][92] SportsChannel America was seen in fewer than 10 million households.[93] In comparison, by the1991–92 season, ESPN was available in 60.5 million homes whereas SportsChannel America was available in only 25 million. As a matter of fact, in the first year of the deal (1988–89), SportsChannel America was available in only 7 million homes when compared to ESPN's reach of 50 million.[94] When the SportsChannel deal ended in1992, the league returned to ESPN[95] for another contract that would pay US$80 million over five years.
SportsChannel America took advantage of using theirregional sports networks' feed of a game, graphics and all, instead of producing a show from the ground up, most of the time. Distribution of SportsChannel America across the country was limited to cities that had a SportsChannel regional sports network or affiliate. Very few cable systems in non-NHL territories picked it up as a stand-alone service. Regional affiliates of thePrime Network would sometimes pick up SportsChannel broadcasts, but this was often only during the playoffs, and often to justify the cost, some cable providers carrying it during the playoffs only carried it as apay-per-view option. SportsChannel America also did not broadcast 24 hours a day at first, usually on by 6 p.m., off by 12 Midnight, then asportsticker for the next 18 hours.
National Hockey League on SportsChannel America.