NHL on television in the 1980s
During the
After Wayne Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988, the network began showing occasional double-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 for HNIC 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 the 1994–95 season, weekly double-headers became the norm, with games starting at 7:30 Eastern and 7:30 Pacific, respectively. In 1998, the start times were moved ahead to 7 p.m. ET and PT.
In the U.S., the USA Network continued to be the national rightsholder for the 1980–81 and 1981–82 seasons, while ESPN made deals with a selected number of individual teams to air their games during that period. In 1982, USA outbid ESPN for the NHL's American national television cable package. The rights were then passed on to ESPN in 1985 before SportsChannel America took over in 1988.
Year-by-year breakdown
1980
In
USA's coverage began as a Monday night series[3] with Dan Kelly[4] doing play-by-play alongside a variety of commentators including Pete Stemkowski, Lou Nanne and Brian McFarlane. Scott Wahle was the intermission host.
ESPN initially covered the NHL during the 1979–80, 1980–81 and 1981–82 seasons by making deals with individual teams.[5][6] This included eleven Hartford Whalers home broadcasts in 1980–81 and 25 the following year.[7] During this time, USA also broadcast 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 independent Hughes Television Network broadcast National Hockey League games[10] aired under the title The NHL '80.[11] Hughes broadcast Thursday night games,[12] the All-Star Game,[13] some playoff games, and Games 1-5 of the Stanley Cup Finals.[14] Hughes technically, used CBC's Hockey Night in Canada feeds for the American coverage of the first five games of the Stanley Cup Finals. The first broadcast involved the Atlanta Flames against the Chicago Blackhawks on January 25.
On April 9, 1980, CBC carried the
During the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals, Bob Cole, Dan Kelly and Jim 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
Game 6 was won in overtime by the host Islanders,
Game 6 pulled a 4.4 rating on CBS.[26] After the game ended, except for its owned-and-operated stations in New York City and Philadelphia, CBS discontinued the telecast and went to a previously scheduled golf telecast.[27] New York and Philadelphia viewers saw a post-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 live golf 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 the 1990 All-Star Game.[28][29][30]
1981
For the 1980–81 season,[31] some Sunday night games were added. Dan Kelly once again, did most of the play-by-play alongside
With USA's coverage of the
1982
In the 1981–82 season,[34] Al Trautwig[35] took over as studio host. Dan Kelly did play-by-play with either Gary Green[36][37] or Rod Gilbert on color commentary. For the playoffs, Dick Carlson and Al Albert[38] were added as play-by-play voices of some games. Meanwhile, Jim Van Horne hosted Stanley Cup Finals games played in Vancouver.
In April 1982, USA outbid
Aside from the 1982 Stanley Cup Finals, CBC's only other nationally televised postseason games (all other games were seen regionally) from that year were the April 23 Boston-Quebec game (Game 6), the April 25 Quebec-Boston game (Game 7), and the May 6 Vancouver-Chicago game (Game 5).
1983
Things pretty much remained the same for USA during the
.1984
In the 1983–84 season, USA covered over 40 games[43] including the playoffs.[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 airing Masters highlights, Game 1 of the 1984 playoff series between the Minnesota North Stars and St. Louis Blues (April 12) and Game 2 of the playoff series between the New York Islanders and Washington Capitals (April 13) were aired on tape delay at 10 p.m. Eastern Time.
1985
In the 1984–85 and 1985–86 seasons, the NHL returned to CTV, with regular season games[45] on Friday[46] nights (and some Sunday afternoons) as well as partial coverage of the playoffs and Stanley 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 the Major League Baseball postseason and the Canadian Football League.
While
The deal with CTV was arranged by the Quebec 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 from Quebec City or the United 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 in 1984–85,[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 goaltender Mike Liut was added as a studio analyst for the Stanley Cup Finals.[55][56]
Meanwhile, for increased publicity opportunities, the
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, or New Jersey Devils) since WOR-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.
In 1984–85, Dan Kelly and Ron Reusch called the Philadelphia-Quebec Wales Conference Final series on CTV. They also televised Games 3, 4 and 6 of the Montréal-Québec Adams Division Final and Games 2 and 5 of the Philadelphia-New York Islanders Patrick Division Final.
During 1985 Stanley Cup Finals, CBC televised Games 1 and 2 nationally while Games 3, 4, and 5 were televised in Edmonton only. CTV televised Games 3, 4, and 5 nationally while games were blacked out in Edmonton. Dan Kelly, Ron Reusch, and Brad Park called the games on CTV. In 1986, CBC only televised Games 1 and 2 in Montreal and Calgary. CBC would go on to televise Games 3, 4 and 5 nationally. When CTV televised Games 1 and 2,[58] both games were blacked 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 and ESPN 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]
On
Although CTV aired the game (as a "Special Presentation of CTV Sports"), it was not considered an official part of NHL on CTV package, because the broadcast was presented by Molson instead of Carling O'Keefe. However, the regular NHL on CTV on-air talent were still utilized.1986
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 chose Dan Kelly and Sam Rosen to be the network's first play-by-play announcers, Mickey Redmond and Brad Park were selected to be the analysts, and Tom Mees and Jim Kelly were chosen to serve as studio and game hosts respectively.[52] ESPN designated Sundays as Hockey Night in America, but also aired select midweek telecasts. ESPN aired its first game, an opening-night matchup between the Washington Capitals and New 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, and Mike Patrick handled the play-by-play and Mickey Redmond, Bill Clement, John Davidson, Gary Dornhoefer, Phil Esposito, and Brad Park provided color commentary.[62][63]
The
Following the 1985–86 season, CTV decided to pull the plug
1987
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 the
It must be stressed that Global, technically, didn't become a national network until
In 1987, coverage also included all five games of the
1988
In 1988,[78] coverage included the Smythe Division Final between the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames (which Global carried nationally, except for the Edmonton and Calgary markets, where the CBC retained exclusive rights),[79] Game 5 of the Norris Division Final between the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues,[80][81] the Campbell Conference Final between the Oilers and Red Wings, and Games 1[82] and two of the Finals between the Oilers and Boston 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 the Montreal-Boston playoff series) at approximately 8:08 p.m. local time, there was a power outage in the province of Quebec. While darkness enveloped Montreal and the Forum 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 of Washington-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 of 1984–85 and 1985–86, 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.
1989
SportsChannel America was the exclusive American broadcaster of the
In
Unfortunately,
SportsChannel America took advantage of using their regional 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 the Prime 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 a pay-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 a sportsticker for the next 18 hours.
See also
- List of Hockey Night in Canada commentating crews (1980s)
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