page_title: Hockey Night in Canada
section_title: Television
hierarchical_section_title: Hockey Night in Canada / History / Television
caption_attribution_description: English: Bill Guerin of the Pittsburgh Penguins is interviewed by Hockey Night in Canada reporter Elliotte Friedman before a May 8, 2010 playoff game against the Montreal Canadiens at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, PA.
context_page_description: Hockey Night in Canada is a branding used for Canadian television presentations of the National Hockey League. While the name has been used for all NHL broadcasts on CBC Television, Hockey Night in Canada is primarily associated with its Saturday night NHL broadcasts, a practice originating from Saturday NHL broadcasts that began in 1931 on the CNR Radio network and continued on its successors, and debuting on television beginning in 1952. Initially only airing a single game weekly, the modern incarnation airs a weekly double-header, with game times normally at 7 and 10 p.m. The broadcast features various segments during the intermissions and between games, as well as pre- and post-game coverage of the night's games, and player interviews. It also shows the hosts' opinions on news and issues occurring in the league.
  The Hockey Night in Canada brand is owned by the CBC and was exclusively used by CBC Sports through the end of the 2013–14 NHL season. Beginning in the 2014–15 NHL season, the brand is being licensed to Rogers Communications for Sportsnet-produced Saturday NHL broadcasts airing on CBC Television as well as the Rogers-owned Citytv and Sportsnet networks.
context_section_description: Hockey Night in Canada began airing on Saturday nights on CBC Television in 1952. From 1965 through 1975, in addition to the Saturday night game on CBC, HNIC also produced and broadcast a Wednesday night game on CTV, CBC's privately owned competitor; beginning in the 1975–76 NHL season, these midweek games would begin to be broadcast by local stations.
  Until the 1990s, there was only one game televised each Saturday night in any particular locality and up to 1968, regular season games were still not broadcast in their entirety. In the 1950s, the HNIC telecast followed the lead of the radio broadcast by coming on the air at 9 p.m. ET, with the game typically being joined in progress either just prior to the start of or during the early portion of the second period. In the early 1960s, the broadcast time was moved ahead to 8:30 p.m. ET, which allowed the game to be joined in progress late in the first period. Starting in the fall of 1968, regular-season games were shown in their entirety with a broadcast start time of 8 p.m. ET. Beginning with the 1967 Stanley Cup playoffs, all games broadcast on HNIC were in colour, although a handful of games were broadcast in colour during the 1966–67 regular-season.
  In 1970–71, the Vancouver Canucks joined the NHL, meaning that there were now three possible venues for an HNIC telecast.  During the 1979–80 and 1980–81 seasons, four more Canadian teams, the Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques, Winnipeg Jets, and Calgary 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 by Carling-O'Keefe, a rival to the show's sponsor Molson 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.
  CBC announced before the preliminary round of the 1976 playoffs that they will not televise any games from the preliminary round. As a result of this, the rights were sold back to the individual Canadian teams. Since Montreal earned a bye into the quarterfinals, this impacted Toronto and Vancouver's television coverage. While CHCH and CITY both televised all three games of the Toronto-Pittsburgh series (with Bill Hewitt and Brian McFarlane on the call), CHAN picked up the Vancouver-New York Islanders series. Game 1 of the Philadelphia-Toronto playoff series was televised locally to Southern Ontario by CHCH. Game 1 of the 1977 Pittsburgh-Toronto playoff series was seen regionally in Southern Ontario on CHCH-Hamilton.
  Starting in the 1978 playoffs, the NHL Network began simulcasting many games with Hockey Night in Canada.  In these games, Dan Kelly, who was the NHL Network's lead play-by-play announcer, was assigned to do play-by-play along with HNIC color commentators.  This for example, happened in Game 7 of the quarterfinal series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Islanders (April 29), where Kelly teamed up with Brian McFarlane. The entire 1978 Stanley Cup Finals between the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins and the entire 1979 Stanley Cup Finals between the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers was simulcast as well.
  On April 9, 1980, CBC carried the ACTRA awards ceremony. This caused Game 2 of the Hartford-Montreal playoff series to be televised only in French, and the Edmonton-Philadelphia and Toronto-Minnesota games to be shown only on local stations CITV in Edmonton and CHCH in Hamilton, respectively. The Vancouver-Buffalo game was televised by CBC regionally in British Columbia as usual, as the ACTRA awards show was tape-delayed into prime time on the west coast.
  Aside from the 1982 Stanley Cup Finals, CBC's only other nationally televised postseason games 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). All of the other games were seen regionally
  CTV had the national rights for the 1986 Calgary-St. Louis playoff series, except in the Calgary 
caption: Bill Guerin of the Pittsburgh Penguins (left) is interviewed by HNIC reporter Elliotte Friedman before a May 8, 2010 playoff game against the Montreal Canadiens at Mellon Arena
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