NHL on SportsChannel America NHL on SportsChannel America was the presentation of National Hockey League broadcasts on the now defunct SportsChannel America cable television network . Terms of the deal . Taking over for ESPN , SportsChannel ' s contract paid $ 51 million ( $ 17 million per year ) over three years , more than double what ESPN had paid ( $ 24 million ) for the previous three years SportsChannel America managed to get a fourth NHL season for just $ 5 million . SportsChannel ' s availability . Unfortunately , SportsChannel America was only available in a few major markets , and reached only a 1 / 3 of the households that ESPN did at the time . SportsChannel America was seen in fewer than 10 million households . In comparison , by the 1991 – 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 ( ) , SportsChannel America was available in only 7 million homes when compared to ESPN ' s reach of 50 million . When the SportsChannel deal ended in 1992 , the league returned to ESPN for another contract that would pay $ 80 million over five years . 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 . SportsChannel America also did not broadcast 24 hours a day at first , usually on by 6 p . m . , off by 1 or 2 a . m . , then a sportsticker for the next 16 hours . Philadelphia . Since SportsChannel Philadelphia did not air until January 1990 , PRISM ( owned by Rainbow Media , the owners of SportsChannel , at the time ) picked up the 1989 Stanley Cup Finals . Other than that , there was no NHL television coverage in Philadelphia except for the Flyers for the first half of the original deal . Lawsuit . Shortly after the ESPN deal was signed , SportsChannel America would contend that its contract with the NHL gave them the right to match third - party offers for television rights for the 1992 – 93 season . SportsChannel America accused the NHL of violating a nonbinding clause . SportsChannel America argued that it had been deprived of its contractual right of first refusal ] for the 1992 – 93 season . Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court justice Shirley Fingerwood would deny SportsChannel America ' s request for an injunction against the NHL . Upholding that opinion , the appellate court found the agreement on which SportsChannel based its argument to be " too imprecise and ambiguous " and ruled that SportsChannel failed to show irreparable harm . Coverage overview . Regular season coverage . SportsChannel America would televise about 80 – 100 games a season ( whereas ESPN aired about 33 in the season ) . Whereas the previous deal with ESPN called for only one nationally televised game a week , SportsChannel America televised hockey two nights a week in NHL cities and three nights a week elsewhere . It was very rare to have a regular - season game on SportsChannel America that wasn ' t a regional SportsChannel production from the Chicago Blackhawks , Hartford Whalers , New Jersey Devils , New York Islanders , or Philadelphia Flyers . The San Jose Sharks were added in . As previously suggested , SportsChannel America for the most part , used the local telecasts . The dedicated SportsChannel America station was little more than an overflow channel in the New York area for SportsChannel New York . Special programming . In 1989 , SportsChannel America provided the first ever American coverage of the NHL Draft . In September 1989 , SportsChannel America covered the Washington Capitals training camp in Sweden and pre - season tour of the Soviet Union . The Capitals were joined by the Stanley Cup champion Calgary Flames , who held training camp in Prague , Czechoslovakia and then ventured to the Soviet Union . Each team played four games against Soviet League clubs . Games were played in Moscow , Leningrad , Kiev and Riga . The NHL clubs finished with a combined 6 – 2 record against the top Soviet teams , including the Red Army club and Dynamo Moscow . Five of the eight contests were televised by SportsChannel America . All - Star Game coverage . SportsChannel America was the exclusive broadcaster of the 1989 All - Star Game . The following year , they covered the first ever NHL Skills Competition and Heroes of Hockey game . SportsChannel America would continue their coverage of these particular events through 1992 . In 1991 , SportsChannel America replayed the third period of the All - Star Game on the same day that it was played . That was because NBC broke away from the live telecast during the third period in favor of Gulf War coverage . Playoff broadcasts that were joined in progress . Production . A fair amount of times in their first season , they would use their own production services for games . But very rarely would this sort of practice occur in the last three seasons . Since programming was so sparse otherwise SportsChannel America , usually the games were replayed immediately following the live telecast . For playoff coverage , if any of the aforementioned teams made the playoffs , SportsChannel America would focus on those teams , using their facilities . Mike Emrick and Bill Clement will be the lead broadcast team . For the Stanley Cup Finals , SportsChannel America would use their own facilities . They would also use their own facilities for any Conference Final series that did not involve one of SportsChannel ' s regional teams . John Shannon was the senior producer of " The NHL on SportsChannel America " . Announcers . Bob Papa and Leandra Reilly were the studio hosts during the regular season coverage . For the Stanley Cup Finals , Mike Emrick served as the play - by - play , Bill Clement was the color commentator . Also during the Stanley Cup Finals , Stan Fischler served as studio host while John Davidson served as studio analyst .