NHL on CBS NHL on CBS is a former television program that broadcast National Hockey League games on CBS Sports . CBS was the first American television network to broadcast NHL games . 1956 – 1960 version . CBS first broadcast National Hockey League games for four seasons from – . CBS aired games on Saturday afternoons with Bud Palmer and Fred Cusick handling the announcing duties , initially . Palmer served as the play - by - play man while Cusick did color commentary as well as interviews for the first three seasons . In , Cusick moved over to play - by - play while Brian McFarlane came in to do the color commentary and 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 at the time . As previously mentioned , CBS covered the 1956 – 57 season on Saturday afternoons , starting January 5 . For the next three years , they aired continued airing games a Saturday afternoons starting on November 2 , 1957 , October 18 , 1958 and January 9 , 1960 . According to the 1991 book " Net Worth : Exploding the Myths of Pro Hockey " , during the 1956 - 57 season , CBS broadcast 10 games that were popular with viewers . The four American franchises at the time ( the Boston Bruins , Chicago Blackhawks , Detroit Red Wings , and New York Rangers ) each received $ 100 , 000 . However , the players themselves , received absolutely zero money from the TV deal . One CBS employee said , " We got a call from a girl in Cincinnati who wanted to start a women ' s hockey league . We referred her to NHL president Clarence Campbell , who told her hockey was too rough for gals . " Furthermore , according to " Sports Illustrated " , the NHL dropped CBS because the NHL owners didn ' t want the fledgling Players ' Association to gain a financial cut of the TV deal . This was despite the fact that CBS was at least at one point , getting better ratings than NBC ' s NBA package from around the same period . In , CBS offered to broadcast a NHL " Game of the Week " on Saturdays during the National Football League season . By the winter , CBS would move the " Game of the Week " to Sundays in the same time slot . Ultimately , the NHL rejected the idea , saying it would cause too many schedule and travel problems . Schedules . 1958 – 59 . The Toronto Maple Leafs didn ' t appear on the schedule because they played at home every Saturday night during the season . 1967 – 1972 version . Coverage . For six seasons , from through , CBS aired a game each week between mid - January until early - mid May in each of those seasons , mainly on a Sunday afternoon , including playoffs . From 1968 – 69 through 1971 – 72 , the intermission studio was called " CBS Control " , just like with their NFL coverage . During the 1967 playoffs , CBS was scheduled to broadcast the April 8 game between the New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens . However , an AFTRA strike forced cancellation of the telecast . The strike itself would ultimately end two days later . CBS started their weekly 1967 – 68 coverage with the opening game ( the Philadelphia Flyers vs . Los Angeles Kings ) at the Forum in Inglewood , California on December 30 . Then after two more Saturday afternoons , CBS switched to Sunday afternoons beginning on January 28 for the next 10 weeks . Due to an AFTRA strike ( which resulted in the cancellation of a New York Rangers - Montreal broadcast ) , CBS started their playoff coverage with a CBC tape of the previous night ' s Boston - Montreal game . On April 13 , CBS started their three week long weekend afternoon Stanley Cup coverage . The last game of the series was St . Louis - Montreal on May 11 . For the playoffs , Jim Gordon worked play - by - play and Stu Nahan worked color . During the regular season , Gordon and Nahan alternated roles each week . For instance , Gordon did the worked play - by - play on December 30 while Nahan worked play - by - play the next week . In , CBS broadcast 13 regular season afternoon games and 5 Stanley Cup playoff games . Dan Kelly did play - by - play while Bill Mazer did color and intermission interviews . The same pattern continued through the season . CBS did manage to televise the 1971 Stanley Cup Finals clincher on a Tuesday night and the 1972 Stanley Cup Finals clincher on a Thursday night . In 1971 , CBS was not scheduled to broadcast Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals , but showed the prime time contest ( the first ever occurrence of a NHL game being nationally televised in prime time in the United States ) between the Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Black Hawks almost as a public service . Ironically , the game was not telecast by the Chicago CBS affiliate WBBM - TV due to Blackhawks ' owner Arthur M . Wirtz policy of not telecasting home games . While Dan Kelly once again handled all of the play - by - play work , Jim Gordon replaced Bill Mazer in . For the CBS ' Stanley Cup Finals coverage during this period , a third voice was added to the booth ( Phil Esposito in 1971 and Harry Howell in 1972 ) . One trivial note however , on January 23 , 1972 , Jim Gordon was not in Boston for the Buffalo - Boston game . Therefore , Dick Stockton filled - in and did the game with Dan Kelly . During the 1972 Stanley Cup Finals between the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers , CBS took a rather calculated risk in not televising Game 5 of the Final on Tuesday night ( CBS aired " Hawaii Five - O " in that time period ) . This was despite the fact that Game 5 was a potential clincher with the Bruins up 3 games to 1 on the Rangers . CBS ultimately lucked out ( since the Rangers won Game 5 3 - 2 ) , and televised the clincher ( Game 6 ) on Thursday night . In relation to the 1967 NHL expansion . CBS ' next go around with the NHL came at just about the time when the NHL ' s Original Six franchises were to be joined by the league ' s first expansion class of . Although , the San Francisco Bay Area was not considered a particularly good hockey market , the terms of a new television agreement with CBS called for two of the expansion teams to be located in California . Hence , the California Seals and Los Angeles Kings joined the National Hockey League at the behest of CBS . ( The Seals were renamed the Oakland Seals during their first season and then were rechristened the California Golden Seals when purchased by Charlie O . Finley in . ) CBS was hoping that they would grow with the NHL by persuading them to go coast - to - coast ( Montreal to Los Angeles ) in a similar fashion for which they had grown with the National Football League ( beginning in 1956 ) . Memorable moments . Perhaps , the most memorable moment came on Mother ' s Day of ( May 10 ) , when Bobby Orr ' s winning goal in overtime of Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals gave his Boston Bruins their first Stanley Cup Championship since , as they swept the St . Louis Blues at the old Boston Garden . Immediately upon scoring , Orr caught his skate in the defenceman ' s stick and was sent flying onto the ice . The " flight " was captured by a news photographer and is one of the iconic images in the history of sports . The most commonly seen video clip of Bobby Orr ' s " flight " is the American version broadcast on CBS as called by Dan Kelly . This archival clip can be considered a rarity , since about 98 % of the time , any surviving kinescopes or videotapes of the actual telecasts of hockey games from this era usually emanate from CBC ' s coverage . According to Dick Irvin , Jr . ' s book " My 26 Stanley Cups " ( Irvin was in the CBC booth with Danny Gallivan during the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals ) , he was always curious why even the CBC prototypically uses the CBS replay of the Bobby Orr goal ( with Dan Kelly ' s commentary ) instead of Gallivan ' s call . The explanation that Irvin received was that the CBC ' s master tape of the game ( along with others ) was thrown away in order clear shelf space at the network . On May 24 , 1980 , in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers , Bobby Nystrom scored the game winner at 7 : 11 of overtime on national television throughout the United States to secure the first Stanley Cup in Islanders ' history . Nystrom was part of the first NHL team ( 1979 - 80 New York Islanders ) to win a Stanley Cup with Europeans on its roster . As part of " The CBS Sports Spectacular " ( 1979 - 1980 ) . 1979 Challenge Cup . ' s Challenge Cup replaced the All - Star Game . It was a best of three series between the NHL All - Stars against the Soviet Union national squad . In the United States , Game 2 , which was on a Saturday afternoon , was shown on CBS as part of CBS Sports Spectacular . The network , the show , and their sponsors had a problem with the rink board advertising that the NHL sold at Madison Square Garden , and refused to allow them to be shown on TV . As a result , CBS viewers were unable to see the far boards above the yellow kickplate , and could only see players ' skates when the play moved to that side of the ice . Games 1 and 3 were shown on the NHL Network , where the advertising was no problem . 1980 Stanley Cup Finals . CBS would only air one other NHL game following Game 2 of the 1979 Challenge Cup . That would take place on Saturday , May 24 , 1980 , with Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Islanders . The game was won in overtime by the host Islanders , who captured their first of their four consecutive Stanley Cups . By that time , Dan Kelly was joined by former " NHL on NBC " commentator , Tim Ryan . Dan Kelly did play - by - play for the first and third periods as well as overtime . Meanwhile , Tim Ryan did play - by - play only for the second period and studio host . Minnesota North Stars GM Lou Nanne was the color commentator throughout the game . Game 6 pulled a 4 . 4 rating on CBS . Afterwards , except for the New York City and Philadelphia affiliates , CBS dropped the telecast and went to " The CBS Sports Spectacular " as scheduled . As previously mentioned , Game 6 of the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals turned out to be the last NHL game ( to this 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 . Failed 1994 - 95 bid . CBS was in the running for gaining National Hockey League rights beginning in the 1994 – 95 season only to be outbid by Fox .