FOX NHL Saturday FOX NHL Sunday is a television program that televised National Hockey League games on Fox and produced by Fox Sports . The program ran from the 1994 – 1995 NHL season until the 1998 – 1999 NHL season . Fox paid $ 31 million a year to televise the NHL . History . On the heels of its surprise acquisition of the television rights to the National Football League in December 1993 , Fox sought deals with other major sports leagues to expand its newly created sports division , opting to go after the rights to broadcast NHL games . CBS , which had just lost its NFL package ( which primarily included the rights to regular season and playoff games from NFC ) to Fox , was the network ' s primary competitor for the NHL package , hoping to replace some of the sports programming it had lost to the upstart network . Nevertheless , in a serious blow to the elder network , Fox outbid CBS for the NHL package as well . On September 9 , 1994 , NHL reached a 5 year contract with Fox for the broadcast television rights to the league ' s games , beginning with the 1994 – 95 season . The network paid $ 155 million ( $ 31 million annually ) to televise NHL regular season and postseason games , considerably less than the $ 1 . 58 billion it paid for NFL television rights . NHL ' s initial deal with Fox was significant , as a network television contract in the United States was long thought unattainable during the presidency of John Ziegler . For 17 years after 1975 Finals was broadcast on NBC , there would be no national over - the - air network coverage of NHL in United States ( with the exception of CBS ' coverage of Game 2 of 1979 Challenge Cup and Game 6 of 1980 Stanley Cup Finals , and NBC ' s coverage of NHL All - Star Game from 1990 to 1994 ) and only spotty coverage on regional networks . This was due to the fact that no network was willing to commit to carrying a large number of games , in turn , providing low ratings for NHL telecasts . ABC would eventually resume broadcasting regular NHL games ( on a time buy basis through ESPN ) for the 1992 – 93 season ( and continuing through the 1993 – 94 season , before Fox took over for the next 5 seasons ) . Fox inaugurated its NHL coverage on April 2 , 1995 , towards the end of the 1994 – 95 regular season , with 6 games ( between New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers ; St . Louis Blues and Detroit Red Wings ; Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals ; Chicago Blackhawks and Dallas Stars ; Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning ; and San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks ) . Mike Emrick and John Davidson served as the main broadcast team for the network ' s national game broadcasts , while regionally distributed games were handled by a variety of announcers For the first 4 years of the deal , James Brown and Dave Maloney hosted the show from the Fox studio in Los Angeles . For the 5th final season , it was Suzy Kolber and Terry Crisp . Occasionally , active NHL players such as Mike Modano would serve as guest analysts . FoxTrax . FoxTrax ( colloquially called the glow puck , smart puck , or super puck ) was a specialized ice hockey puck with internal electronics that allow its position to be tracked that was designed for NHL telecasts on Fox . Primarily , it was used to visually highlight the puck on - screen and display a trail when the puck was moving rapidly . Stanley Cup playoff coverage . During the first 2 rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs , 2 games were televised each round . All - Star Game , Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals . For the All - Star Game , Conference Finals , and Stanley Cup Finals , ( which were national games ) were hosted from the arena . The 1996 and 1997 All - Star Games were televised in prime time . Stanley Cup Finals . Fox split coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals with ESPN . Game 1 of the 1995 Stanley Cup Finals was the first Finals game shown on network television since 1980 and the first in prime time since 1973 . Games 1 , 5 , and 7 were usually scheduled to be televised by Fox ; Games 2 , 3 , 4 , and 6 by ESPN . However from 1995 - 1998 , the Finals were all 4 game sweeps ; 1999 Finals ended in 6 games . The consequence was that - except for 1995 , when Fox did televise Game 4 - the Game 7 was never on network television . Had there been a Game 7 , then Mike Emrick ( play - by - play ) , John Davidson ( color commentator ) , and Pierre McGuire ( reporter ) would ' ve called the Game 7 on FOX . Perhaps in recognition of this , Games 3 – 7 were always televised by ABC in the succeeding broadcast agreement between the NHL and ABC Sports / ESPN . 1995 - 1999 , Pierre McGuire joined as " Ice Level Reporter " for 1995 - 1999 Game 4 of the 1995 Final was notable because not only did the New Jersey Devils win the Stanley Cup , but also their main television play - by - play announcer , Mike Emrick announced it . Coverage overview . Regular season . Fox televised between 2 and 11 regionally distributed games on Sunday afternoons during the regular season , where anywhere from 2 to 6 games ran concurrently . All times below are Eastern 1994 - 95 1995 - 96 1996 - 97 1997 - 98 1998 - 99 FoxTrax . FoxTrax ( colloquially called the glow puck , smart puck , or super puck ) was a specialized ice hockey puck with internal electronics that allow its position to be tracked that was designed for NHL telecasts on Fox . Primarily , it was used to visually highlight the puck on - screen and display a trail when the puck was moving rapidly . The end of " NHL on Fox " . Things ended badly between Fox and the league when NHL announced a new TV deal with ESPN that also called for ABC to become the new network TV partner . Fox challenged that it had not been given a chance to match the network component of the deal , but ABC ultimately prevailed . It is speculated , however , that Fox may again bid for NHL broadcast rights when they next come up for renewal .