NHL on ABC

The NHL on ABC is the branding used for broadcasts of National Hockey League (NHL) games televised on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States. The network first broadcast NHL games during the 1993 Stanley Cup playoffs on April 18, 1993 under a two-year time-buy agreement with ESPN. After the two years, the NHL left ABC for newcomer Fox.

As part of a joint contract with ESPN, which was reached right before the 1998–99 season, the NHL returned to ABC on February 6, 2000 with their coverage of the 2000 NHL All-Star Game in Toronto. Regular season game telecasts returned to ABC on March 18, 2000. ABC also gained the rights to select games from each round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and the last five games of the Stanley Cup Finals. After the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals, the NHL left ABC again for NBC because Disney execs admitted that they overpaid for the 1999–2004 deal, and the fact that ABC had refused to air the Stanley Cup Finals in prime time. That also led to ESPN dropping the NHL after the 2004–05 lockout.

After multiple reports had been confirmed the previous day, on March 11, 2021, it was officially announced that after 16 years away from the game, the NHL would be returning to ABC as part of another ESPN deal starting in the 2021–22 season.

Before the 1992–93 NHL season
After being dropped by NBC after the season,   the NHL did not maintain a national television contract in the United States. In response to this, the league put together a network of independent stations covering approximately 55% of the country.

Games typically aired on Monday nights (beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern Time) or Saturday afternoons. The package was offered to local stations without a rights fee. Profits would instead be derived from the advertising, which was about evenly split between the network and the local station. The Monday night games were often billed as "The NHL Game of the Week".

Initially, the Monday night package was marketed to ABC affiliates; the idea being that ABC carried NFL football games on Monday nights in the fall and (starting in May 1976) Major League Baseball games on Monday nights in the spring and summer, stations would want the hockey telecasts to create a year-round Monday night sports block; however, very few ABC stations chose to pick up the package.

In, ABC was contracted to televise Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Since the Finals ended in five games, the contract was void. Had there been a seventh game, then Al Michaels would have called play-by-play alongside Bobby Clarke (color commentator). Jim McKay would host the seventh game in the studio, and Frank Gifford (reporter, who would have been in the winning team's dressing room to interview players and coaches as well as hand the phone to the winning team's coach that that would have allowed him to talk to both President Jimmy Carter and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau). This would give Michaels the honor of being the first to provide the play-by-play in four of the five major professional sports, having called the Super Bowl, the World Series, and NBA Finals. The game would have started at 5:10 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on a Saturday, replacing Wide World of Sports and local news shows that typically followed it on ABC stations in the Eastern and Central time zones.

It was also around this time that ABC offered the NHL a limited deal that NHL president John Ziegler Jr. quickly rejected. ABC wanted to split the network and show the NHL in the Northeast and Midwest and NASCAR in the South on Sunday afternoons.

ABC's coverage of the Winter Olympics
Even though ABC didn't yet televise National Hockey League games, they were the American network broadcast home of the Winter Olympic games beginning in 1964 and continuing through the 1988 Winter Games from Calgary. For the ice hockey events, employed Curt Gowdy for play-by-play duties in 1968 and 1976 (NBC had the broadcasting rights for the 1972 Games in the interim) Games. Gowdy worked with Brian Conacher for the 1976 ice hockey events.

For years later at Lake Placid, ABC was on hand for a medal-round men's ice hockey game that would soon become known the "Miracle on Ice". On February 22, 1980, the United States team, made up of amateur and collegiate players and led by coach Herb Brooks, defeated the Soviet team, which consisted of veteran professional players with significant experience in international play. The rest of the United States (except those who watched the game live on Canadian television) had to wait to see the game, as ABC decided to broadcast the late-afternoon game on tape delay in prime time. Sportscaster Al Michaels, who was calling the game on ABC along with former Montreal Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden, picked up on the countdown in his broadcast, and delivered his famous call:

"Eleven seconds, you've got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now! Morrow, up to Silk. Five seconds left in the game. Do you believe in miracles? YES!"

Al Michaels would continue serving as ABC's lead play-by-play announcer for their ice hockey coverage for their next two Winter Olympics. In 1984 from Sarajevo, Michaels again worked alongside Ken Dryden while Mike Eruzione, who was the captain of the gold medal-winning United States ice hockey team from 1980, primarily worked with Don Chevrier. For ABC's final Winter Olympics four years later, Michaels and Dryden were paired once again while Eruzione was this time, paired with Jiggs McDonald.

ABC Radio coverage (1989–1991)
In 1989, the NHL signed a two-year contract (lasting through the season) with ABC Radio for the broadcast rights to the All-Star Game and Stanley Cup Finals. ABC Radio named Don Chevrier and Phil Esposito as their main commentating crew.

Time-buy deal with ESPN (1992–1994)
In the season, ABC televised five weekly playoff telecasts (the first three weeks were regional coverage of various games and two national games)  on Sunday afternoons starting on April 18. This marked the first time that playoff National Hockey League games were broadcast on American network television since 1975 (when NBC was the NHL's American broadcast television partner      ). In the season, ABC televised six weekly regional telecasts  on the last three Sunday afternoons beginning on March 27, 1994. This marked the first time that regular season National Hockey League games were broadcast on American network television since (again when NBC was the NHL's American broadcast television partner). ABC then televised three weeks worth of playoff games on first three Sundays – the final game was Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals between the Boston Bruins and the New Jersey Devils, a game that was aired nationally. The network did not televise the Stanley Cup Finals, which instead, were televised nationally by ESPN and by Prime Ticket in Los Angeles and MSG Network in New York. Games televised on ABC were not subject to blackout.

These broadcasts (just as was the case with the 1999–2004 package) were essentially, time-buys by ESPN. In other words, ABC would sell three-hour blocks of airtime to ESPN, who in return, would produce and distribute the telecasts. Overall, ABC averaged a 1.7 rating for those two seasons.

When the NHL television contract went up for negotiation in early 1994, Fox (which was in the process of launching its sports division after acquiring the rights to the National Football Conference of the NFL) and CBS (which was hoping to land a major sports contract to replace the NFL rights that they lost to Fox and Major League Baseball rights that they lost to ABC and NBC) competed heavily for the package. On September 9, 1994, the National Hockey League reached a five-year, US$155 million contract with Fox for the broadcast television rights to the league's games, beginning with the 1994–95 season.

Studio host

 * John Saunders

Play-by-play

 * 1) Gary Thorne
 * 2) Mike Emrick
 * 3) Al Michaels (1993)
 * 4) Tom Mees (1994)
 * 5) Bob Miller (1993–94)
 * 6) Sam Rosen (1993–94)

Color commentators

 * 1) Bill Clement
 * 2) John Davidson
 * 3) Darren Pang (1993–94)
 * 4) Joe Micheletti (1993–94)
 * 5) Jim Schoenfeld (1993)

Reporters

 * 1) Al Morganti
 * 2) Tom Mees
 * 3) Bob Neumeier
 * 4) Brenda Brenon
 * 5) Mark Jones

1993–94
April 17, May 1, 24: Playoffs

NHL returns to ABC (1999–2004)
In August 1998, ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 signed a five-year television deal with the NHL, worth a total of approximately US$600 million      (or $120 million per year), beginning with the league's 1999–2000 season. The $120 million per year that ABC and ESPN paid for rights dwarfed the $5.5 million that the NHL received from American national broadcasts in the 1991–92 season. ABC's terms of this deal included: rights to the NHL All-Star Game, 4 to 5 weeks of regular season action, with three games a week, weekend Stanley Cup Playoff games, and Games 3 to 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

In May 2004, NBC and ESPN reached an agreement to broadcast NHL games beginning in the 2004–05 season, which would end up being canceled as a result of the 2004–05 NHL lockout; ESPN later withdrew from the deal in favor of OLN, which wound up being rebranded as NBCSN in 2012. In the interval between the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals and the start of the 2005–06 season, several ABC affiliates, including WDTN in Dayton, Ohio (a secondary market for the Columbus Blue Jackets) and WAND in Springfield, Illinois (which is served by the Chicago Blackhawks and the St. Louis Blues), affiliated with NBC.

Regular season
As previously mentioned, ABC televised four to five weeks worth of regional games on Saturday afternoons, typically beginning in January or March for the first two seasons.

Studio personalities

 * 1) John Saunders – lead studio host
 * 2) Steve Levy – fill-in studio host
 * 3) John Davidson – studio analyst (1999–2002)
 * 4) Barry Melrose – National Hockey League All-Star Game and Stanley Cup Finals studio analyst (1999–2002); lead studio analyst (2003–04)
 * 5) Darren Pang – Stanley Cup Finals studio analyst (2003–2004)

Stanley Cup Finals hosts

 * 1) Al Michaels (2000–2002)
 * 2) Chris Berman (2003)

Play-by play announcer

 * 1) Gary Thorne
 * 2) Steve Levy
 * 3) Mike Emrick
 * 4) Dave Strader (2000–2002)

Color commentators

 * 1) Bill Clement
 * 2) John Davidson (2003–2004)
 * 3) Darren Pang
 * 4) Barry Melrose (1999–2002)
 * 5) Brian Engblom (2002–04)
 * 6) Brian Hayward (2000 Stanley Cup playoffs)
 * 7) Jim Schoenfeld (2001–2002)

Reporters

 * 1) Brian Engblom – co-lead rinkside reporter
 * 2) Darren Pang – co-lead rinkside reporter
 * 3) Steve Levy – National Hockey League All-Star Game and Stanley Cup Finals reporter
 * 4) Sam Ryan
 * 5) Erin Andrews
 * 6) Joe Micheletti
 * 7) Christine Simpson (2001–2003)
 * 8) Daryl Reaugh (2000 Stanley Cup playoffs)
 * 9) Mickey Redmond (2001; Detroit Red Wings)
 * 10) Tony Granato (2002 Stanley Cup playoffs)

Stanley Cup Playoffs (2000–2004)
Besides the National Hockey League All-Star Game, ABC televised Games 3–7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in prime time. In the league's previous broadcast television deal with Fox, the network split coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals with ESPN. Games 1, 5 and 7 were usually scheduled to be televised by Fox; Games 2, 3, 4 and 6 by ESPN. However, from 1995 to 1998, the Finals were all four-game sweeps; 1999 ended in six games. The consequence was that – except for 1995, when Fox did televise Game 4 – the decisive game was never on network television.

2003 was the only year that ABC broadcast both the NBA and the Stanley Cup Finals that involved teams from one city in the same year, as both the New Jersey Nets and the New Jersey Devils were in their respective league's finals. During ABC's broadcast of Game 3 between the San Antonio Spurs and the Nets in New Jersey on June 8, Brad Nessler, Tom Tolbert and Bill Walton said that ABC was in a unique situation getting ready for both that game and Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Devils and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim the following night, also at Continental Airlines Arena. Gary Thorne, Bill Clement and John Davidson mentioned this the following night, and thanked Nessler, Tolbert and Walton for promoting ABC's broadcast of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Following the 2003–04 season, ESPN was only willing to renew its contract for two additional years at $60 million per year. ABC refused to televise the Stanley Cup Finals in prime time, suggesting that the Finals games it would telecast be played on weekend afternoons (including a potential Game 7). Disney executives later conceded that they overpaid for the 1999–2004 deal, so the company's offer to renew the television rights was lower in 2004.

ABC ended their second run with the NHL with Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals on June 7. There, the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Calgary Flames 2–1 to clinch their first ever Stanley Cup.

"And I'll tell you what, this city has gone bananas inside and outside this arena! It should be a wild ride! ABC Sports is online at ESPN.com, search "ABC Sports". Congratulations to the Tampa Bay Lightning!"

- Host John Saunders at the conclusion of Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals, ABC's final NHL telecast until the 2021–22 season.

ABC concluded their coverage of Game 7 with a montage of highlights from the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals that were set to the song "Shine" by Andy Stochansky.

Second return to ABC (2021–present)
As previously mentioned, on March 10, 2021, the National Hockey League and The Walt Disney Company confirmed a seven-year television deal that would include games on ABC, along with ESPN, ESPN+, and Hulu beginning in the 2021–22 season. At least 25 regular-season games will be scheduled to air on ESPN or ABC, along with half of the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and one conference final each year. ESPN and ABC have first choice of which conference final series to air. ABC will exclusively broadcast four Stanley Cup Finals over the life of the contract, with the option to simulcast each game on ESPN+, as well as produce alternate broadcasts that will air on the different ESPN Networks. This will be the first time in Stanley Cup Finals history that the entire series will air on a broadcast over-the-air network in the United States.

ABC's first game back will feature the St. Louis Blues and the Chicago Blackhawks in the annual "NHL Thanksgiving Showdown" on November 26, 2021. Like in the previous two deals, ABC will primarily air games on Saturday afternoons, with one game being aired in primetime. ABC’s games will be branded as “ABC Hockey Saturday” as opposed to the “NHL on ABC”. All games broadcast on ABC will be simulcast on ESPN+.

Studio personalities

 * 1) Steve Levy – studio host (2021–present)
 * 2) Barry Melrose – studio analyst (2021–present)
 * 3) Mark Messier – studio analyst (2021–present)
 * 4) Chris Chelios – studio analyst (2021–present)

Play-by-play

 * 1) Sean McDonough – lead play-by-play (2021–present)

Color commentators

 * 1) Ray Ferraro – lead color commentator (2021–present)
 * 2) Brian Boucher – lead color commentator (2021–present)
 * 3) Kevin Weekes – color commentator (2021–present, select games)

Ice-level and Inside the Glass reporters

 * 1) Emily Kaplan – lead reporter (2021-present)
 * 2) Kevin Weekes – reporter (2021–present, select games)
 * 3) Leah Hextall – reporter (2021–present, select games)

Rules analyst

 * 1) Dave Jackson – rules analyst (2021–present)