NHL on USA

The NHL on USA is the name of a former television show that broadcast NHL games.

It was shown from 1979 to 1985 on the USA Network, a cable television network in the United States.

The network last broadcast regular-season games in 1985, but as part of current parent company NBCUniversal's contract to cover the NHL, the network resumed broadcasting a handful of games in the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, by serving as an overflow channel for NHL playoff games that cannot air on sister networks NBC or NBCSN through 2021.

NHL on USA
Genre	Sports
Created by	USA Network Sports
Starring	Dan Kelly Gary Green
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	6
Production
Running time	180 minutes
Release
Original network	USA Network
Original release	1979 – May 30, 1985
Chronology
Related shows	NHL on NBC NHL on Versus
External links
Website

History[edit]

Before the USA Network came to be (1969-1980)

Manhattan Cable and HBO (1969–1977)

Manhattan Cable (subsequently referred to as the MSG Network) debuted in the spring of 1969 and did all home events from the Madison Square Garden: New York Knicks basketball, New York Rangers hockey, college basketball, horse shows, Golden Gloves boxing, tennis, the Westminster Dog Show, ice capades, professional wrestling, etc. The first reference to the channel as “MSG Network” was sometime around 1971–72, although the name did not become official until 1977.

The first televised events were NHL and NBA playoffs in the spring of 1969; in those playoffs Marty Glickman did play-by-play for the Knicks broadcasts while Win Elliott did play-by-play for the Rangers.

Meanwhile, HBO began simulcasting some MSG games in 1972 beginning with the Rangers/Vancouver Canucks game on November 8, 1972 (the first ever program televised on HBO, to a few subscribers in Wilkes-Barre, PA). 1974–75 marked the only year in which HBO used MSG announcers for their feed. Because HBO is a premium cable service, this created a burden on announcers to fill in dead airtime on HBO while commercials aired on MSG Network. HBO did not broadcast Knicks or Rangers games after the 1976–77 season.

See also: List of New York Rangers broadcasters

UA-Columbia (1977–1980)

When the MSG/HBO marriage ended in 1977, Madison Square Garden proceeded to seek a new partner to launch a national network to show off its events. So for several years, beginning with the 1977–78 season, all MSG home events (such as those involving the Knicks, Rangers, etc.) were then televised on a fledgling network that would eventually become known as the USA Network. This channel, which debuted on September 22, 1977, was basically a continuation of the existing MSG Network. The key difference however, was that it was now nationally syndicated via satellite rather than terrestrially. It was also the first cable channel to be supported by advertising revenues. By this time (as previously alluded to), the channel was officially called the “Madison Square Garden Network” or MSG Network.

In 1979–80, the National Hockey League replaced their syndicated coverage package The NHL Network with a package on USA.^[4] At the time, the USA Network was called UA-Columbia.^[5] As the immediate forerunner for the USA Network, UA-Columbia, served as the cable syndicated arm of not only MSG Network in New York, but also PRISM channel in Philadelphia, and whatever pay/cable outlets were around in 1979.

The formation of the USA Network

On April 9, 1980, the Madison Square Garden Network changed its name to the USA Network. This occurred when the ownership structure was reorganized under a joint operating agreement by the UA-Columbia Cablevision cable system (now known as CablevisionSystems Corporation) and MCA (then the parent of Universal Studios, now owned by NBC Universal). Things took a step further one year later when, Time Inc. (which eventually merged with Warner Communications to form Time Warner) and Paramount Pictures Corp. (then a division of Gulf+Western, now owned by Viacom) took minority ownership stakes in USA. G+W also owned the New York Rangers and the MSG regional sports television network (both later owned by Cablevision, but spun off in 2010).

Coverage overview (1979–1985)

As previously mentioned USA's (or UA-Columbia as it was known at the time) coverage begin in the 1979–80 season as a Monday night series with Dan Kelly doing play-by-play alongside Gary Green. Scott Wahle was the intermission host.

1980-81 season

For the 1980–81 season, some Sunday night games were added. Dan Kelly once again, did most of the play-by-play alongside Mike Eruzione. Dick Carlson and Jiggs McDonald also did play-by-play work on occasion. In addition, Don Cherry was a commentator for at least one game. Meanwhile, Jim West was the host for most games.

With USA's coverage of the 1981 Stanley Cup Playoffs, it marked the first time that there was "blanket" American television coverage of the NHL playoffs. In other words, more often than not that, whenever a game was played it was televised on a national outlet (whether it was broadcast or cable). USA however, didn't televise Game 1 of the playoff series between Philadelphia Flyers and Calgary Flames(April 16) because they were instead broadcasting a baseball game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Philadelphia Phillies. Meanwhile, they also skipped Games 2–6 (on April 17, 22 and 24) of the Philadelphia–Calgary series because of their coverage of the NBA playoffs. USA also didn't televise Games 2 and 5 of the playoff series between the Calgary Flames and Minnesota North Stars (April 30 and May 7 respectively) because of baseball games involving the Minnesota Twins vs. the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. the Philadelphia Phillies respectively.

1981-82 season

In the 1981–82 season, Al Trautwig took over as studio host. Dan Kelly did play-by-play with Gary Green on color commentary. For the playoffs, Dick Carlson and Al Albert were added as play-by-play voices of some games. Meanwhile, Jim Van Horne hosted Stanley Cup Finals games played in Vancouver.

In April 1982, USA outbid ESPN for the NHL's American national television cable package with $8 million (at least $2 million more than what ESPN was offering).

1982-83 and 1983-84 seasons

Things pretty much remained the same for USA during the 1982–83 season. Dan Kelly and Gary Green called all games. USA didn't cover any playoff games on April 7, 1983 because they were broadcasting second round highlights of The Masters. This was followed by a West Coast NBA telecast.

In the 1983–84 season, USA covered over 40 games including the playoffs. While Dan Kelly and Gary Green did all the games. Meanwhile, Jiggs McDonald and Ed Westfall helped broadcast one game.

Because USA was airing Masters highlights, Game 1 of the 1984 playoff series between Minnesota North Stars and St. Louis Blues (April 12) and Game 2 of the playoff series between New York Islanders and Washington Capitals (April 13) were aired on tape delay at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

1984-85 season

For USA's final full season of NHL coverage in 1984–85, Dan Kelly and Gary Green once again, did all games. In all, USA covered about 55 games, including 33 in the regular season. Also, Hartford Whalers goaltender Mike Liut was added as an intermission analyst for the Stanley Cup Finals.

Meanwhile, for increased publicity opportunities, the Stroh Brewing Company turned to such sports as hockey—which had been overlooked by Anheuser and Miller—and sponsored broadcasts of National Hockey League games on the USA cable network.

Seldom during the early rounds of the playoffs did USA carry an away game of one of the three New York-area teams (New York Rangers, New York Islanders, or New Jersey Devils) since WOR-TV New York, at the time available on most of the nation's cable television systems, often carried that away game of the New York-area team both locally in New York and on its "super station" feed. One exception was a playoff game between two of the New York-area clubs, since WOR was usually barred from carrying it since the home team's cable-television contract superseded the visiting club's over-the-air television deal.

Between 1985 and 2015

USA Network lost the rights to the NHL to ESPN in 1985 and largely abandoned sports after the early 1990s as the channel shifted almost exclusively to scripted entertainment. Beginning in 2006, USA began carrying some coverage of top level hockey by cooperating with NBC's coverage of ice hockey at the Winter Olympics in 2006, 2010 and 2014; these games were mostly daytime contests that would not preempt the network's increasingly popular prime time programs.

Selected early-round playoff games, 2015-

As part of a 2011 contract renewal, Comcast's properties earned exclusive national rights for all Stanley Cup playoffs through 2021. Because NBC and NBCSN could not carry all of the games on those two outlets alone, other Comcast properties would need to be used; USA was initially not used, due to the risk of preempting its popular prime time lineup, and the company instead used CNBC and NHL Network as the overflow channels for the first four years of the contract. In 2015, after NHL Network was transferred out of Comcast's control and to MLB Advanced Media's, Comcast announced that USA would carry some games in the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, mainly on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, returning the NHL to USA for the first time since 1985.

List of commentators

Play-by-play

• Dan Kelly (1979–85)
• Al Albert (1981–85)
• Dick Carlson (1980–82)
• Jiggs McDonald (1980–84)

Color commentary

• Gary Green (1981–85)
• Mike Eruzione (1980–81)
• Don Cherry (1980–81)
• Phil Esposito (1980–81)
• Rod Gilbert (1981–82)
• Ed Westfall (1980-84)

Studio hosts

• Al Trautwig (1981–85)
• Al Albert (1982–83)
• Jim Van Horne (1981–82)
• Scott Wahle (1978–79 and 1979–80)
• Jim West (1980–81)

Studio analysts

• Mike Liut (1984–85)

Stanley Cup Playoff commentating crews

Year	Round	Teams	Games	Play-by-play	Color commentators
1980	First round	Buffalo-Vancouver	Game 3 (CBC's feed)	Jim Robson	Howie Meeker
1981	First round	Los Angeles-New York Rangers	Game 2	Dick Carlson	Mike Eruzione
	Quarterfinals	St. Louis-New York Rangers	Game 3	Dick Carlson	Mike Eruzione
		Philadelphia-Calgary	Game 7	Dan Kelly	Mike Eruzione
	Semifinals	New York Islanders-New York Rangers	Games 1, 3	Dan Kelly	Mike Eruzione
		Calgary-Minnesota	Games 3–4, 6	Dan Kelly	Mike Eruzione
1982	Divisional semifinals	New York Islanders-Pittsburgh	Games 3, 5[28]	Dick Carlson (Game 3) Dan Kelly	Gary Green
		Minnesota-Chicago	Game 1	Al Albert	Gary Green
	Divisional finals	New York Islanders-New York Rangers	Games 2, 6	Dick Carlson	Gary Green
		Boston-Quebec	Games 5, 7	Dick Carlson (Game 5) Dan Kelly (Game 7)	Gary Green
		Boston-Chicago	Game 4	Dick Carlson	Gary Green
		Vancouver-Los Angeles	Game 3	Dick Carlson	Gary Green
	Conference finals	New York Islanders-Quebec	Games 2, 4	Dan Kelly	Gary Green
		Chicago-Vancouver	Games 1, 5	Dan Kelly	Gary Green
1983	Divisional semifinals	Philadelphia-New York Rangers	Game 3	Al Albert	Gary Green
		New York Islanders-Washington	Games 1, 4	Al Albert	Gary Green
		Boston-Quebec	Game 1	Al Albert	Gary Green
	Divisional finals	New York Islanders-New York Rangers	Games 2, 4, 6	Dan Kelly	Gary Green
		Boston-Buffalo	Games 5, 7	Dan Kelly	Gary Green
		Chicago-Minnesota	Game 3	Dan Kelly	Gary Green
		Edmonton-Calgary	Game 1 (taped delayed)	Dan Kelly	Gary Green
	Conference finals	New York Islanders-Boston	Games 1–3, 5–6	Dan Kelly	Gary Green
		Edmonton-Chicago	Games 1, 3–4	Dan Kelly	Gary Green
1984	Conference semifinals	Buffalo-Quebec	Game 2	Al Albert	Gary Green
	Conference semifinals	New York Islanders-New York Rangers	Games 1, 4–5	Al Albert (Games 1, 4) Dan Kelly (Game 5)	Gary Green
		Washington-Philadelphia	Game 3	Al Albert	Gary Green
	Divisional finals	Quebec-Montreal	Games 4, 6[29]	Al Albert	Gary Green
		New York Islanders-Washington	Games 2 (taped delay), 3, 5	Al Albert	Gary Green
		Minnesota-St. Louis	Games 1 (taped delay), 7	Al Albert	Gary Green
	Conference finals	Montreal-New York Islanders	Games 2[30]-3, 5-6	Dan Kelly	Gary Green
		Edmonton-Minnesota	Games 1, 4	Dan Kelly	Gary Green
1985	Divisional semifinals	Washington-New York Islanders	Games 3–5	Al Albert (Games 3–4) Dan Kelly (Game 5)	Gary Green
		St. Louis-Minnesota	Game 1	Dan Kelly	Gary Green
	Divisional finals	Philadelphia-New York Islanders	Game 3	Al Albert	Gary Green
		Montreal-Quebec	Games 2, 5–7	Al Albert (Games 2, 6) Dan Kelly (Games 5, 7)	Gary Green
		Chicago-Minnesota	Games 1, 4–5	Dan Kelly (Game 1) Al Albert (Games 4–5)	Gary Green
		Oilers-Winnipeg	Game 2	Dan Kelly	Gary Green
	Conference finals	Quebec-Philadelphia	Games 1–2, 5	Al Albert	Gary Green
		Edmonton-Chicago	Games 1, 3–4, 6	Al Albert	Gary Green