NHL on CTV is the name of a former television program that broadcast National Hockey League games on the CTV Television Network.
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CTV's involvement with the NHL began in the 1965–66 season with a series of Wednesday-night regular season games. These were produced by the McLaren ad agency, which also produced the Saturday night Hockey Night In Canada games for CBC. As was the case with the Saturday games, they were contests (usually at home) of the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, and after 1970, the Vancouver Canucks. CTV decided to pull out of midweek NHL coverage in 1975, opening the way for local TV stations in the three Canadian cities which had NHL clubs to carry mid-week telecasts of their hometown NHL clubs.
Ironically, CTV affiliate CFCF-TV in Montreal carried some local Canadiens' telecasts starting in the 1975-76 season.
In the 1984–85 and 1985–86 seasons, the NHL returned to CTV, with regular season games[1] on Friday[2] nights (and some Sunday afternoons) as well as partial coverage of the playoffs and Stanley Cup Finals.
CTV/Carling O'Keefe[3] initially signed a contract well into the 1984-85 season. As a result, they wanted to cram as many games as possible (beginning in February) in the brief window they had. 1985-86's coverage didn't begin until November, so to avoid conflicts with CTV's coverage of the Major League Baseball postseason.
While Molson continued to present Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights on CBC, rival brewery Carling O'Keefe[4] began airing Friday Night Hockey on CTV. This marked the first time in more than a decade that CBC was not the lone over-the-air network broadcaster of the National Hockey League in Canada.
The deal with CTV was arranged by the Quebec Nordiques (who were owned by Carling O'Keefe[3]) and the 14 U.S.-based NHL clubs[4], who sought to break Molson's monopoly[5] on NHL broadcasting in Canada. All of CTV's regular season telecasts originated from Quebec City or the United States, as Molson shut them out of the other six Canadian buildings (as Carling did to them in Quebec City).
Following the 1985-86 season, CTV decided to pull the plug[6][7] on the venture. Their limited access to Canadian-based teams[8] (other than Quebec, whose English-speaking fan base was quite small) translated into poor ratings. For the next two years, Carling O'Keefe retained their rights, and syndicated playoff telecasts on a chain of channels that would one day become the Global Television Network under the names Stanley Cup '87 and Stanley Cup '88, before a merger between the two breweries put an end to the competition.
| Date | Teams |
|---|---|
| February 15 | Edmonton-New York Rangers |
| February 22 | St. Louis-Buffalo |
| March 1 | Minnesota-Detroit |
| March 8 | Philadelphia-Washington |
| March 15 | Winnipeg-Quebec |
| March 22 | Montreal-Washington |
| March 24 | Quebec-Hartford |
| March 29 | Edmonton-Hartford |
| Date | Teams |
|---|---|
| November 8 | St. Louis-Buffalo |
| November 15 | Vancouver-Washington |
| November 22 | Winnipeg-Pittsburgh |
| November 29 | Montreal-Buffalo |
| December 6 | New York Islanders-Quebec |
| December 13 | Hartford-Buffalo |
| December 20 | New York Islanders-New York Rangers |
| December 27 | Montreal-New Jersey |
| January 3 | Washington-New Jersey |
| January 10 | Edmonton-Quebec[9] |
| January 17 | Quebec-Hartford |
| January 24 | New York Islanders-Washington |
| January 31 | St. Louis-Detroit |
| February 2 | Toronto-Chicago |
| February 7 | Montreal-Washington |
| February 14 | New York Rangers-Detroit |
| February 21 | Quebec-Minnesota |
| February 23 | Toronto-Minnesota |
| February 28 | Quebec-Buffalo |
| March 7 | Hartford-Buffalo |
| March 9 | Calgary-Detroit |
| March 14 | Calgary-Quebec |
| March 21 | Winnipeg-Washington |
| March 28 | New York Islanders-Washington |
| April 4 | Montreal-Buffalo |
The 1985–86 Canadian coverage of the All-Star Game was to be provided by CTV. However, CTV had a prior commitment to carry a U.S. mini-series.[10] As a result, TSN took over coverage of the game in Hartford.[11][12]
In 1984–85, Dan Kelly and Ron Reusch called the Philadelphia-Quebec Wales Conference Final series. They also televised Games 3, 4 and 6 of the Montreal-Quebec Adams Division Final and Games 2 and 5 of the Philadelphia-New York Islanders Patrick Division Final.
In 1985–86, Kelly and Reusch called the Calgary-St.Louis Campbell Conference Final series. CTV's coverage was blacked out[13] in Calgary, where CBC provided coverage. For the Calgary Flames-Winnipeg Jets first-round series in 1985–86, CBC, who initially had the rights to the series, ultimately passed as they were already maxed out with three other series (Montreal-Boston, Chicago-Toronto, and Edmonton-Vancouver). The rights to the Calgary-Winnipeg series were eventually sold to the CTV affiliates in Calgary (CFCN) and Winnipeg (CKY) as well as Carling O'Keefe. On the call were Ed Whalen of the Flames and Curt Keilback of the Jets.
CBC and Molson Brewery used a loophole in that games involving Canadian based teams (excluding the Quebec Nordiques) in the playoffs could be televised locally by CBC.
| Year | Round | Series | Games covered | Play-by-play | Colour commentator(s) |
| 1985 | Divisional finals | Philadelphia-New York Islanders | Games 2, 5 | Dan Kelly | Ron Reusch |
| Montreal-Quebec | Games 3, 4, 6 | Dan Kelly | Ron Reusch | ||
| Conference finals | Quebec-Philadelphia | Games 1–6 | Dan Kelly | Ron Reusch | |
| 1986 | Divisional semifinals | Quebec-Hartford | Game 3 | Ron Reusch | Bobby Taylor |
| Calgary-Winnipeg | Games 1–3 | Ed Whalen | Curt Keilback | ||
| Divisional finals | Washington-New York Rangers | Games 4–6 | Dan Kelly | Ron Reusch | |
| Conference finals | Calgary-St. Louis | Games 1–7 | Dan Kelly | Ron Reusch |
In 1972, Hockey Night in Canada moved all playoff coverage from CBC to CTV to avoid conflict with the lengthy NABET strike[14] against the CBC. Eventually, MacLaren Advertising, in conjunction with Molson Breweries and Imperial Oil/Esso), who actually owned the rights to Hockey Night in Canada (not CBC) decided to give the playoff telecast rights to CTV. Initially, it was on a game by game basis in the quarterfinals (Game 1 of the Boston-Toronto series was seen on CFTO Toronto in full while other CTV affiliates, but not all joined the game in progress. Game 1 of the New York Rangers-Montreal series was seen only on CFCF Montreal while Game 4 not televised due to a lockout of technicians at the Montreal Forum), and then the full semifinals and Stanley Cup Finals. Because CTV did not have 100% penetration in Canada at this time, they asked CBC (who ultimately refused) to allow whatever one of their affiliates were the sole network in that market to show the playoffs. As a result, the 1972 Stanley Cup playoffs were not seen in some of the smaller Canadian markets unless said markets were close enough to the United States border to pick up the signal of a CBS affiliate.
| Round | Series | Games covered | Play-by-play | Colour commentators(s) |
| Quarterfinals | Boston-Toronto | Games 1–5 | Bill Hewitt | Bob Goldham (Games 1–2, 5) Brian McFarlane (Game 3–4) |
| New York Rangers-Montreal | Games 1–6 | Danny Gallivan | Dick Irvin, Jr. | |
| Minnesota-St. Louis | Game 7 | Danny Gallivan | Dick Irvin, Jr. | |
| Semifinals | Boston-St. Louis | Games 3–4 | Danny Gallivan | Dick Irvin, Jr. |
| Chicago-New York Rangers | Games 2–4 | Bill Hewitt | Bob Goldham |
In 1974, some CTV affiliates (like CFTO in Toronto and CFCF in Montreal) picked up the American feed from NBC (with Tim Ryan and Ted Lindsay on the call) of Game 4 of the Montreal-New York Rangers playoff series. CKY in Winnipeg and ATV in Moncton, New Brunswick (CKCW) perhaps most notably, did not air that particular game.
In 1985, CBC televised Games 1 and 2 nationally while Games 3, 4 and 5 were televised in Edmonton only. CTV televised Games 3, 4 and 5 nationally while games were blacked out in Edmonton.
In 1986, CBC only televised Games 1 and 2 in Montreal and Calgary. CBC would go on to televise Games 3, 4 and 5 nationally. When CTV televised Games 1 and 2,[15] both games were blacked out in Montreal and Calgary.
In 1979-80, 1982-83, 1985-86, 1988-89 and 1989-90, CTV televised a handful of games of the NHL-Soviet Super Series, where touring Soviet clubs visited NHL teams in a series of exhibition games.
On New Year's Eve 1985, CTV broadcast one such game between the Montreal Canadiens and CSKA Moscow in Montreal.[16] Although CTV aired the game (as a "Special Presentation of CTV Sports"), it was not considered an official part of NHL on CTV package. That was because the broadcast was presented by Molson instead of Carling O'Keefe. However, the regular NHL on CTV on-air talent were still utilized.
Sportsnet was launched on October 9, 1998 as CTV Sportsnet. The name was chosen to match the regional "Fox Sports Net" operations across the United States. CTV owned 40% and was the managing partner of the new network; Rogers, Molson and Fox owned 20% each.
The new network gained credibility before it went on the air, wrestling the NHL Canadian cable package away from long-time holder TSN. From 1998–99 until 2001–02, Sportsnet aired Labatt Blue Tuesday Night Hockey to a national audience throughout the regular season, and covered first-round playoff series not involving Canadian teams. On the day CTV Sportsnet went on the air, its first live sports event was an NHL opening-night telecast between the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers. The national cable rights have since returned to TSN, though Sportsnet retains English regional rights to five of the seven Canadian-based clubs (TSN, through regional feeds, holds regional rights to the remaining two.)
"The Hockey Song" was used to open NHL broadcasts on CTV Sportsnet in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The possible movement of Hockey Night in Canada to another broadcaster caused some controversy and discussion during the 2006–2007 hockey season. CTV had outbid the CBC for Canadian television rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympics as well as the major television package for curling. The broadcast requirements would have focused on CTV-owned TSN (The Sports Network), a cable channel which already carries Canadian NHL hockey during the week as well as other NHL games throughout the season. CTV did, however, buy out the previous theme to CBC's Hockey Night in Canada for use in TSN's broadcasts immediately after the 2007–08 NHL season.
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