NHL on Fox

NHL on Fox was a television program that televised NHL games on the Fox television network and produced by Fox Sports.

The program ran from the 1994-95 NHL season until the 1998-99 NHL season. Fox paid $31 million a year ($155 million in total) to televise the NHL.

Coverage Overview
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 seventeen years after the 1975 Finals was broadcast on NBC, there would be no national over-the-air network coverage of the NHL in the United States (with the exception of CBS' coverage of Game 2 of the 1979 Challenge Cup and Game 6 of the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals and NBC's coverage of the NHL All-Star Game from 1990-1994) and only spotty coverage on regional networks.

This was due to the fact that no network was willing to commit to a large number of games, in turn, providing low ratings for NHL games.

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 five seasons).

The Fox deal is perhaps best remembered for the FoxTrax puck, which while generally popular according to Fox Sports, generated a great deal of controversy from longtime fans of the game.

FoxTrax
FoxTrax (colloquially also called the glow puck, smart puck, laser puck, Fox Puck or super puck) was a specialized ice hockey puck with internal electronics that allowed its position to be tracked designed for NHL telecasts on the Fox television network.

Primarily, it was used to visually highlight the puck on-screen and display a trail when the puck was moving rapidly.

In 1994, Fox won a contract to broadcast NHL games in the United States. A common complaint among viewers was that the puck was difficult to follow on the ice. Thus, FoxTrax was created to remedy this problem.

The FoxTrax puck was first used during the 1996 NHL All-Star Game and the regular season game on January 27, 1996 between Philadelphia at Pittsburgh. It was last used during Game 1 of the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals. Fox was scheduled to televise Games 5, and 7, but the series ended in 4 games.

In August of 1998, the NHL broadcast rights went to ABC, and FoxTrax was not brought back for the final season except for the game on April 4, 1999 between Detroit Red Wings and Dallas Stars.

Stanley Cup Playoff Coverage
In the first two rounds of the playoffs, 2 games were televised each round.

Canadians were upset over the apparent preference that the NHL had to Fox ahead of CBC for scheduling of playoff games as Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette wrote that the schedule was "just another example of how the NHL snubs its nose at the country that invented hockey and its fans."

The controversy repeated itself in 2007 as CBC was once again given second billing to Versus' coverage of the playoffs.

Main Broadcast Teams, Studio Hosts and Analysts
The main broadcast team was Mike Emrick and John Davidson while regionally distributed games were handled by a variety of announcers, and added popular is that Pierre McGuire is ice level reporter.

In the first four years of the deal, James Brown and Dave Maloney hosted the show from the Fox studio in Los Angeles.

In the final year, it was Suzy Kolber and Terry Crisp. Occasionally, current NHL players such as Mike Modano would serve as guest analysts.

All-Star Game, Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals
For the NHL All-Star Game, Conference Finals, and Stanley Cup Finals, the games are national games were hosted from the arena. The 1996 and 1997 NHL 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 and 1999 ended in 6 games.

The consequence was that (except for 1995, when Fox did televised Game 4) the decisive game was never on network television.

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.

Game 4 of the 1995 Stanley Cup Final was notable because not only did the New Jersey Devils win the Stanley Cup, but also their main television play-by-play and Inside the Glass announcer, Mike Emrick, and Pierre McGuire announced it.

Stanley Cup Finals Broadcast Schedules

 * 1995: Games 1, 4, 5, and 7 on Fox; Games 2, 3 and 6 on ESPN
 * 1996: Games 1, 3, 5, and 7 on Fox; Games 2, 4, and 6 on ESPN
 * 1997: Games 1, 5, 6, and 7 on Fox; Games 2, 3, and 4 on ESPN
 * 1998: Games 1, 5 and 7 on Fox; Games 2, 3, 4 and 6 on ESPN
 * 1999: Games 1, 2, 5, and 7 on Fox; Games 3, 4, and 6 on ESPN

The end of NHL on Fox
Things ended badly between Fox and the NHL when the league announced a new TV deal with ESPN that also called for ABC to become the new network TV partner (as previously mentioned).

Fox challenged that it wasn't given a chance to match the network component of the deal, but ABC ultimately prevailed.

Fox placed a bid for NHL broadcast rights when they came up for renewal in 2011, but they dropped out of bidding as a result of a bidding war between NBCUniversal and ESPN.

NBC Universal (who owns the NBC, Versus and USA networks) won the bidding and a ten-year contract extension.

Regular season
Fox's logo for their regular season broadcasts.

Fox televised between 2 and 11 regionally distributed games on Saturday or Sunday afternoons during the regular season, where anywhere from 2 to 6 games ran concurrently. All times below are Eastern.

1994–95
Main article: 1994–95 NHL season

1995–96
Main article: 1995–96 NHL season * Denotes use of FoxTrax puck.

1996–97
Main article: 1996–97 NHL season

1997–98
Main article: 1997–98 NHL season


 * Fox was initially scheduled to air a Pittsburgh Penguins-Tampa Bay Lightning game on April 4.

Main article: 1998–99 NHL season
^The Pittsburgh Penguins–New York Rangers game on April 18 (Wayne Gretzky's final game before his retirement) began FOX. The week prior (April 11), WNYW aired another Yankees game over the Pittsburgh–Detroit NHL game, which instead aired on MSG from start to finish.

* The Detroit Red Wings–Dallas Stars game on April 4 (Ed Belfour's memorial) at 3 PM Eastern on Fox. Mike Emrick and John Davidson with the call.

* Denotes the use of FoxTrax puck.

1995
Main article: 1995 Stanley Cup Playoffs


 * The June 24 game in New Jersey was the Stanley Cup Finals' deciding game as New Jersey Devils swept Detroit Red Wings. Although Fox did retain rights to certain other games where the Cup could be decided (including any and all Game 7s), 1995 was the only time during its run as NHL broadcaster that Fox actually carried the Cup-clinching victory on-air.
 * Denotes the uses of FoxTrax puck.

1996
Main article: 1996 Stanley Cup Playoffs


 * Denotes use of FoxTrax puck.
 * The April 28 game in Winnipeg was the final home game for the original Winnipeg Jets. The franchise would become the Phoenix Coyotes in the fall of 1996.

1997
Main article: 1997 Stanley Cup Playoffs

1998
Main article: 1998 Stanley Cup Playoffs

1999
Main article: 1999 Stanley Cup Playoffs

Broadcast teams

 * Mike Emrick-John Davidson
 * Kenny Albert-Joe Micheletti
 * Pat Foley-Darren Pang
 * Randy Hahn-Pete Stemkowski
 * Rick Jeanneret-Denis Potvin
 * John Kelly-Craig Simpson
 * Mike Lange-Paul Steigerwald
 * Josh Lewin-Daryl Reaugh
 * Jiggs McDonald-Peter McNab
 * Bob Miller-Gary Green
 * Howie Rose-Chico Resch
 * Sam Rosen-Mickey Redmond
 * Dick Stockton-Mike Eruzione
 * Dave Strader-Brian Engblom

Studio Commentators

 * James Brown: Studio host (1994–1998)
 * Terry Crisp: Color commentary and studio analyst (1998–1999)
 * Suzy Kolber: Studio host (1998–1999)
 * Dave Maloney: Studio analyst (1994–1998)

Reporters

 * Pierre McGuire
 * Joe Micheletti