NHL on ABC

NHL on ABC is the branding formerly used for broadcasts of NHL games televised on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) Network in the United States.

The network first broadcast NHL games during the 1992–93 season under a time-buy agreement with ESPN; ABC resumed regular season game telecasts on February 6, 2000 as part of a joint contract with ESPN that also gave ABC the rights to select games from each round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Before 1992-93

After being dropped by NBC after the 1974–75 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 that typically aired on Monday nights (beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time) or Saturday afternoons.

The package was offered to local stations without a rights fee. The 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". Viewers in New York City, Buffalo, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Los Angeles received the Game of the Week on a different station than their local team's games.

Therefore, whenever a team had a "home" game, the NHL Network aired the home team's broadcast rather than their own.

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 1979, 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 Jim McKay (as studio host), Bobby Clarke (as color commentator) and Frank Gifford (as 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).

The game would have started at 5:10 p.m. Eastern Time on a Saturday, replacing Wide World of Sports and local newscasts that typically followed it on ABC stations in the Eastern and Central Time Zones.

ABC Radio Coverage

In 1989, the NHL signed a two-year contract (lasting through the 1990–91 season) with ABC Radio for the broadcast rights to the NHL All-Star Game and the Stanley Cup Finals.

ABC Radio named Sam Rosen and Phil Esposito as their main commentating crew.

Time-buy deal with ESPN (1992–1994)

In the 1992–93 and 1993–94 NHL seasons, ABC televised 6 weekly regional telecasts on Sunday afternoons beginning in March (or the last 3 Sundays of the regular season).

This marked the first time that regular season NHL games were broadcast on American network television since 1974–75 (when NBC was the NHL's American broadcast television partner).

ABC would then televise 3 weeks worth of playoff games (or the first three Sundays of the playoffs). The network did not televise the Stanley Cup Finals, which instead, were televised nationally by ESPN and by Prime Ticket in Los Angeles (in 1993) and MSG Network in New York (in 1994). 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 3-hour blocks of airtime to ESPN, which in return, would produce, supply broadcasters and sell advertising. The main difference is that the graphics used for the telecasts were those used by ABC Sports, instead of the ones seen on ESPN National Hockey Night.

In later years, the roles would be reversed as ESPN's graphical style would be used on the broadcasts with the exception of intermission reports. ABC even used ESPN's theme music for the 1992–1994 coverage. During ABC's next stint with the NHL, the network used its own theme music.

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 NFC 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 NHL 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, effectively ending ABC's time-buy deal with ESPN after just two seasons.

The NHL returns to ABC (1999–2004)

In August of 1998, ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC signed a 5-year television deal with the NHL, worth a total of approximately US$600 million (or $120 million per year). 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.

As previously mentioned, as was the case with the 1992–1994 deal, ABC's subsequent NHL coverage was in reality, made up of time–buys from ESPN.

This was noted in copyright beds at the conclusion of the telecasts, i.e. "The preceding program has been paid for by ESPN, Inc." ESPN then signed a similar television rights contract in 2002 so it could produce and broadcast NBA games on ABC.

This time around, ABC televised 4-5 weeks worth of regional games on Saturday afternoons beginning in January. ABC also televised the NHL All-Star Game and 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 4-game sweeps; 1999 ended in 6 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 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.

Schedules

Date	Teams	Start times (All times Eastern)
March 27	Boston at Washington Detroit at Chicago New York Rangers at Winnipeg Los Angeles at Vancouver	1:00 p.m. 2:00 p.m. 2:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.
April 3	Boston at Pittsburgh Dallas at Washington St. Louis at Detroit Edmonton at Los Angeles	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m.
April 10	New York Rangers at New York Islanders Boston at Philadelphia Los Angeles at Chicago Dallas at St. Louis	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m.

April 17, 24, May 1: Playoffs

Stanley Cup Playoffs commentator crews

1993

Round	Series	Games covered	Play-by-play	Color commentators
Division semifinals	Pittsburgh vs New Jersey	Games 1, 4	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement
	Chicago vs St. Louis	Games 1, 4	Mike Emrick	Jim Schoenfeld
	Calgary vs Los Angeles	Games 1, 4	Al Michaels	John Davidson
Division finals	Pittsburgh vs. New York Islanders	Game 1	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement
	Toronto vs. St. Louis	Game 4	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement
	Vancouver vs. Los Angeles	Game 1	Mike Emrick	John Davidson
Conference finals	Montreal vs. New York Islanders	Game 1	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement

1994

Round	Series	Games covered	Play-by-play	Color commentators	Ice Level Reporters
Conference quarterfinals	New York Rangers vs New York Islanders	Games 1, 4	Tom Mees (Game 1) Gary Thorne (Game 4)	John Davidson (Game 1) Bill Clement (Game 4)	Bob Neumeier (Game 1) Brian Engblom (Game 4)
	Dallas vs St. Louis	Games 1, 4	Gary Thorne (Game 1) Tom Mees (Game 4)	Bill Clement (Game 1) John Davidson (Game 4)	Brian Engblom (Game 1) Bob Neumeier (Game 4)
Conference semifinals	New Jersey vs Boston	Game 1	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom

Announcers

Studio Hosts

• John Saunders

Broadcast teams

• Gary Thorne-Bill Clement
• Mike Emrick-Jim Schoenfeld
• Al Michaels or Tom Mees-John Davidson
• Bob Miller-Jim Fox

Reporters

• Brian Engblom
• Darren Pang
• Al Morganti
• Tom Mees
• Bob Neumeier
• Frank Gifford

Schedules

1999-2000

Date	Teams	Start times (All times Eastern)	Commentator Crews
March 18	Pittsburgh at Boston New York Rangers at Philadelphia Dallas at Chicago Detroit at Colorado	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3;00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Steve Levy and Darren Pang Dave Strader and Brian Engblom Gary Thorne and Bill Clement
March 26	Pittsburgh at Philadelphia New York Rangers at Detroit St. Louis at Chicago Colorado at Dallas	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m.	Steve Levy and Darren Pang Dave Strader and Brian Engblom Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk Gary Thorne and Bill Clement
April 1	New York Rangers at Boston Philadelphia at Pittsburgh Detroit at St. Louis Anaheim at Los Angeles	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Dave Strader and Brian Engblom Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Steve Levy and Darren Pang
April 9	Philadelphia at New York Rangers St. Louis at Chicago Phoenix at Dallas Detroit at Colorado Los Angeles at Anaheim	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3;00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Steve Levy and Darren Pang Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk Dave Strader and Brian Engblom Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Dave Ryan and Joe Micheletti

2000-01

Date	Teams	Start times (All times Eastern)	Commentator crews
March 10	New Jersey at Philadelphia Detroit at St. Louis Colorado at Dallas	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Steve Levy and Darren Pang
March 17	New York Rangers at Philadelphia Detroit at Colorado San Jose at Los Angeles	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Steve Levy and Darren Pang Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose
March 24	Detroit at New York Rangers Colorado at Boston Anaheim at Los Angeles	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Steve Levy and Darren Pang
March 31	New York Rangers at New Jersey Detroit at Philadelphia St. Louis at Pittsburgh Colorado at Los Angeles	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Steve Levy and Darren Pang Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Dave Strader and Brian Engblom
April 7	Pittsburgh at Philadelphia Colorado at Detroit Dallas at San Jose New York Rangers at Florida	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Steve Levy and Darren Pang Dave Strader and Brian Engblom

2001-02

Date	Teams	Start times (All times Eastern)	Commentator Crews
January 5	Detroit at Colorado Pittsburgh at New York Rangers Washington at Boston	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Steve Levy and Darren Pang
January 12	New York Rangers at Philadelphia St. Louis at Pittsburgh Dallas at Detroit	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m.	Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Steve Levy and Darren Pang
March 2	Philadelphia at New York Rangers Detroit at Pittsburgh Dallas at Colorado	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Steve Levy and Darren Pang Gary Thorne and Bill Clement
March 9	Pittsburgh at New York Rangers Detroit at St. Louis Colorado at Los Angeles	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Steve Levy and Darren Pang Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Gary Thorne and Bill Clement
March 16	Boston at Detroit New York Rangers at New Jersey Colorado at Philadelphia	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Steve Levy and Darren Pang Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Gary Thorne and Bill Clement

2002-03

Date	Teams	Start times (All times Eastern)	Commentator Crews
January 11	Colorado at Dallas New York Rangers at Pittsburgh Detroit at Philadelphia	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m.	Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Steve Levy and Darren Pang
February 8	Pittsburgh at Boston Colorado at Detroit New York Rangers at Philadelphia	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Steve Levy and Darren Pang
March 15	Colorado at DetroitNew York Rangers at New Jersey Philadelphia at Pittsburgh	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Steve Levy and Darren Pang
March 22	New York Rangers at Philadelphia Chicago at Colorado Detroit at St. Louis	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Steve Levy and Darren Pang
March 29	Detroit at St. Louis New York Rangers at Philadelphia Phoenix at Colorado	1:30 p.m. 1:30 p.m. 6:00 p.m.	Gary Thorne, Bill Clement, and John Davidson Steve Levy and Darren Pang Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose

2003-04

Date	Teams	Start times (All times Eastern)	Commentator crews
January 10	Detroit at Boston Colorado at Dallas New York Rangers at New York Islanders	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m.	Steve Levy and Darren Pang Gary Thorne, Bill Clement, and John Davidson Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk
February 14	New York Rangers at Philadelphia Colorado at Detroit Boston at Chicago	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Steve Levy and Darren Pang Gary Thorne, Bill Clement, and John Davidson Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk
March 13	Dallas at Detroit New Jersey at Philadelphia Los Angeles at San Jose	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Gary Thorne, Bill Clement, and John Davidson Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk Steve Levy and Darren Pang
March 20	New York Rangers at Philadelphia St. Louis at Dallas	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Gary Thorne, Bill Clement, and John Davidson Steve Levy and Darren Pang
March 27	New York Rangers at Philadelphia Colorado at Detroit Los Angeles at Calgary	1:30 p.m. 1:30 p.m. 6:00 p.m.	Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk Gary Thorne, Bill Clement, and John Davidson Steve Levy and Darren Pang

Stanley Cup Playoffs 2000-2004

Year	Round	Teams	Games	Play-by-play	Color commentators	Ice Level Reporters
2000	Conference quarterfinals	Washington-Pittsburgh	Game 2	Mike Emrick	Eddie Olczyk	Joe Micheletti
		St. Louis-San Jose	Games 2, 6	Dave Strader (Game 2) Gary Thorne (Game 6)	Brian Engblom (Game 2) Bill Clement (Game 6)	Brian Hayward (Game 2) Brian Engblom (Game 6)
		Colorado-Phoenix	Game 2	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Daryl Reaugh
		Detroit-Los Angeles	Game 2	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Sandra Neil
	Conference semifinals	Philadelphia-Pittsburgh	Games 2, 5	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Joe Micheletti
		Colorado-Detroit	Game 2	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
	Conference finals	Philadelphia-New Jersey	Game 1	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Joe Micheletti
		Dallas-Colorado	Game 4	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
2001	Conference quarterfinals	Washington-Pittsburgh	Games 2, 5	Dave Strader (Game 2) Gary Thorne (Game 5)	Brian Engblom (Game 2) Bill Clement (Game 5)	Chris Simpson (Game 2) Brian Engblom (Game 5)
		Philadelphia-Buffalo	Games 2, 6	Mike Emrick	Barry Melrose	Mickey Redmond
		Detroit-Los Angeles	Games 2, 5	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Joe Micheletti
		St. Louis-San Jose	Games 2, 6	Gary Thorne (Game 2) Dave Strader (Game 6)	Bill Clement (Game 2) Daryl Reaugh (Game 6)	Sandra Neil (Game 2) Chris Simpson (Game 6)
	Conference semifinals	Buffalo-Pittsburgh	Games 2, 5	Steve Levy (Game 2) Gary Thorne (Game 5)	Darren Pang (Game 2) Bill Clement (Game 5)	Joe Micheletti (Game 2) Brian Engblom (Game 5)
		Colorado-Los Angeles	Game 2	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
	Conference finals	New Jersey-Pittsburgh	Game 4	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
		Colorado-St. Louis	Game 1	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
2002	Conference quarterfinals	Boston-Montreal	Game 5	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
		Carolina-New Jersey	Game 6	Mike Emrick	Barry Melrose	Mickey Redmond
		Toronto-New York Islanders	Game 2	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Joe Micheletti
		Colorado-Los Angeles	Games 2, 6	Gary Thorne (Game 2) Steve Levy (Game 6)	Bill Clement (Game 2) Darren Pang (Game 6)	Sandra Neil (Game 2) Joe Micheletti (Game 6)
		San Jose-Phoenix	Game 2	Dave Strader	Brian Engblom	Tony Granato
		St. Louis-Chicago	Game 2	Mike Emrick	Eddie Olczyk	Chris Simpson
	Conference semifinals	Detroit-St. Louis	Games 2, 5	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
		Colorado-San Jose	Games 2, 5	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Joe Micheletti
	Conference finals	Detroit-Colorado	Games 1, 4	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
2003	Conference quarterfinals	Tampa Bay-Washington	Game 2	Mike Emrick	Barry Melrose	Mickey Redmond
		Philadelphia-Toronto	Game 5	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Chris Simpson
		Detroit-Anaheim	Game 2	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement and John Davidson	Brian Engblom
		Colorado-Minnesota	Games 2, 5	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Joe Micheletti
	Conference semifinals	Ottawa-Philadelphia	Game 5	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Joe Micheletti
		New Jersey-Tampa Bay	Game 2	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement and John Davidson	Brian Engblom
		Dallas-Anaheim	Games 2, 5	Steve Levy (Game 2) Gary Thorne (Game 5)	Darren Pang (Game 2) Bill Clement and John Davidson (Game 5)	Joe Micheletti (Game 2) Brian Engblom (Game 5)
	Conference finals	Ottawa-New Jersey	Game 4	Steve Levy	Darren Pang and John Davidson	Joe Micheletti
		Minnesota-Anaheim	Game 1	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement and John Davidson	Brian Engblom
2004	Conference quarterfinals	Tampa Bay-New York Islanders	Game 2	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Joe Micheletti
		Philadelphia-New Jersey	Game 5	Steve Levy	Barry Melrose and Darren Pang	Erin Andrews
		Detroit-Nashville	Games 2, 6	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement and John Davidson	Brian Engblom
		San Jose-St. Louis	Game 2	Mike Emrick	Barry Melrose	Mickey Redmond
		Colorado-Dallas	Game 5	Mike Emrick	Eddie Olczyk	Joe Micheletti
	Conference semifinals	Detroit-Calgary	Games 2, 5	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement and John Davidson	Brian Engblom
		San Jose-Colorado	Games 2, 5	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Erin Andrews
	Conference finals	Tampa Bay-Philadelphia	Games 1, 4	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement and John Davidson	Brian Engblom

Studio personalities

• John Saunders
• Al Michaels
• Chris Berman
• John Davidson
• Barry Melrose

Broadcast teams

• Gary Thorne-Bill Clement-John Davidson
• Steve Levy-Barry Melrose-Darren Pang
• Mike Emrick-Eddie Olczyk
• Dave Strader-Brian Engblom
• Dave Ryan-Joe Micheletti

Reporters

• Brian Engblom
• Darren Pang
• Joe Micheletti
• Chris Simpson
• Sam Ryan
• Sandra Neil
• Erin Andrews
• Brian Hayward
• Mickey Redmond
• Daryl Reaugh
• Tony Granato