The NHL on USA

"The NHL on USA" is the de facto title of a former television show that broadcasted National Hockey League games on the USA Network.

History

UA-Columbia

In 1979-80, the National Hockey League replaced their syndicated coverage package The NHL Network with a 12 game, Thursday night package, beginning in January. At the time, the USA Network was called UA-Columbia. As the immediate forerunner for the USA Network, UA-Columbia, served as the cable syndicated arm of the Madison Square Garden Network in New York, PRISM channel in Philadelphia, and whatever pay/cable outlets were around in 1979.

The formation of the USA Network

In April 1980, the Madison Square Garden Network (not to be confused with the regional sports network of the same name) 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 Cablevision Systems 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 now owned by Cablevision).

Coverage overview

Because the USA Network was under the Cablevision umbrella, their regular season hockey coverage consisted of New York Rangers home games. Besides that, they also covered the Stanley Cup playoffs as well as the Stanley Cup Finals. This arrangment would last through the end of the 1984-85 season.

Announcers

Al Trautwig was the on-site studio host for "The NHL on USA".

Other announcers included were:
*Al Albert
*Marv Albert
*Gary Green
*Mike Eruzione
*Phil Esposito
*Gene Hart
*Dan Kelly
*Jiggs McDonald