Hockey Night in Canada

This is by far the best hockey programme ever. Not only does it have complete coverage of hte leagues that night, but soemtimes, they manage to put two games on at once, as they swap between the two (i've seen it happen, Canucks vs. someone i dont remember, and Flames vs. Someone i dont remember). They also have intelligent sports commentators and most of them have played the sport so they know what htey're tlaking about. In addition, they're impartial so its enjoyable for fans across canada, with the exception of Don Cherry who's completely bias to the Leafs, but he's still funny...at times.

I've never even seen a complete show and I can tell you that this is the best hockey show ever. I wish I had a satellite just so I could watch this show on Saturday Nights. Every Canadian hockey fan watches "Hockey Night in Canada" and every American Hockey fan only wishes "NHL Tonight" could compare. There is no comparison to what our neighbors to the north have.

Every Saturday night during hockey season, The Canadian broadcasting corporation (CBC for short) shows 1 or 2 hockey games involving Canadian teams. sometimes the Canadian teams play the American teams, but never in the regular season (only during the playoffs) will 2 American teams play each other on CBC.

Don cherry is a classic color commentator, his big mouth keeping him a contract with CBC. Ron McLean is also the perfect play-by-play commentator, with great enthusiasm.

The Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Ottawa senators, Montreal Canadians, and Toronto maple leafs are the teams that are televised today. in the past, there was also Winnipeg, Quebec, and a few others.

Hockey night in Canada prepares to enter it's 54th season, and i expect great stuff from it.

I think just about every household and every family in Canada must have this show on their television sets every Saturday night, it seems that it must be about the most popular Canadian TV show in the history of the CBC network.

I had no idea how old it was either, apparently it started way back in 1952? Wow that's a long time to be broadcasting the same show on the same network.

In a way it is sad that it is moving to another network soon I just hope that they are able to keep the show just as good as it is and don't change too much.

Not a huge fan of Don Cherry though.

I began watching this regular Saturday night broadcast in the mid-1950's when we had our first television set. This was on the CBC English network. It was a black &white screen with a grainy picture, not the sharp colour broadcasts we view nowadays. I remember Bill Hewitt, Foster's son, doing the play by play commentary in Toronto on alternate weeks while Danny Gallivan handled the broadcasts in Montreal.

My dad and I would watch the Toronto games with great enthusiasm as we cheered for the Maple Leafs. For the Montreal games, we watched the far noisier Montreal fans who made those games seem like life or death struggles. If players like Jean Beliveau, Dickie Moore or Maurice Richard scored the winning goal, the sirens and organ music would blare with boots, hats and just about anything else ending up on the ice surface.

How we looked forward to those games! In the 1960's, the broadcasts became flashier and racier. Times have changed but the excitement of this fast-paced sport has been our national obsession. From its low key production days to now, it has always been the top draw on Canadian television and a part of our shared history.