Are you a hockey enthusiast and avid follower of the National Hockey League? Isn’t it wonderful to watch your alpha pharma steroids favorite sports on a Saturday night? Moreover, if you can do that with your favorite group at your home, won’t it be like a cherry on the top? Yes, surely it will be! 

Well, you can actually cherish many such moments with Hockey Night in Canada. It is a Canadian sports show where you can watch your favorite NHL players playing Hockey. It premieres on Saturday nights. Let’s find out more about the show!

Hockey Night In Canada: Past, Present and Future

This show first aired in 1929 via radio broadcasts in Arena Gardens, Toronto. At first, CFCA used to announce with N. Albert. Later, Foster Hewitt took the charge and hosted for a very long time. The program used to run nationally. Later, it made a shift from the radio to the television. Now, this was a great moment for all fans.  

It was produced by the General Motor’s Hockey Broadcast.  During its initial days, Hockey Night in Canada even became popular in the northern region of the states. The show used to broadcast every Saturday till 1965. In 1976, it was shited to Sundays.

Television Appearance 

In September 1952, CBC first broadcasted the Hockey Night in Canada on television. From then, it is broadcasted on Saturdays. The makers were a bit worried about the success of the show. 

By this time Hockey had already started on TV in London and New York. Moreover, the Canadian people had a strong love for Hockey and the HNIC radio version was very much loved by the audience It was way too successful. 

There were a lot of complications back then in broadcasting this on television. The first challenge was that the technology was not so strong. The cameras were not so advanced that they could capture every shot clearly that too on snow. But then Renaud’s three-camera experiment was accepted. It has then been made standard since the first television broadcast. 

Other than this, the NHL jury feared that if it would be available on TV, then it would surely affect the sale of the tickets. In spite of all these challenges, it premiered on TV and is running well to date. 

Ratings received 

There’s no doubt that HNIC was more successful than ever expected. The Canadians have great love and affection towards hockey and so this show resonated with a lot of Canadians.

The show is considered the highest-rated show in Canada. It received a lot of support and love from the audience. It aired for decades with the highest ratings in the country. 

The ratings were really high till the Canadian teams were in the game. But when in 2015 in the Stanley Cup, all the Canadian teams were ruled out, the ratings started to go down. 

The Hockey Night in Canada has received a good rating of 9.4 by IMDB.

The Theme Song 

During the early days, the HNIC began with the song Happy Motoring by Esso. This continued till 1968. But in 1968, the makers thought of a new theme song. So the task was handed over to Dolores Claman. She was a wonderful composer as well as a jingle writer. So she wrote the song and it was called ” The Hockey Theme “. This was so loved by the Canadians that it is said to be the second national anthem of Canada. The song was even inducted in 2010 in the Canadian Hall of Fame. 

Innovations

The makers left no stone unturned to popularize the show. The first trick was in 1955, which allowed the audience to instantly view the replays. It was an important feature back then.

The game used to feature in black and white. In 1965, for the first time, a game was presented in color. This also attracted the audience. By the year 1967, all the games were presented in color. 

The language benefit

When the show was broadcasted for the first time, it was only in English. Slowly and gradually it started airing in French as well.

But in 2008, for the first time, the show was also aired in the Punjabi language wherein Harnarayan Singh did the hosting. There are a lot of Punjabis in Canada, so this provision was made permanent. Every week, the show aired in three languages i.e., English, French and Punjabi.

But in 2021 a fantastic thing came up. Other languages were added considering the fact that Canada is a multicultural country. People across the globe live in Canada and so now the show is broadcasted in 7 other languages. You can enjoy the commentary in Hindi, Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese, Vietnamese, German, and Tagalog. 

Though as of now, this has not been made a permanent thing but still don’t you find it fantastic to enjoy the HNIC in your native language? 

Additional Interesting Segments to it 

There were many interesting segments in it. The first being Hot Stove. In this, there used to be commentators from all across the nation debating over the game. 

Then there was a hockey quiz with Peter Puck. This had animated cartoons and they presented information about the game in a unique yet interesting way. 

Then, there was the very popular Coach’s Corner. People eagerly waited for this part. Therefore, its popularity shifted it from being featured in the second to the first interval. Anchors like Don Cherry, Ron MacLean and Dave Hodge hosted it. 

Awards and Nominations 

The HNIC has been nominated six times for the Gemini Award. Out of which, they held the award four times. They were in the name of Ron MacLean. 1992, 1994, 2004 and 2006 were the respective years in which they received the award. 

Final Words

So this was it for this article. We hope that you might have found this article helpful and interesting. We have collected most of the information about the HNIC from the beginning till now in one place. So you do not have to scroll through various pages for the information. The Stanley Cup of 2021 will feature on Hockey Night in Canada. So you can enjoy it at home during this pandemic season.