Hockey Night in Canada

There are many reasons why, at 37 years old, I am still single. Perhaps it is because I am too picky. Perhaps because I am not willing to put up with the probing and BS of dating.

Or perhaps, it's because I'd much rather spend a Saturday night watching Hockey Night In Canada than going out trolling for women who aren't watching Hockey Night In Canada themselves. This is a classic catch-22: I can't meet new women because I'm watching great play-by-play from Bob Cole and Harry Neal, as well as expert commentary on Satellite Hotstove, and of course, the tandem of show host Ron MacLean and studio commentator Don Cherry, who's first period intermission segment "Coaches Corner" is the best 5 minutes of the week; and if I were to go out and seek out women when I would much rather be home watching Hockey Night In Canada, the women out there obviously don't like hockey, or else they'd be at home watching Hockey Night In Canada, and who would want to be involved with a woman that doesn't like hockey? So, unless the people at the CBC website can come up with a dating service designed for men and women in North America who's first requirement is to be Hockey Night In Canada viewers, I'm afraid I will continue to be single...

In all seriousness, not having hockey was awful last year. Hey NHL and NHLPA, don't do it ever again. God bless hockey.

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.

This is a tradition in Canada.

It is much better than anything that ESPN or Fox has. We got Ron McLean and Don Cherry to ramble on at the intermission. This show's theme song is pretty much the other national anthem in Canada and it has been a tradition for over fifty years.

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.