{"id":748933,"date":"2026-06-20T13:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T13:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/748933\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T13:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T13:49:13","slug":"now-off-the-air-hockey-night-in-canadas-demise-is-a-sign-of-changing-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/748933\/","title":{"rendered":"Now off the air, Hockey Night in Canada\u2019s demise is a sign of changing times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Ron MacLean, left, and Don Cherry on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada. The show was on Canadian airwaves for 95 years, and on television for the last 74 seasons.The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

As far as\u202fnational\u202ftouchstones go, it stands\u202fsomewhere\u202fabove poutine and \u201cEh?\u201d\u202f<\/p>\n

For those\u202fof us\u202fwho grew up on\u202fVoltaire\u2019s \u201cfew acres of snow\u201d\u202fover most of the past century, Hockey Night in Canada\u202f\u2013\u202fits\u202ffamiliar\u202ftheme song and blue blazers, Murray Westgate\u202fwishing \u201cHappy motoring\u201d and\u202fon-air controversies\u202fover flipped pencils\u202fand\u202fpoppies\u202f\u2013\u202fwas our Saturday night neighbourhood.\u202f<\/p>\n

With apologies to Stompin\u2019 Tom Connors, as of\u202fnow it\u2019s, \u201cHello out there, we\u2019re OFF the air,\u201d so far as HNIC is concerned, the\u202fmost iconic\u202fof\u202fsports programs gone from the CBC\u202fafter\u202f95 years\u202fon\u202fradio\u202fand 74 years\u202fon\u202ftelevision.\u202f<\/p>\n

CBC to stop airing NHL games after 74 years, marking end of free hockey on Canadian TV<\/a><\/p>\n

To love hockey and grow up in the\u202fbroad\u202fmiddle of the last century was to arrange your week around\u202fthe Saturday night hockey\u202fbroadcast\u202ffrom Toronto or Montreal \u2013 best of all\u202fwhen\u202fthe\u202fLeafs\u202fmet the\u202fHabs.\u202f<\/p>\n

As part of a family without television in the early 1960s, our\u202fweekend ritual was to hike over to\u202fthe home of\u202four father\u2019s cousin, who owned one of those magical, mysterious boxes.\u202fWe would sit in a group around the\u202frabbit ears and cheer for our heroes while the men\u202fpopped beers, rolled\u202fcigarettes\u202fand\u202fsniggered\u202fat the \u201cgreat lungs\u201d on the popular singer\u202fwho followed\u202fthe\u202fgame.\u202fWe kids thought they liked her music.\u202f<\/p>\n

It was, with apologies,\u202fa very different\u202ftime.<\/p>\n

Different, as well, for the game itself. Players took summer jobs\u202fthen.\u202fThis week, a player\u202fnamed Darren Raddysh \u2013\u202fsurely\u202fyou\u2019ve\u202fheard of him \u2013 is said to have signed\u202fwith\u202fthe Toronto Maple\u202fLeafs\u202ffor eight years\u202fat\u202fmore than\u202fUS$8-million\u202fa season.\u202f<\/p>\n

It makes one think of Gordie Howe, one of the\u202fgods of Hockey Night in Canada,\u202fwho came from\u202frather poor\u202fstock\u202fin Floral, Sask., now part of Saskatoon. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Detroit Red Wings teammates surround Gordie Howe on the occasion of his 544th career goal, which tied the NHL record then held by Maurice Richard, in 1963.Alvin Quinn\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

During the Great Depression,\u202fHowe\u2019s mother, Katherine, gave a few coins\u202fshe could ill-afford\u202fto\u202fan even-harder-up\u202fneighbour\u202fin exchange for a gunny sack that\u202fcontained, among other things, an old pair of skates.\u202fKatherine handed one each to\u202fGordie and\u202fhis\u202fsister Edna.\u202f<\/p>\n

The young Howes\u202fstuffed their single skate with heavy woollen socks, tied the skate up and pulled a winter boot onto the other foot.\u202fThey headed off for the nearby\u202ffrozen slough, where\u202feach\u202fhopped about on one foot and\u202fskated on the other. <\/p>\n

Gordie loved the feel of that moment.\u202fHe wondered how fast he might go if he had two skates instead of one. Edna said\u202fshe\u2019d\u202fsell hers to him. He had but a dime, which\u202fEdna thought a fair trade \u2026 and a Hall of Fame career was\u202fsoon on its way.\u202f<\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u202f10\u202fcents for a pair of passable hockey skates.\u202f<\/p>\n

At\u202fSportChek\u202fthis week, a pair of CCM\u202fTacks\u202f\u2013 once the\u202fprime choice for young players \u2013 goes for\u202f$599.99;\u202fa pair of\u202fJetSpeed\u202fFT8 Pros will cost an ambitious parent\u202f$1,399.99, plus tax.\u202f<\/p>\n

CBC\u2019s\u202fHockey Night in Canada, as Canadians know and remember it,\u202fis\u202falso a victim of the\u202ffinancial explosion of sport. <\/p>\n

Andrew Coyne: The cozy world of Hockey Night in Canada and the CBC hasn\u2019t existed for some time<\/a><\/p>\n

Sportsnet\u2019s\u202fnew 12-year,\u202f$11.2-billion deal with the\u202fNational Hockey League\u202fwill see it broadcast the Saturday games exclusively beginning this fall.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u202fpossible the name\u202f\u201cHockey\u202fNight in Canada\u201d\u202fmay\u202fsurvive in some other form<\/a> \u2013 professional women\u2019s hockey,\u202ffor example\u202f\u2013 but\u202fHockey Night in\u202fCanada as Canadians have known it, a part of our heritage, is gone forever.\u202f<\/p>\n

CBC, of course, is the national broadcaster.\u202fIt\u2019s\u202ffree for anyone with the equipment or the\u202fcapability to receive the broadcast.\u202fIt\u2019s not known how large a chunk of the Canadian hockey audience is CBC only.<\/p>\n

Sportsnet, of course,\u202fis not free.\u202fIt\u2019s\u202fa business. Big business.\u202f<\/p>\n

This\u202finevitable development\u202fis troubling for many who\u202fhave\u202ftaken the CBC broadcast for granted their entire lives.\u202f<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel bad for anyone who doesn\u2019t have a cable package that includes Sportsnet and will either have to pay more or stop watching,\u201d\u202fwrites well-known hockey historian Eric Zweig.\u202f<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Nick Suzuki’s Montreal Canadiens appeared for the last time on Hockey Night in Canada on May 29, when the eventual champion Carolina Hurricanes eliminated them from the Stanley Cup playoffs.Bruce Bennett\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

No matter what, this marks the end of one great Canadian tradition. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s over,\u201d\u202fDon Cherry told Postmedia this week.\u202f\u201cWhat are you going do?\u201d\u202f<\/p>\n

What you can do is appreciate what was for\u202fnearly a\u202fcentury.\u202fCherry\u2019s \u201cCoach\u2019s Corner\u201d may have ended on a sour\u202fnote some\u202fyears back \u2013 the \u201cyou people\u201d shot at\u202fthose\u202ffailing to wear\u202fpoppies \u2013 but\u202fat one point the controversial commentator was\u202fpopularly\u202fhailed as \u201cthe prime minister of Saturday Night.\u201d\u202f<\/p>\n

There are memories of\u202fgreat games and great players, of course, but also the memories of\u202fthe\u202fmany\u202fgreat play-by-play announcers\u202f\u2013\u202fFoster and Bill Hewitt,\u202fRen\u00e9\u202fLecavalier,\u202fDanny Gallivan (\u201cSavardian\u202fSpin-o-rama\u201d), Dick Irvin\u202fJr.,\u202fBob Cole,\u202fDan Kelly, Jim Robson,\u202fJim Hughson,\u202fChris Cuthbert, etc.\u202f\u2013 and the hosts, from Ward Cornell\u202fand Dave Hodge\u202fthrough\u202fRon\u202fMacLean. <\/p>\n

It is the end of an era,\u202fone more piece of pure Canadiana sent off to the\u202fdusty bins of history.\u202f<\/p>\n

Kind of sucks, eh?\u202f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Ron MacLean, left, and Don Cherry on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,21363,85,22600],"class_list":["post-748933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-noastack","tag-sports","tag-topstory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}