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- NHL on Sportsnet is the blanket title for presentations of the National Hockey League broadcast held by a Canadian media corporation, Rogers Communications, showing on its television channel Sportsnet and other networks owned by or affiliated with its Rogers Media division, as well as the Sportsnet Radio chain. Sportsnet (then known as CTV Sportsnet) previously held the national cable rights for NHL regular season and playoff games from 1998 to 2002. In November 2013, Rogers reached a 12-year deal to become the exclusive national television and digital rightsholder for the NHL in Canada, beating out both CBC Sports and TSN. The first telecasts under the new contract premiered on October 8, 2014—the first night of the 2014–15 NHL season; the deal primarily emphasizes increased access to NHL content in Canada, with plans to leverage Rogers' various broadcast and cable television outlets, along with CBC Television as part of a time-brokerage agreement, to air a larger number of NHL games nationally than under previous deals with CBC and TSN. Rogers' national contract complements its existing regional coverage of the NHL, holding partial or exclusive regional rights to four of the league's Canadian franchises. Sportsnet shows two flagship national games per week, Scotiabank Wednesday Night Hockey, and Rogers Monday Night Hockey on Monday nights. On Saturday nights, the Sportsnet channels, CBC, and Citytv broadcast Hockey Night in Canada, which broadcasts all evening games involving Canadian teams. The Sportsnet channels occasionally show games that exclusively involve teams from the United States, Sportsnet and CBC share in coverage of the post-season, and Rogers' multicultural Omni Television simulcasts selected games in the Punjabi language. Rogers hired a number of prominent personalities from CBC Sports to augment its on-television staff, including commentators Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson, Garry Galley, Bob Cole and Greg Millen, Coach's Corner hosts Don Cherry and Ron MacLean, and reporters Elliotte Friedman, and Scott Oake. Dave Randorf, Paul Romanuk, and Mike Johnson also jumped to Sportsnet from TSN to join the coverage, and, from 2014 to 2016, George Stroumboulopoulos, who formerly hosted a talk show for CBC, served as the studio host for Hockey Night in Canada in a bid to attract a younger demographic of viewers. Rogers' inaugural season as sole rightsholder was met with mixed reception; while receiving praise—especially among younger viewers, for its "hipper" production and the increased number of games available on a national basis than under previous rights deals, initial criticism centred primarily upon the quality of George Stroumboulopoulos's hosting and his succession of Ron MacLean on Hockey Night (a move which was later reversed for the 2016–17 season), along with its use of elements perceived as being gimmicks. (en)
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