NHL: Power Ranking 10 Past and Present National TV Broadcast Theme Songs

Sometimes, a critical aspect of NHL television broadcasting seems to change like Arron Asham’s uniform.

Between Canada and the United States, these changes have yielded multiple handfuls of broadcast partners and theme music within this young century alone. Some of those themes have carried over from the 1990s or earlier, others have supplanted and been supplanted and another made a switch that only Antarctic voyagers could have missed.

All of those channels have assumed the same obligation with the music they put forth, namely to put viewers in a pure hockey mood.

Accordingly, the 10 most prominent national NHL broadcast themes from within the last decade, including one that still lives on select regional networks even though the national incarnation is long defunct, are ranked as follows.

10. NHL on Versus

I didn’t think it was possible, but for a least a little while, Versus somehow made its second broadcast theme even lighter and less enthralling than its original.

9. NHL on TSN

Essentially a secondary song for TSN’s NHL coverage, this one found a space on the list, although if this were a conference playoff bracket, it would not quite qualify for the tournament.

8. NHL on OLN/Versus

This one, on the whole, was not bad, but was maybe hurt by the fact that things were awkward those first couple of years coming out of the lost 2004-05 season.

7. CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada (2008-present)

The sound does, admittedly, evoke thoughts of Eastern Canada, in particular, and it is a bit faster than the three aforementioned tunes.

With that said, there are those occasions where change isn’t so great. Stay tuned for elaboration.

6. NHL on ABC

The last NHL telecast tune to accompany any of Gary Thorne’s pregame or postgame speeches.

5. NHL on NBC/NBC Sports Network

We have reached the point where this irreproachably energetic theme will be forever synonymous with every Winter Classic so far, Sidney Crosby’s first Stanley Cup and the end of the championship droughts for Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles.

In other words, it is synonymous with the most assertive stages of the sport’s resurrection from the 2004-05 lockout.

4. Hockey Night In Canada Pregame

Extra credit for including lyrics, let alone lyrics that sum up the ideal atmosphere in and around the arena in an appropriately cut-and-dry manner.

3. FOX NHL Saturday/Sunday

It’s always tougher to get amped up for an afternoon game than for one that commences at 7 p.m. or later. This introductory music was always a big help, even more so than any of its primary American network successors.

Even without the slapping-puck sound effect, this would still be an easy choice for third place.

Today, a slight variation can still be heard for the local broadcasts of teams whose market is served by an FSN chapter.

2. CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada (1968-2008)

This was what spiced up Saturday nights for fans within Canadian boundaries or within Canada’s vicinity, eventually claiming the affectionate title of “Canada’s Second National Anthem.”

It’s impossible to speak for them, but easy enough to imagine that Canadians were distressed on a par with the departure of the Quebec Nordiques and (temporarily) the Winnipeg Jets when CBC let the rights to this song get away to CTV. Or, for that matter, when the Edmonton Oilers let Wayne Gretzky get away to Los Angeles.

1. ESPN’s National Hockey Night

Go ahead, Canadians. Bring on the blasphemy charges.

The fact is that, as classic and beautiful as the original HNIC score was, the game of hockey packs a captivating combination of beauty and intensity. So, too, did ESPN’s broadcast theme when it partnered with the NHL.

So far, no other national telecast music has done nearly the same job of blending in with the opening graphics and the transition to the live shot of a raucous, darkened arena moments before faceoff.

Until Versus became the NBC Sports Network and adopted the exact same NHL theme as its parent network, this author was holding out (wishful) hope that ESPN would kindly loan this dormant theme to the league’s new cable abode.

Oh, well. National Hockey Night nostalgia shall live forever.