Replacement complete? After 74 years, Canada's state broadcaster replaces hockey with cricket

Every Saturday for three quarters of a century, Canadians could walk through neighborhoods and see "Hockey Night in Canada" on living room TVs.

For the NHL's 2026-2027 season, that tradition is finally over, replaced with a sport popular in South Asia.

'A strong option for us to consider in our schedule.'

On Saturday, Canada's public broadcaster — the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation — wasn't showing the rivalry game between the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs, nor did it pick up the historic Montreal Canadiens game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Instead, it showed cricket.

Although, it turns out it didn't really have to.

As first reported by Juno News, CBC said it is experimenting with a strategy of showing a wider range of sports, specifically Olympic sports, during the time slot traditionally held by men's hockey. The CBC didn't have to go with cricket for the first Saturday of the NHL season; it chose to and ran with the top cricket league in Canada called Super60.

"As a new Olympic sport, with a major event being held in Canada, the Super60 was a strong option for us to consider in our schedule as we bridge from summer to winter sports," CBC spokesman Chuck Thompson told Juno News.

"The Canada Super60 was a unique and rare opportunity for us to offer live, world-class cricket, played in Canada on the public broadcaster," Thompson added.

The cricket matches aired at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET, the two time slots typically assigned to a game airing from the East Coast and the Mountain or Pacific time zones, respectively.

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"Hockey Night in Canada" began in 1952 and soon became an institution in Canadian television, especially when it featured former NHL coach Don Cherry and his "Coach's Corner" segment starting in 1986.

Cherry was fired in 2019, however, after suggesting immigrants to Canada do not respect the country enough to wear a poppy on Remembrance Day to honor war veterans.

At the same time, CBC had already lost national broadcasting rights to the NHL in 2014, but it continued to sublicense games on Saturday nights from Rogers, one of Canada's big-two comms giants.

This allowed "Hockey Night in Canada" to remain on the air — that is until this year when a new contract could not be reached.

"Despite best efforts, CBC and (Rogers) Sportsnet could not reach an agreement that worked for both parties," Thompson said.

This comes as the CBC boasted a $1.38 billion budget in 2024-25, up from $1.29 billion in 2023-24.

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ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images

Instead, Rogers has reached a 12-year sublicensing agreement with Prime Video, which will air "Wednesday Night Hockey in Canada" and some playoff games.

CBC, on the other hand, has become the official broadcast and streaming partner of the cricket league and will air select matches on television while the rest will go to CBC Gem, the network's streaming app.

"As the public broadcaster and Canada's Olympic broadcaster, we want to provide the biggest and brightest stage possible for Canadian athletes and major events held in Canada," Thompson said.

"We will be live on CBC Sports Prime Time as much as possible," he added.

The "Hockey Night in Canada" name, which belongs to the CBC, will now be applied to the Professional Women's Hockey League when the PWHL season starts in December.

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