''La Soirée du hockey'' (literally translated to ''The Night of Hockey'') was a Canadian

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

television show. It was the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

Radio-Canada The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

equivalent of the

English Canadian English Canadians (french: Canadiens anglais or ), or Anglo-Canadians (french: Anglo-Canadiens), refers to either Canadians of English ethnic origin and heritage or to English-speaking or Anglophone Canadians of any ethnic origin; it is use ...

CBC show ''

Hockey Night in Canada CBC Television has aired National Hockey League (NHL) broadcasts under the ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') brand that is primarily associated with its Saturday night NHL broadcasts throughout its hi ...

''. The show used "

The Hockey Theme "The Hockey Theme" is a Canadian piece of instrumental theme music composed in 1968 by Dolores Claman and orchestrated by Jerry Toth. It was widely recognized as Canada's unofficial second national anthem. The theme was associated with CBC Te ...

" as its theme song, like its English language counterpart. The show ran from 1952 to 2004.

Games covered

''La Soirée du hockey'' most frequently featured

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

games on Saturday evenings, usually in parallel with English-language broadcasts on CBC. In later years, CBC would drop some of its split-national telecasts in the 7 p.m. ET window, resulting in a single national telecast at that time (most of the time featuring the

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...

), while Radio-Canada continued to feature the Canadiens. The broadcast featured

Quebec Nordiques The Quebec Nordiques (french: Nordiques de Québec, pronounced in Quebec French, in Canadian English; translated "Quebec City Northmen" or "Northerners") were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City. The Nordiques played in the W ...

and

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (french: Sénateurs d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a membe ...

games occasionally during the regular season on rare occasions where the Canadiens were idle on Saturday night. During the playoffs, ''SDH'' featured all games involving the Montreal Canadiens. After they were eliminated from further contention (or if they did not make the playoffs that season), the program usually featured series of interest to French Canadians, all the way to the

Stanley Cup Finals The Stanley Cup Finals in ice hockey (also known as the Stanley Cup Final among various media, french: Finale de la Coupe Stanley) is the National Hockey League's (NHL) championship series to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, North America ...

2002–03 deal with Réseau des sports

Beginning with the 2002–03 season, RDS secured exclusive French language rights to the NHL. The deal, reached with the Canadiens and not directly with the league, was meant to ensure a consistent home for all Canadiens games; as a general-interest network, Radio-Canada cannot give up so much airtime to Canadiens games. The announcement drew the ire of, among others, then-

Heritage Minister A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organizatio ...

Sheila Copps Sheila Maureen Copps (born November 27, 1952) is a former Canadian politician who also served as the sixth deputy prime minister of Canada from November 4, 1993, to April 30, 1996, and June 19, 1996, to June 11, 1997. Her father, Victor Copps, ...

, who suggested that the network would somehow be violating its conditions of licence by not airing ''La Soirée du hockey''. In fact, there is no specific mention in the CBC's licence from the CRTC (or any other legal document governing the CBC) that the CBC's networks carry coverage of NHL games, nor that there be parity between the two networks' carriage of such games.

''Le Hockey du samedi soir''

Radio-Canada soon reached an agreement to produce the Saturday night games, to remain branded ''La Soirée du hockey'', to be

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

on both SRC and RDS. However, for reasons that are unclear, that agreement was terminated after the 2004 playoffs. The RDS-produced replacement, '' Le Hockey du samedi soir'', was simulcast on SRC outside Québec, where RDS has limited distribution, through 2006. French-language rights to NHL hockey became exclusive to RDS in 2006; the national package, including all Saturday broadcasts, then moved to

TVA Sports TVA Sports is a Canadian French-language sports specialty channel owned by the Groupe TVA, a publicly traded subsidiary of Quebecor Media. The channel is a general-interest sports network, and the first major competitor to RDS, the only other Fre ...

(under sub-licence from

Rogers Communications Rogers Communications Inc. is a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian communications and media company operating primarily in the fields of mobile phone operator, wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet access, Intern ...

) in 2014. While Rogers has licensed the rights to the "Hockey Night in Canada" name from the CBC for its Saturday broadcasts (some of which will continue to air on CBC), there has been no indication that the rights to the "La Soirée du hockey" branding are included in that deal. Instead, TVA Sports has branded its Saturday telecasts as ''La super soirée LNH'' (''NHL Super Evening'') and, unlike its English language counterpart, has not offered broadcasts to Radio-Canada.

List of commentators

Radio personnel

Rolland Beaudry Rolland is a surname and masculine given name which may refer to: Surname * Alain Rolland (born 1966), former Irish rugby union footballer and current international referee * Andy Rolland (born 1943), Scottish former footballer * Antonin Rolland ( ...

(1937), play-by-play announcer * Charles Mayer (1940s–1950s), established and hosted the French language equivalent of the Hot Stove League on radio broadcasts, and made the choice of the game's three stars *

Michel Normandin Michel may refer to: * Michel (name), a given name or surname of French origin (and list of people with the name) * Míchel (nickname), a nickname (a list of people with the nickname, mainly Spanish footballers) * Míchel (footballer, born 1963), ...

(1945), play-by-play announcer * Rene Lecavalier - He was also the first commentator for ''La Soirée du hockey''. He broadcast games for the

on radio and television for over 30 years and retired in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

. He was as revered in French Canada as

Foster Hewitt Foster William Hewitt, (November 21, 1902 – April 21, 1985) was a Canadian radio broadcaster most famous for his play-by-play calls for ''Hockey Night in Canada''. He was the son of W. A. Hewitt, and the father of Bill Hewitt. Biography ...

was in English Canada. *

Lionel Duval __TOC__ Lionel may refer to: Name *Lionel (given name) Places *Lionel, Lewis, a village in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland *Lionel Town, Jamaica, a settlement Brands and enterprises *Lionel, LLC, an American designer and importer of toy trains and mo ...

, play-by-play announcer *

Richard Garneau Richard Garneau, (July 15, 1930 – January 20, 2013) was a Canadian sports journalist and writer in Quebec. Biography Born in Quebec City, Quebec, he was best known as the host of ''La Soirée du hockey'', the very popular ice hockey televis ...

(1957–1985), play-by-play announcer *

Claude Quenneville Claude Quenneville is a Canadian sports commentator in Quebec. He served as the French-language radio voice of the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League. He began his career at the age of 14 at radio station CJMT-AM in Chicoutimi and was ...

(1980), play-by-play announcer * Rene Pothier (1991), play-by-play announcer

TV play-by-play announcers

René Lecavalier René Lecavalier, OC, CQ (July 5, 1918 – September 6, 1999) was a Canadian French-language radio show host and sportscaster on SRC in Quebec. During his career in radio Lecavalier won several Radiomonde Trophies. He was also the first co ...

(1952–1985) *

Raymond Lebrun Raymond is a male given name. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷᛁᚾᛗᚢᚾᛞ ( ...

(1973–1977) * Winston McQuade (1977–1982) * Serge Arsenault (1982–1988) *

(1985–1990) * Jean Pagé (1988–1989) * Camille Dubé (1989–1997) *

(1990–2002)

TV colour commentators

* Jean-Maurice Bailly (1952–1970) * Gilles Tremblay (1970–1998) * Robert Pepin (1972) *

Claude Mailhot Claude may refer to: __NOTOC__ People and fictional characters * Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Claude (surname), a list of people * Claude Lorrain (c. 1600–1682), French landscape painter, draughtsman and etcher ...

(1972–1982) * Paul Larivee (1978) *

Bernard Brisset Bernard (''Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It is also a surname. The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''bern'' "bear" and ''hard'' "brave ...

(1980) * Gerard Potvin (1981) *

Mario Tremblay Joseph Daniel Mario Tremblay (born September 2, 1956) is a former professional ice hockey player and former coach in the National Hockey League (NHL). As a player, he was a five-time Stanley Cup winner with the Montreal Canadiens. He was honou ...

(1986–1988) *

Yvon Pedneault Yvon Pedneault is a French Canadian sports journalist and television and radio broadcaster from Chicoutimi, Quebec who is known for his coverage of ice hockey. Pedneault is the only person to have worked full-time for all three French-language Montr ...

(1994) * Michel Bergeron (1998–2002) *

Ron Fournier Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald. Ron or RON may also refer to: Arts and media * Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character * Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character *Ron Douglas, the protagonist in ''Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe A ...

Pierre Bouchard Pierre Émile Bouchard (born February 20, 1948) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Montreal Canadiens and Washington Capitals. He was selected by the Canadiens in the first r ...