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

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

equivalent of the

English Canadian English Canadians (), or Anglo-Canadians (), refers to either Canadians of English ethnic origin and heritage or to English-speaking or Anglophone Canadians of any ethnic origin; it is used primarily in contrast with French Canadians. Cana ...

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

's NHL broadcasts ''

Hockey Night in Canada ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') is a long-running program of broadcast ice hockey play-by-play coverage in Canada. With roots in pioneering hockey coverage on private radio stations as early as 1923, ...

'' produced by Radio-Canada, which targets on

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL) broadcasts, usually

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens (), officially ' ( Canadian Hockey Club) and colloquially known as the Habs, are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic D ...

'. Similar to its English language counterpart, the show used " The Hockey Theme" as its theme song. The show ran from 1952 to 2004.

Games covered

''La Soirée du hockey'' most frequently featured

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. The Maple Leafs compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the A ...

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

Quebec Nordiques The Quebec Nordiques (, pronounced in Quebec French, in Canadian English; translated "Northmen" or "Northerners") were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City. The Nordiques played in the World Hockey Association (1972–1979) an ...

and

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. The Senators compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Di ...

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, ) is the annual championship series of the National Hockey League (NHL). The winner is awarded the Stanley Cup, North America's oldest professional spo ...

Collaboration 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 Sheila 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. 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 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, simultaneously) ...

on both SRC and RDS.

''Le Hockey du samedi soir''

For reasons that are unclear, the SRC production agreement was terminated after the 2004 playoffs. Instead, RDS began to produce its own Saturday night broadcasts, titled '' Le Hockey du samedi soir''. These were simulcast on SRC—but only outside

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, where RDS has limited distribution—for two further seasons through 2006. At that point, French-language rights to NHL hockey became fully exclusive to RDS.

Present day

The national French-language NHL package, including all Saturday broadcasts, 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 F ...

(under sub-licence from

Rogers Communications Rogers Communications Inc. is a Canadian communications and media company operating primarily in the fields of wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet, with significant additional telecommunications and mass media ass ...

) in 2014. While Rogers has licensed the rights to the "Hockey Night in Canada" name from the CBC for its Saturday broadcasts (some of have continued 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

* Roland Beaudry (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 (1945), play-by-play announcer * René 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 n ...

. He was as revered in French Canada as Foster Hewitt was in English Canada. * Lionel Duval , play-by-play announcer * Richard Garneau (1957–1985), play-by-play announcer * Claude Quenneville (1980), play-by-play announcer *René Pothier (1991), play-by-play announcer

TV play-by-play announcers

* René Lecavalier (1952–1985) *(1973–1977) *(1977–1982) *(1982–1988) * Richard Garneau (1985–1990) * Jean Pagé (1988–1989) *(1989–1997) * Claude Quenneville (1990–2002)

TV colour commentators

*Jean-Maurice Bailly (1952–1970) * Gilles Tremblay (1970–1998) *Robert Pépin (1972) *(1972–1982) *Paul Larivée (1978) *Bernard Brisset (1980) *Gérard Potvin (1981) * Mario Tremblay (1986–1988) * Gordon Sawyer (1994) * Yvon Pednault (1995) * Michel Bergeron (1998–2002) * Ron Fournier * Pierre Bouchard