Initially, the Monday night package was marketed to ABC affiliates, the idea being that ABC carried Monday-night NFL football in the fall and (starting in May 1976) Monday-night Major League Baseball in the spring and summer; as such, stations would want hockey to create a year-round Monday night sports block.
During the 1975–76 season, the NHL Network showed selected games from the NHL Super Series[16][17] (the big one in that package was Red Army at Philadelphia,[18] but the package did not include Red Army at Montreal on New Year's Eve 1975, which was seen only on CBC) as well as some playoff games.
[22] Unfortunately, CBS and their sponsors had a problem with the rink board advertising that the NHL sold at Madison Square Garden, and refused to allow them to be shown on TV.
As a result, CBS viewers were unable to see the far boards above the yellow kickplate, and could only see players' skates when the play moved to that side of the ice.
Ultimately, the plan failed, as not only did they not gain new markets, but many stations that already carried the Monday game didn't pick up the Saturday one.
A few of the markets in the Eastern Time Zone that aired the Saturday afternoon games included Boston, Buffalo, New York City, Washington and Springfield, MA.
WUTV carried the Monday Night Hockey package, while WGR was the over-the-air station for the Buffalo Sabres.
In both Buffalo and New York, college basketball and World Championship Tennis they knocked the NHL off its usual Monday night carrier.
[11][27] When the NHL Network broadcast playoff games in 1976, Marv Albert split play-by-play duties with an announcer from one of the participating teams.
Starting in the 1978 playoffs, the NHL Network began simulcasting many games with Hockey Night in Canada.
This for example, happened in Game 7 of the quarterfinal series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Islanders (April 29), where Kelly teamed up with Brian McFarlane.
Meanwhile, Marv Albert also during the 1976 playoffs, teamed with Tim Ryan (who split play-by-play duties with Albert) and George Michael for Game 1 of the New York Islanders-Buffalo Sabres series (April 11) and Terry Crisp for Game 7 of the Toronto Maple Leafs-Philadelphia Flyers series (April 25).
Terry Crisp also worked alongside play-by-play men Gene Hart and Don Earle on Game 4 of the Toronto-Philadelphia mentioned above series (April 17).
This format continued in 1977 with Stan Mikita, Garry Unger, Chico Resch, Don Awrey replacing Curt Bennett, who instead worked with Marv Albert and Dan Kelly on Game 4 of the Philadelphia Flyers-Boston Bruins playoff series (May 1).