[18][19][20][21][22][23][24] The SportsChannel America deal was in a sense, a power play created by Charles Dolan and Bill Wirtz.

Dolan was still several years away from getting control of Madison Square Garden, and Wirtz owned 25% of SportsChannel Chicago.

Unfortunately, SportsChannel America was only available in a few[27] major markets (notably absent though were Detroit, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis[28])[29][30][31] and reached only a 1/3 of the households that ESPN[32] did at the time.

[39] When the SportsChannel deal ended in 1992, the league returned to ESPN[40] for another contract that would pay US$80 million over five years.

[41] SportsChannel America took advantage of using their regional sports networks' feed of a game, graphics and all, instead of producing a show from the ground up, most of the time.

[42] Very few cable systems in non-NHL territories picked it up as a stand-alone service, with many only taking it on a pay-per-view basis during the Stanley Cup Finals.

Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court justice Shirley Fingerwood would deny SportsChannel America's request for an injunction against the NHL.

In the aftermath of losing the NHL, SportsChannel America was left with little more than outdoors shows and Canadian Football League games.

[48] In September 1989, SportsChannel America covered the Washington Capitals' training camp in Sweden and pre-season tour[49] of the Soviet Union.

The Capitals were joined by the Stanley Cup champion Calgary Flames, who held training camp in Prague, Czechoslovakia and then ventured to the Soviet Union.

[51][52] SportsChannel America's national coverage of the 1990 Stanley Cup Finals was blacked out in the Boston area due to the local rights to Bruins games in that TV market.

In 1991, SportsChannel's Stanley Cup Finals coverage was again blacked out in the Minnesota and Pittsburgh areas due to the local rights to North Stars and Penguins games in those respective TV markets.

For the Stanley Cup Finals, SportsChannel America used its own facilities regardless of the involvement of regional teams.

For the Stanley Cup Finals, Jiggs McDonald[1] called the play-by-play, and Bill Clement was the color commentator.

For the Stanley Cup Finals, SportsChannel America used its own facilities regardless of the involvement of regional teams.