Nationally televised NHL games in the United States resumed for the 1965–66 NHL season, but this time on NBC; the regional issues were settled by the league's pending addition of six new teams, which expanded the league's reach nationwide and into lucrative markets in Pennsylvania and California (in addition to two other midwestern markets; NBC, however, would lose the broadcast rights before the six new teams would make it to play).

NBC did not broadcast the sixth game of the 1975 Finals, in which the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Buffalo Sabres to clinch their second consecutive championship, played in prime time on a Tuesday night.

While Wayne Gretzky, playing for the Los Angeles Kings, had to help, there was according to Albert, also the impression that the owners encouraged fighting because they felt that the fans wanted it.

This allowed NBC to air the game live across the United States – marking (surprisingly) the first time that a national audience would see Wayne Gretzky[120][121] and Mario Lemieux[122][123] play.

Finally, NBC was also allowed to conduct interviews with players during stoppages in play, to the chagrin of the Hockey Night in Canada crew, whose attempts to do likewise were repeatedly denied by the league in previous years.

As previously mentioned, ABC became the league's network broadcaster instead, and then Fox won a bidding war[141] with CBS for television rights lasting from the 1994–95 through 1998–99 seasons.

[172] NBC instead, decided to replace five of its scheduled NHL broadcasts with alternate sports programming (such as reruns of NASCAR Year in Review and The Purina Incredible Dog Challenge).

At the time, Versus was only available to 50% of cable-equipped homes in the Los Angeles area, which hurt the buzz around the Ducks' playoff run in a traditionally crowded sports and entertainment market.

This symbolic, if short-lived, victory against one of the region's flagship teams allowed the Ducks to close the series on a relatively high note, with the Los Angeles Times' Larry Stewart calling their final ratings performance "pretty good".

Coverage of the overtime period was shifted to Versus,[185][186] the league's cable partner, although viewers in Buffalo and Rochester were able to continue watching the game on local NBC affiliates in the respective markets, WGRZ and WHEC-TV.

NBC began its 2007–08 schedule on January 1, 2008, with the NHL Winter Classic, an outdoor hockey game between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

While never expected to beat or directly compete with football ratings, the timing was designed to take advantage of the large audience flipping between channels to watch the different bowl games.

Like its predecessors, NBC frequently chooses games with a focus on about six to eight teams: the New York Rangers, the Detroit Red Wings, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Philadelphia Flyers, the Boston Bruins, and the Chicago Blackhawks; and most recently the Los Angeles Kings, the Vegas Golden Knights, and the Washington Capitals.

The relation has very little correlation with team success; for instance, the Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup in 2007, and the Buffalo Sabres made it to the conference finals in both 2006 and 2007.

In a press release announcing this schedule, NBC stated all U.S. teams would make at least one appearance on NBC or NBCSN during the regular season,[203] but hockey writer Greg Wyshynski noted that:[204] For the 2018–19 season, NBCSN announced that it would re-brand its Wednesday Night Rivalry broadcasts as Wednesday Night Hockey, with a larger focus on showcasing star players rather than league rivalries.

In addition, goalies like Vegas' Marc-Andre Fleury may have worn cameras inside their masks, much like Fox asked catchers to do for its Major League Baseball game broadcasts.

On February 20, 2011, NBC introduced Hockey Day in America[208] – patterned after the CBC's Hockey Day in Canada, it featured eight of the most popular American teams in regional games: the Washington Capitals at the Buffalo Sabres, the Philadelphia Flyers at the New York Rangers, and the Detroit Red Wings at the Minnesota Wild, followed by the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Chicago Blackhawks for the national nightcap.

Beginning in the 2014–15 season, TSN Hockey personalities Bob McKenzie, Darren Dreger and Chris Cuthbert joined the NHL on NBC team.

[217] At the start of the 2018–19 season, NBC rotated Pierre McGuire and Brian Boucher on the lead broadcast team of Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk.

McGuire, however, was still assigned to work with the lead team on select Wednesday Night Hockey, Game of the Week broadcasts, and the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals.

[219] However, NBCSN missed out on covering Ovechkin's 700th goal (which took place on Saturday afternoon, February 22, against the New Jersey Devils), due to a prior commitment with the 2020 Guinness Six Nations Rugby Championship.

As he had been doing throughout the 2020 playoffs, the 74 year old Emrick called the Cup Finals off of monitors from his home studio in Metro Detroit, citing his advanced age as a potential risk for severe illness from COVID-19.

[236] On January 18, NBCSN aired a day-night quadruple-header on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, featuring Columbus at Detroit, Boston at New York Islanders, Buffalo at Philadelphia and Arizona at Vegas.

[250] The next day, Turner Sports announced they agreed to a seven-year deal with the NHL to broadcast up to 72 games nationally on TNT and TBS[251] (while also giving HBO Max the live streaming and simulcast rights to these games) beginning with the 2021–22 season, which will include three Stanley Cup Finals, the other half of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Winter Classic, and Heritage Classic.

[252] Analysts believed once ESPN obtained not only more Stanley Cup Finals (four out of three) than NBC desired but overall hockey content, it wasn't worth spending more money on a smaller package in contrast to what they were last paying the NHL.

Hall of Famer Doc Emrick, the best analysts in the business, Winter Classics,[260] every playoff game televised, the introduction of the "Inside the Glass" position thanks to our great leader, Sam Flood,[261] and Pierre.

So long from Tampa!After the end of the subsequent postgame coverage on NBCSN, the network aired a 13-minute video montage, narrated by long-time lead play-by-play voice Mike Emrick (who had taken the role as a contributor in the final NHL on NBC season), discussing various innovations that NBC had brought to their NHL coverage over the past 15 seasons, highlights, and human interest stories that had occurred along the way as well.

Following the conclusion of the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals, Kenny Albert and Eddie Olczyk moved over to Turner Sports to serve as their lead broadcast team.

"Inside the Glass" reporter Pierre McGuire meanwhile, was hired by the Ottawa Senators to serve as the team's senior vice-president of player development on July 12, 2021, but was fired after one season.

[280][281][282] Boucher and Moore both left ESPN after the 2022-23 season, with the former joining TNT to replace Keith Jones, who became President of hockey operations for the Philadelphia Flyers.