Canadians grapple with loss of Hockey Night in Canada's 'grand tradition'

"It's non simply a demo, it's a component of our civilisation. It's woven into the fabric of Canada."

The national broadcaster said it was unable to come to an agreement on a new sublicensing deal with rights-holder Rogers Sportsnet on the NHL games, including its staple Saturday night double-header broadcasts.

Canadians lamented the loss on social media, with X users calling it "devastating," the "end of an amazing era" and a "sad, sad day for hockey in Canada."

Baird says HNIC's cultural impact was "massive" in its nearly century-long run.

"Every great Canadian hockey player was either listening to Hockey Night in Canada on the radio, picturing themselves on the ice, or they were watching Hockey Night in Canada," he said.

From 1968 to 2008, its classic theme song was often referred to as Canada's "second national anthem."

"It's kind of like the Mr. Dressup theme song, where you hear it and you're immediately transported back to being a kid," Baird said.

HNIC's double-headers launched in 1995, with an East Coast game airing around 7 p.m. ET followed by a West Coast game starting around 10 p.m.

Baird sees the change as a continuation of Canadian institutions "starting to fade away," from the closure of Eaton's department stores in 1999 to the more recent shuttering of the Hudson's Bay Company.

Growing up near Edmonton, his favourite HNIC memory was watching the Oilers hoist their fifth Stanley Cup in 1990.

With the rising costs of subscription services like Sportsnet, as well as rising costs for tickets to watch NHL games in person, he says a lot of kids growing up now will miss out on the chance to be inspired by hockey stars the way he was.

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"I think it's very detrimental to Canadian culture and even the future of hockey in Canada," Baird said. "It was an incredibly important program, and for it to disappear is a huge loss."

Toronto author and musician Dave Bidini also remembers watching the games with his family as a kid.

As an adult, he says HNIC was instrumental in promoting the work of himself and other Canadians. He got shout-outs for his hockey books, his band The Rheostatics and his Summit '72 documentary series that aired in 2022.

But as significant as this "grand tradition" was, Bidini questions how much of it is left.

"I just don't know how much we're losing because I don't know how much we still had in terms of that tradition, to be completely honest," he said.

He says the way hockey fans watch NHL games in 2026 is splintered, in part because Smart TVs don't come loaded with antennas that carry basic channels, as was the default in the past.

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Former HNIC broadcaster Dave Hodge told The Canadian Press that the broadcast had become "almost indistinguishable" from broadcasts on other channels and called the change "inevitable."

Looking back, Bidini says there was "something beautiful" about the way HNIC was once so ubiquitous and how the whole country "kind of exhaled" and came to a stop for three hours on a Saturday night.

"I think it's important to find moments like that in our f---king crazy, hyper-speed worlds and lives, where we're all kind of communing and watching the same thing.... We just get a chance to put our foot on the brake pedal for a minute, and that can be valuable," he said.

"And that's probably never going to happen again."

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