List of Hockey Night in Canada commentating crews (1980s)

Stanley Cup playoffs

Year	Round	Series	Games covered	Play-by-play	Colour commentator(s)
1980	First round	Philadelphia-Edmonton	Games 1, 3	Bob Cole	Gary Dornhoefer
		Buffalo-Vancouver	Games 1–4	Don Wittman (Games 1–2) Jim Robson (Games 3–4)	Gerry Pinder (Games 3–4) Howie Meeker (Games 3–4)
		Montreal-Hartford	Games 1, 3	Danny Gallivan	Pit Martin (Game 1), Dick Irvin, Jr. and Don Marshall (Game 3)
		Boston-Pittsburgh	Game 5	Bob Cole	Gary Dornhoefer
		Minnesota-Toronto	Games 1, 3	Bill Hewitt	Brian McFarlane
	Quarterfinals	Montreal-Minnesota	Games 1–7	Danny Gallivan	Don Cherry (Games 1–2, 7) and Dick Irvin, Jr.
	Semifinals	Philadelphia-Minnesota	Games 4–5	Jim Robson (first half of Game 4, Game 5 entirely) and Dan Kelly (second half of Game 4)	Gerry Pinder and Howie Meeker
		Buffalo-New York Islanders	Games 1–3, 6	Bob Cole (first half of Game 6, rest of the series entirely) and Dan Kelly (second half of Game 6)	Gary Dornhoefer
1981	First round	New York Islanders-Toronto	Games 1–3	Bill Hewitt	Howie Meeker (Games 1–2), Brian McFarlane (Games 1–2) and Gerry Pinder (Games 3)
		Montreal-Edmonton	Games 1–3	Danny Gallivan	Mickey Redmond and Dick Irvin, Jr.
		Buffalo-Vancouver	Games 1–3	Don Wittman (Games 1–2) Jim Robson (Games 3)	Gerry Pinder (Games 1–2) Howie Meeker
		Philadelphia-Quebec	Games 4–5	Bob Cole	Mickey Redmond and Dick Irvin, Jr.
		Calgary-Chicago	Games 1–3	Bob Cole	Gary Dornhoefer
	Quarterfinals	New York Islanders-Edmonton	Games 1–6	Danny Gallivan (Games 1–2, 5) Don Wittman (Games 3–4, 6)	Mickey Redmond (Games 1–2, 5) and Dick Irvin, Jr. (Games 1–2, 5) Gerry Pinder (Games 3–4) and Gary Dornhoefer (Games 6)
		Philadelphia-Calgary	Games 1–7	Bob Cole	Gary Dornhoefer (Games 1–5, 7) and Gerry Pinder (Game 6)
	Semifinals	Calgary-Minnesota	Games 1–6	Jim Robson (Games 1–2, 5) Don Wittman (Games 3–4, 6)	Mickey Redmond and Dick Irvin, Jr. (Games 1–2, 5) Gary Dornhoefer (Games 3–4, 6)
1982	Divisional semifinals	Montreal-Quebec	Games 1–5	Danny Gallivan	Gary Dornhoefer (Games 1–4), Bobby Hull (Games 1, 5) and Dick Irvin, Jr. (Games 2–5)
		Winnipeg-St. Louis	Games 1–4	Don Wittman	Mickey Redmond
		Edmonton-Los Angeles	Games 1–5	Bob Cole	Don Cherry and Gary Dornhoefer (Game 5)
		Vancouver-Calgary	Games 1–3	Jim Robson (Games 1–2) and Dave Hodge (Game 3)	Howie Meeker
	Divisional finals	Boston-Quebec	Games 1–7	Bob Cole (Games 1-2,5,7) and Danny Gallivan (Games 2-3,6)	Mickey Redmond and Dick Irvin, Jr. (Game 7)
		Vancouver-Los Angeles	Games 1–5	Jim Robson (Games 1–2, 5) and Don Wittman (Games 3–4)	Gary Dornhoefer and Howie Meeker (Games 1–2, 5)
	Conference finals	New York Islanders-Quebec	Games 1–4	Bob Cole (Games 1-2) and Danny Gallivan (Games 3-4)	Mickey Redmond and Don Cherry
		Chicago-Vancouver	Games 1–5	Don Wittman (Games 1–2, 5) and Jim Robson (Games 3–4)	Gary Dornhoefer, Howie Meeker (Games 3–4) and Bobby Hull (Game 5)
1983	Divisional semifinals	Montreal-Buffalo	Games 1–3	Danny Gallivan	Dick Irvin, Jr. and Don Cherry (Game 3)
		Minnesota-Toronto	Games 1–4	Bob Cole	Mickey Redmond
		Edmonton-Winnipeg	Games 1–3	John Wells (Games 1–2) and Don Wittman (Game 3)	Gary Dornhoefer
		Calgary-Vancouver	Games 1–4	Don Wittman (Games 1–2) and Jim Robson (Games 3–4)	Howie Meeker
	Divisional finals	New York Islanders-New York Rangers	Game 6	Bob Cole	Mickey Redmond and Don Cherry
		Edmonton-Calgary	Games 1–5	Jim Robson	Mickey Redmond (Games 1–2, 5) Gary Dornhoefer (Games 3–4)
	Conference finals	New York Islanders-Boston	Games 2–3, 5–6	Danny Gallivan	Mickey Redmond and Dick Irvin, Jr.
		Edmonton-Chicago	Games 1–4	Jim Robson (Games 1–2) and Bob Cole (Games 3–4)	Gary Dornhoefer
1984	Divisional semifinals	Boston-Montreal	Games 1–3	Danny Gallivan	Dick Irvin, Jr. and Mickey Redmond (Game 3)
		New York Islanders-New York Rangers	Games 4–5	Bob Cole	Don Cherry and Dick Irvin, Jr.
		Edmonton-Winnipeg	Games 1–3	Bob Cole	Gary Dornhoefer
		Calgary-Vancouver	Games 1–4	Don Wittman (Games 1–2) and Jim Robson (Games 3–4)	Howie Meeker
	Division finals	Quebec-Montreal	Games 1–6	Danny Gallivan (Games 1–5) and Bob Cole (Game 6)	Dick Irvin, Jr. and Mickey Redmond
		Edmonton-Calgary	Games 1–7	Don Wittman (Games 1–2, 5, 7) and Jim Robson (Games 3–4, 6)	Gary Dornhoefer
	Conference finals	Montreal-New York Islanders	Games 1–6	Danny Gallivan	Dick Irvin, Jr. and Mickey Redmond
		Edmonton-Minnesota	Games 1–4	Don Wittman (Games 1–2) and Bob Cole (Games 3–4)	Gary Dornhoefer
1985	Divisional semifinals	Montreal-Boston	Games 1–5	Bob Cole	Mickey Redmond and Dick Irvin, Jr.
		Edmonton-Los Angeles	Games 1–3	Jim Robson	Gary Dornhoefer
		Winnipeg-Calgary	Games 1–4	Don Wittman	John Davidson
	Divisional finals	Montreal-Quebec	Games 1–2, 5, 7	Bob Cole	Mickey Redmond (Games 1–2), Dick Irvin, Jr. and Gary Dornhoefer (Games 5, 7)
		Chicago-Minnesota	Game 6	Don Wittman	John Davidson
		Edmonton-Winnipeg	Games 1–4	Don Wittman	John Davidson (Games 1–2) and Gary Dornhoefer (Games 3–4)
	Conference finals	Edmonton-Chicago	Games 1–6	Jim Robson (Games 1–2) and Don Wittman (Games 3–6)	Gary Dornhoefer (Game 1) and John Davidson (Games 2–6)
1986	Divisional semifinals	Montreal-Boston	Games 1–3	Dick Irvin, Jr.	Harry Neale
		Chicago-Toronto	Games 1–3	Bob Cole	Gary Dornhoefer
		Minnesota-St. Louis	Games 4–5	Bob Cole	Gary Dornhoefer
		Edmonton-Vancouver	Games 1–3	Don Wittman	John Davidson
	Divisional finals	Montreal-Hartford	Games 1–7	Dick Irvin, Jr.	Harry Neale
		St. Louis-Toronto	Games 1–7	Bob Cole	John Davidson
		Edmonton-Calgary	Games 1–7	Don Wittman	Gary Dornhoefer
	Conference finals	Montreal-New York Rangers	Games 1–5	Bob Cole	Dick Irvin, Jr.
		Calgary-St. Louis	Games 1–7	Don Wittman	Gary Dornhoefer
1987	Divisional semifinals	Washington-New York Islanders	Game 7	Bob Cole	Harry Neale
		Montreal-Boston	Games 1–4	Dick Irvin, Jr.	Gary Dornhoefer
		St. Louis-Toronto	Games 1–6	Bob Cole	Harry Neale
		Edmonton-Los Angeles	Games 1–5	Jim Robson (Games 1–2, 4–5) and Steve Armitage (Game 3)	Howie Meeker
		Calgary-Winnipeg	Games 1–6	Don Wittman	Scotty Bowman
	Divisional finals	Montreal-Quebec	Games 1–2, 5, 7	Dick Irvin, Jr.	Gary Dornhoefer
		Detroit-Toronto	Games 1–7	Bob Cole	Harry Neale
		Edmonton-Winnipeg	Games 1–4	Don Wittman	Scotty Bowman
	Conference finals	Philadelphia-Montreal	Games 1–6	Bob Cole	Harry Neale and Dick Irvin, Jr.
1988	Divisional semifinals	Montreal-Hartford	Games 1–6	Dick Irvin, Jr.	Scotty Bowman
		Detroit-Toronto	Games 1–6	Bob Cole	Harry Neale
		Calgary-Los Angeles	Games 1–5	Don Wittman	John Garrett
		Edmonton-Winnipeg	Games 1–5	Chris Cuthbert	Glenn Resch
	Divisional finals	Washington-New Jersey	Games 1 (joined-in-progress), 6–7	Chris Cuthbert (Game 1) Bob Cole (Games 6–7)	Harry Neale (Games 6–7)
		Montreal-Boston	Games 1–5	Bob Cole	Harry Neale and Dick Irvin, Jr.
		Edmonton-Calgary	Games 1–4	Don Wittman	Scotty Bowman
	Conference finals	Boston-New Jersey	Games 1–7	Bob Cole	Harry Neale
1989	Divisional semifinals	Montreal-Hartford	Games 1–4	Dick Irvin, Jr.	Scotty Bowman
		Calgary-Vancouver	Games 1–7	Bob Cole	Harry Neale (Games 1–2) and John Garrett (Games 3–7)
		Los Angeles-Edmonton	Games 1–7	Don Wittman	John Garrett (Games 1–2) and Harry Neale (Games 3–7)
	Divisional finals	Montreal-Boston	Games 1–5	Bob Cole	Harry Neale and Dick Irvin, Jr.
		Pittsburgh-Philadelphia	Games 6–7	Bob Cole	Harry Neale and Dick Irvin, Jr.
		St. Louis-Chicago	Game 5	Don Wittman	Scotty Bowman
		Calgary-Los Angeles	Games 1–4	Don Wittman	Scotty Bowman
	Conference finals	Montreal-Philadelphia	Games 1–6	Bob Cole	Dick Irvin, Jr. and Scotty Bowman
		Calgary-Chicago	Games 1–5	Don Wittman	Harry Neale

Notes

• On April 9, 1980, CBC carried the ACTRA awards ceremony. This caused the Hartford-Montreal and Edmonton-Philadelphia playoff games not to be televised. Meanwhile, the Toronto-Minnesota game was shifted to CHCH in Hamilton while the Vancouver-Buffalo game was televised by CBC regionally in British Columbia as usual. The ACTRA awards show was tape-delayed into prime time on the west coast.

• Aside from the 1982 Stanley Cup Finals, CBC's only other nationally televised postseason games (all of the other games were seen regionally) from that year were the April 23 Boston-Quebec game (Game 6), the April 25 Quebec-Boston game (Game 7), and the May 6 Vancouver-Chicago game (Game 5).

• CTV had the national rights for the 1986 Calgary-St. Louis playoff series, except in the Calgary market, for which CBC and Molson retained exclusive rights to. CTV was unable to televise Games 2 and 3 of this series due to prior commitments. Meanwhile, CBC was allowed to televise Games 2 and 3 to all of Alberta and British Columbia, but not nationally.

• On April 18, 1988 (during Game 1 of the Montreal-Boston playoff series) at approximately 8:08 p.m. local time, there was a power outage in the province of Quebec. While darkness enveloped Montreal and the Forum itself, the Forum's reserve generators kicked into gear. The generators were only able to illuminate the rink surface with enough power to keep the game moving. Ultimately, CBC was left with no choice but to abandon coverage following the first period.
  • On April 18, 1988, Chris Cuthbert was assigned by CBC to report and provide updates on Game 1 of Washington-New Jersey playoff series. However, when the Quebec blackout affected CBC's coverage of the Game 1 of the Boston-Montreal playoff series, the network decided to throw to Cuthbert and the solitary camera beside him in his coverage position to work the remainder of this game. The whole process was totally done off the cuff. In other words, there were no graphics, no replay capabilities and no analyst.

• CanWest-Global aired the 1988 Edmonton-Calgary playoff series nationally, except for the Edmonton and Calgary markets, where CBC retained exclusive rights.

See also

• List of Hockey Night in Canada commentators

External links

• Stanley Cup Playoffs on CBC - Google Search
  • Hockey Night in Canada