Hockey Night in Canada (often abbreviated Hockey Night or HNIC) is the branding used for CBC Sports

CBC Sports

CBC Sports is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for English-language sports broadcasting. The CBC's sports programming primarily airs on CBC Television, with some additional broadcasts on bold, CBC.ca, and occasionally CBC Radio One...

' presentations of the National Hockey League

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

. While the name is now used for all NHL broadcasts on the CBC television network (regardless of the time of day), Hockey Night in Canada is primarily associated with CBC's Saturday night NHL broadcasts, a practice originating from Saturday NHL broadcasts that began in 1931 on the CNR Radio

CNR Radio

CNR Radio or CN Radio was the first national radio network in North America. It was developed, owned and operated by the Canadian National Railway between 1923 and 1932 to provide en route entertainment and information for its train passengers...

 network and its predecessors, and debuting on television beginning in 1952.