Sunday Night Hockey was a weekly presentation of National Hockey League games that air on NBCSN on Sundays during the regular season. Sunday Night Hockey usually debuts during the second Sunday of January.
The package made its debut on January 10, 2016, featuring a game between the New Jersey Devils and the Minnesota Wild. Following the game, NBCSN premiered a weekly recap show, NHL Sunday Shootout, which is a summary of the previous week's NHL action.
During the 2016–17 NHL season, NBC Sports began to promote both the Game of the Week and Sunday Night Hockey broadcasts under the Star Sunday brand, focusing primarily on the NHL's star players. Star Sunday features extensive pre-game, in-game, and post-game coverage of each featured player. The first game under the new package featured the Wild visiting the Anaheim Ducks on January 5, 2017. The game's featured players were Minnesota's Ryan Suter and Anaheim's Ryan Kesler.
Results 2015–16 season
Date Time Away team Score Home team ScoreJanuary 10, 20168 P.M.New Jersey2Minnesota1January 17, 20167:30 P.M.Philadelphia2 (SO)Detroit1February 14, 20167:30 P.M.Philadelphia1New York Rangers3February 21, 20167 P.M.Detroit0NY Rangers1 (OT)February 28, 20166:30 P.M.Tampa Bay4Boston19 P.M.Los Angeles2Anaheim4March 6, 20168 P.M.St. Louis4Minnesota2March 13, 20167:30 P.M.Toronto1Detroit0March 20, 20166 P.M.Washington2Pittsburgh68:30 P.M.Minnesota3 (SO)Chicago2March 27, 20167:30 P.M.Pittsburgh3 (OT)New York Rangers2April 3, 20168 P.M.St. Louis5Colorado1April 10, 20167 P.M.Philadelphia5New York Islanders2
2016–17 season
During the season, the Star Sunday brand made its debut. Date Time Away team Score Home team ScoreJanuary 8, 2017*NBC selected Ryan Suter and Ryan Kesler as featured Star Sunday players for the game.8 P.M.Minnesota2Anaheim1January 15, 2017*NBC selected Zach Parise and Patrick Kane as featured Star Sunday players for the game.7 P.M.Minnesota3Chicago2February 12, 2017*NBC selected Shea Weber and Brad Marchand as featured Star Sunday players for the game.7:30 P.M.Montréal0Boston4February 19, 20176 P.M.Chicago5Buffalo18:30 P.M.Boston2San Jose1February 26, 2017*NBC selected Vladimir Tarasenko and Jonathan Toews as featured Star Sunday players for the game.7:30 P.M.St. Louis2Chicago4March 5, 2017*NBC selected Alex Pietrangelo and Nathan MacKinnon as featured Star Sunday players for the game.8 P.M.St. Louis3Colorado0March 12, 2017*NBC selected J. T. Miller and Tomáš Tatar as featured Star Sunday players for the game.7 P.M.New York Rangers4Detroit1March 26, 2017*NBC selected Wayne Simmonds and Sidney Crosby as featured Star Sunday players for the game.7 P.M.Philadelphia6Pittsburgh2April 2, 2017*NBC selected Claude Giroux and Rick Nash as featured Star Sunday players for the game.7:30 P.M.Philadelphia3New York Rangers4
(*) Designated as a Star Sunday game.
2017–18 season NBC resumed its special Star Sunday presentations on March 11, 2018, both as part of the Game of the Week and Sunday Night Hockey package. Date Time Away team Score Home team ScoreJanuary 7, 20187:30 P.M.Boston4Pittsburgh5 (OT)January 14, 20187:30 P.M.New York Rangers2Pittsburgh5March 4, 20187 P.M.Detroit1Minnesota4March 11, 2018*NBC selected Tyler Seguin and Evgeni Malkin as featured Star Sunday players for the game.7:30 P.M.Dallas1Pittsburgh3March 18, 2018*NBC selected Alex Pietrangelo and Jonathan Toews as featured Star Sunday players for the game.7:30 P.M.St. Louis5Chicago4 (OT)March 25, 2018*NBC selected Eric Staal and Brad Marchand as featured Star Sunday players for the game.7:30 P.M.Boston2 (OT)Minnesota1April 1, 2018*NBC selected Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby as featured Star Sunday players for the game.7:30 P.M.Washington3Pittsburgh1
(*) Designated as a Star Sunday game.
2018–19 season Star Sunday returned on February 3, 2019, both as part of the Game of the Week and Sunday Night Hockey package. This will mark the first season of Star Sunday to have its presenting sponsor; AT&T was the first presenting sponsor and they branded themselves as Star Sunday presented by AT&T. Additionally, Brian Boucher and Pierre McGuire rotated on the lead broadcast team with Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk, with the other being reassigned to work with NBC's other broadcast teams.
Date Time Away team Score Home team ScoreJanuary 6, 20198 P.M.Chicago5Pittsburgh3February 10, 2019*NBC selected Auston Matthews and Henrik Lundqvist as featured Star Sunday players for the game.7 P.M.Toronto1New York Rangers4February 17, 20196 P.M.Philadelphia3Detroit1February 24, 2019*NBC selected Ryan O'Reilly and Zach Parise as featured Star Sunday players for the game.7 P.M.St. Louis1Minnesota2 (OT)March 3, 2019*NBC selected Filip Forsberg and Ryan Suter as featured Star Sunday players for the game.7:30 P.M.Nashville3Minnesota2 (SO)March 10, 2019*NBC selected Brad Marchand and Evgeni Malkin as featured Star Sunday players for the Bruins–Penguins game, as well as Drew Doughty and Ryan Getzlaf for the Kings–Ducks game.7:30 P.M.Boston2Pittsburgh410 P.M.Los Angeles3Anaheim2March 17, 2019*NBC selected Claude Giroux and Sidney Crosby as featured Star Sunday players for the Flyers–Penguins game, as well as Connor McDavid and Marc-André Fleury for the Oilers–Golden Knights game.7:30 P.M.Philadelphia2Pittsburgh1 (OT)10 P.M.Edmonton3Vegas6March 24, 2019*NBC selected Nathan MacKinnon and Patrick Kane as featured Star Sunday players for the game.8 P.M.Colorado1Chicago2 (OT)March 31, 2019*NBC selected David Pastrnak and Dylan Larkin as featured Star Sunday players for the game.7:30 P.M.Boston3Detroit6
(*) Designated as a Star Sunday game.
2019–20 season As part of the two-season arrangement, Brian Boucher replaced Pierre McGuire on the lead broadcast team with Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk. McGuire will be reassigned to work with NBC's other broadcast teams. Date Time Away team Score Home team ScoreJanuary 5, 20207:30 P.M.Detroit2Chicago410 P.M.Nashville4Anaheim5 (SO)February 9, 20207:30 P.M.Colorado3Minnesota2February 16, 20206 P.M.St. Louis1Nashville2February 23, 20207:30 P.M.St. Louis4Minnesota110 P.M.Vegas6Anaheim5 (OT)March 1, 20208 P.M.Washington4Minnesota310:30 P.M.Los Angeles4Vegas1March 8, 20207:30 P.M.St. Louis2Chicago010 P.M.Colorado4San Jose3
2020–21 season Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the start of the 2020–21 NHL season has been delayed to January 13, 2021, and all teams will play a 56-game division-only schedule with the NHL temporairally realigning divisions to minimize travel as much as possible, with all seven Canadian teams playing one division due to COVID-19 cross-border travel restrictions imposed by the Government of Canada.
15 different teams from all four divisions will be featured on 10 Sunday Night Hockey matchups. All four teams who competed in the conference finals of the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs will be featured on Sunday Night Hockey. Six out of the 10 Sunday Night Hockey matchups will feature a traditional Western Conference team. Unlike in previous years, a few Sunday Night Hockey games will not be exclusive and are blacked out in favor of local broadcasters.
Date Time Away team Score Home team ScoreFebruary 14, 20217 P.M.Colorado0Vegas1February 21, 20217 P.M.Originally scheduled at 3 P.M. on NBC, but was rescheduled due to weather.Philadelphia3Boston7February 28, 20217 P.M.Detroit2Chicago7March 7, 20212:30 P.M.Blacked out in the Chicago market. Game was televised locally on NBC Sports Chicago.Tampa Bay6Chicago35 P.M.Blacked out in the Boston market. Game was televised locally on New England Sports Network.New Jersey1Boston07:30 P.M.Blacked out in the New York metropolitan area and Pittsburgh markets. Game was televised locally on MSG Network and AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh.New York Rangers1Pittsburgh5March 14, 20215:30 P.M.Originally scheduled at 7 P.M., but was rescheduled due to weather.Los Angeles1Colorado4March 21, 20216 P.M.Blacked out in the Los Angeles market. Game was televised locally on Fox Sports West.Vegas1Los Angeles3March 28, 20213 P.M.Blacked out in the Detroit market. Game was televised locally on Fox Sports Detroit.Columbus1Detroit45:30 P.M.Blacked out in the Boston market. Game was televised locally on New England Sports Network.New Jersey1Boston08 P.M.Blacked out in the Chicago market. Game was televised locally on NBC Sports Chicago.Nashville3Chicago2April 4, 20217 P.M.Blacked out in the North and South Carolina markets. Game was televised locally on Bally Sports South.Dallas0Carolina1April 18, 20216:30 P.M.Originally scheduled as the first game of a doubleheader; however the Los Angeles–Colorado game was postponed due to COVID-19 protocols.New York Islanders1Philadelphia0 (OT)April 25, 20217 P.M.Columbus3Tampa Bay4 (OT)
Ratings During its inaugural season, Sunday Night Hockey averaged 491,000 viewers over 13 games, up 28% from Sunday Night games during the 2014–15 NHL season over the same number of games (384,000). NBCSN's ten-most watched games of the 2015–16 season were either Wednesday Night Rivalry or Sunday Night Hockey games.
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