For the past two weeks, the 2026 Winter Olympics have dominated the mainstream and television viewership. It’s undoubtedly one of the biggest sports properties out there, and the return of NHL players to the game has been a significant storyline.
So why isn’t NBC’s hockey coverage following suit?
Before the Milan-Cortina Games began, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told Sports Business Journal, “NBC was our rightsholder last time, and we didn’t get the level of cooperation we’re getting now. They see a common objective in trying to make this tournament as big as it can be and make it interest as many people as it can.”
Looking back at the last time NHL players were in the Olympics, 2014, NBC’s coverage was pretty top-notch. Doc Emrick provided his Hall of Fame commentary. Studio coverage was on-site and inside the arena in Sochi, featuring Liam McHugh, Mike Milbury, and Jeremy Roenick. It was treated like the most popular sport of the Winter Olympics should be.
Fast-forwarding to this year’s games, coverage has failed to achieve the common objective of making the tournament feel as big as possible, as Daly implied.
To begin, Kenny Albert is the lone play-by-play caller on-site in Milan, with Brendan Burke and CJ Vosters calling additional games remotely in NBC’s Connecticut studio. Sometimes, we haven’t even been lucky enough to get a remotely called game. For Canada’s preliminary contest against France, viewers noticed Peacock using the world-feed commentary for the first period. There was no first-period intermission show, just rotating arena shots during timeouts.
Canada’s semifinal against Finland on Friday was exclusive to NBC’s streaming service, but had no studio show. To get any intermission coverage, you had to leave the game and click another tab within Peacock labeled “Milan Cortina 2026 Coverage,” a frustrating and confusing extra step.
The IOC has also had its faults, such as failing to designate the women’s hockey gold medal game as a “high demand” event. That game, featuring the U.S. vs Canada, was relegated to USA Network. Considering that the game averaged 5.3 million viewers on Thursday, the most-watched women’s hockey game on record, and peaked at 7.7 million viewers in overtime, that sure seemed like a high-demand event in retrospect.
Bringing back the NHL theme for this year’s Olympics was a nice touch, but NBC has to do more than that to deliver hockey coverage that’s acceptable for the Winter Games’ biggest draw.