receive from ESPN, the new rights fees were expected to be worth more than $625 million. Ultimately, NBC's final NHL broadcast was Game 5 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals at Amalie Arena on July 7. There, the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Montreal Canadiens by a score of 1–0 to win their second consecutive Stanley Cup. After the end of the subsequent postgame coverage on NBCSN, the network aired a 13-minute video montage, narrated by long-time lead play-by-play voice Mike Emrick (who had taken the role as a contributor in the final NHL on NBC'' season), discussing various innovations that NBC had brought to their NHL coverage over the past 15 seasons, highlights, and human interest stories that had occurred along the way as well. At the end of the video, Emrick signed off for NBC's coverage with the following: Eddie Olczyk missed Game 2 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals due to a personal matter, so "Inside-the-Glass" reporter Brian Boucher moved to the booth with Albert, and Pierre McGuire took over for Boucher between the benches. McGuire also called Game 3 of this series with Albert and Olczyk because Boucher missed it due to the same matter. In all, NBC averaged 2.52 million viewers for the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals. The fifth and ultimately decisive game meanwhile, garnered approximately 3.6 million viewers for NBC. Aftermath Following the conclusion of the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals, Kenny Albert and Eddie Olczyk moved over to Turner Sports to serve as their lead broadcast team. Also moving over from NBC to Turner Sports were studio host Liam McHugh and studio analysts Anson Carter and Keith Jones. "Inside the Glass" reporter Pierre McGuire meanwhile, was hired by the Ottawa Senators to serve as the team's senior vice-president of player development on July 12, 2021. Secondary play–by–play announcer John Forslund moved on to become the television play-by-play broadcaster on Root Sports Northwest for the Seattle Kraken ahead of their inaugural NHL season in fall 2021. Forslund later joined TNT in a fill-in role. "Inside the Glass" reporter and studio analyst Brian Boucher joined ESPN/ABC for its NHL coverage as a lead color commentator alongside Ray Ferraro. On-air staff Commentators Ratings NHL coverage on NBC owned-and-operated television stations NBC Sports Regional Networks References External links Hey, Here’s Five Unsolicited Suggestions For NBC’s Hockey Coverage Luring Stanley Cup Viewers With a Torrent of Games NBC original