Doc about a 40-year-old Canadian hockey grudge and a breakdown of the NHL's 2012 Winter Classic were the channel's centerpieces on its first day of rebranding.
The NBC Sports Network debuted Monday, officially replacing Versus (once named the OLN channel) in a rebranding reboot.
The channel will broadcast sports and sports-related content 24/7, with an emphasis on National Hockey League and Major League Soccer.
NBC touted the rechristened channel's hockey coverage during its Sunday Night Football broadcast of the Giants/Cowboys game on New Year's Day.
NBC Sports Network, or NBCSN for short, kicked off Monday afternoon with post-game analysis of the 2012 NHL Winter Classic followed by the documentary Cold War on Ice: Summit Series '72, about the grudge matches between Canadian and Russian hockey teams 40 years ago.
Earlier this year, the NHL signed a new 10-year exclusive rights deal with parent company Comcast/NBCUniversal that puts 100 NHL games annually on NBC and NBC Sports Network.
Programming for the channel's immediate future includes the new NBC Sports Talk, a Detroit Red Wings vs. Dallas Stars game, Dakar Rally Highlights (Argentinean rider Jorge Martinez Boero fell, suffered a heart attack, and died on the first day of the South American race), and NFL Turning Point.
