I stumbled upon this clip circa 1984 in relation to the USA Network's NHL coverage:
Paul Coffey goals vs Quebec 03-14-1984 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxIpJZJfsc0)

On the old DBSForums, I was informed that the USA Network the NHL from 1979-80 (when they were still known as UA-Columbia) to 1984-85. UA-Columbia was in a sense, a cable syndicated arm of the Madison Square Garden Network in New York, PRISM channel in Philadelphia, and whatever pay/cable outlets were around in 1979.

They had a 12 game, Thursday night regular season package beginning in January. They were also the main American national TV outlet (the NHL at that point, wasn't regularly on national, over-the-air TV in the United States) for the playoffs and Stanley Cup Finals. From my understanding, due to their then ties to the MSG Network via Cablevision, USA typically showed New York Rangers home games.

Al Trautwig was the on-site studio host for USA's NHL coverage.
Other announcers involved were:
*Al Albert
*Marv Albert
*Gary Green
*Mike Eruzione
*Phil Esposito
*Gene Hart
*Dan Kelly
*Jiggs McDonald