“That’s big because when you got the grandparents onside, you get the family onside,” he said. “They’re putting the kids in young, not waiting till they’re 13, 14.”

A Saturday Night Ritual

For the past two seasons, “Hockey Night in Canada” in Punjabi has been filmed in a Calgary studio, with Singh calling back-to-back Saturday night games and either Chauhan or Cumo providing commentary.

It is shown on specialty cable channels across the country and free to stream online. The show was suspended twice because of trouble in securing a sponsor, but it was brought back after intense lobbying by fans. Chevrolet is the current sponsor.

Singh spends each week preparing by methodically studying hockey. It is tricky to see players’ numbers from the televised feed, so he scrutinizes highlights to pick up their body language, and he reads every hockey article he can find. During the broadcast, he monitors the show’s Facebook page and Twitter stream, responding on the air to comments from viewers across the country.

Once the playoffs begin, he will cover a series each round all the way through.

As much as Singh loves the Punjabi broadcast, he acknowledged that his dream was to eventually call games in English, his native tongue.

“It’d be a beautiful thing,” he said. “And nothing would spell multiculturalism in Canada better than having a visible minority on the broadcast.”

His bosses have no plans for such a move, which is fine with Singh. As he prepared to start his fourth straight period of play-by-play, the Canucks and the Detroit Red Wings took the ice.