ESPN's NHL Music Rules So Hard Christian Petersen/Getty Images The NHL is back at ESPN beginning next season with the league and network agreeing to a 7-year deal. Which can only mean one thing: one of the best theme songs in all of sports will be back in heavy rotation. So many great @NHL memories on ESPN. This sucker wastes no time blasting your vertebrae like someone playing a particularly aggressive brand of marimbas. Not so sure there's another sports sounder that gets straighter to the point. "“When ESPN first started, a good part of the music that was on ESPN was mine, maybe even the majority,” he said. ““I had baseball, NCAA basketball, NBA basketball, hockey."