I imagine Thanksgiving was very festive for NHL executives and owners.

On Tuesday, the league shocked our neighbors up North by signing a 12-year, $5.2 billion deal with Rogers Sportsnet for the NHL’s TV rights in Canada. Here’s the link to Steve Lepore’s interview with NHL COO John Collins in Awful Announcing about the new package.

Also, Fang’s Bites did a podcast analyzing  the deal with Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! Sports, Howard Bloom of Sports Business News and Lepore.

Earlier this week, NBC SN reported favorable rating news for the young season:

NBCSN has averaged 595,000 viewers over its first nine exclusive NHL telecasts (mostly Wednesday Night Rivalry), up 31% compared to the exclusive game average to this point in the 2011-12 season (455,000). No November games last year because of the strike.

Also, our Nov. 13 PHI-PIT Wednesday Night Rivalry game on NBCSN drew 759,000 average viewers, making it the most-watched November NHL game on cable since 2001 (Flyers-Rangers, 11/14/01), and the most-watched November NHL game on NBCSN (formerly VERSUS).

Obviously, the NHL has good reason to feel bullish and aggressive. That includes making itself part of the Thanksgiving weekend.

Friday, NBC will air the Rangers at Boston at 1 p.m. ET. This is a big deal for the NHL. The network even enlisted movie director Bobby Farrelly to make promos for the game (above).

The NHL already has carved a slice of New Year’s Day with the outdoor game. Why not try to grab a few eyeballs for hockey on the day after Thanksgiving, typically a big day for college football? It seems like a good move for the NHL and NBC to attempt to reach beyond its core audience.

Yes, it’s been a very good Thanksgiving for the NHL.