Not surprisingly, the highest profile series of the NHL’s second round is commanding the largest audiences.
Game 3 of the Capitals/Penguins Stanley Cup playoff series scored 1.6 million viewers on NBCSN Monday night, up 25% from Rangers/Capitals last year (1.3M), up 13% from Penguins/Rangers in 2014 (1.5M), and the top game of the playoffs on cable. The previous high was 1.5 million for Game 1 of the series last Thursday.
On Saturday, Game 2 scored 2.5 million on the NBC broadcast network — the second-largest audience of the playoffs regardless of network. Blues/Blackhawks Game 6 the previous week holds the top spot (2.8M).
Viewership has declined precipitously for the other series, at least on cable. Game 1 of Blues/Stars had 923,000 viewers on NBCSN Friday night, down 18% from Lightning/Canadiens last year (1.1M).
That decline was modest compared to the plunging viewership for Predators/Sharks. Game 1 of the series had 680,000 on Friday night, down 64% from Wild/Blackhawks last year (1.9M) and down 65% from Wild/Blackhawks in 2014 (2.0M). Game 2 had 819,000 on Sunday, down 60% from Wild/Blackhawks last year (2.0M) and down 56% from Rangers/Penguins in 2014 (1.9M).
