The debut of Blackhawks #1 overall draft pick Connor Bedard set multiple NHL viewership records Tuesday night.
Tuesday’s Blackhawks-Penguins NHL Opening Night game averaged a 0.8 rating and 1.43 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest audience on record for a regular season NHL game on cable, excluding the Winter Classic. The previous high was set by Maple Leafs-Penguins on ESPN in 2000, which marked Mario Lemieux’s return from retirement (1.36M).
As goes without saying, the Blackhawks’ win also ranks as the most-watched Opening Night game ever on cable — surpassing Penguins-Lightning on ESPN two years ago (991K).
Across all networks, it delivered the largest indoor NHL audience since the opening weekend of the abbreviated 2021 season and the largest opening day audience since the start of the abbreviated 2013 season.
Ratings and viewership soared 79 and 92 percent respectively over last year’s comparable Lightning-Rangers game (0.43, 744K).
Blackhawks-Penguins was the middle game of a season-opening tripleheader on ESPN. The Kraken-Golden Knights nightcap averaged 691,000 viewers, up 24% from Golden Knights-Kings a year ago (556K). Predators-Lightning started the day off with 598,000; there was no comparable window last year.
Overall, the full three-game slate averaged 909,000 viewers — up 40% from last year’s doubleheader. The two primetime games averaged 1.06 million, up 64%.
(Nielsen estimates from ESPN PR, Sports TV Ratings 10.11)
