A Game 7 thriller pitting two of the NHL’s most prominent teams delivered a 12-year viewership high.
Saturday’s Maple Leafs-Bruins first round Stanley Cup playoff Game 7 averaged a 1.6 rating and 3.24 million viewers on ABC, marking the largest first round NHL audience since in 12 years — since Bruins-Capitals Game 6 on NBC in 2012 (3.52M). The Bruins’ win topped the previous high of 3.10 million set by their upset loss to the Panthers in a Game 7 on TNT last year (3.10M).
Only two first round games on record — Bruins-Capitals in ’12 and a regional window on ABC in 1993 (3.32M) — have averaged more viewers.
While Canadian teams are typically a drag on the ratings, Toronto’s storied history, high profile and lengthy run of playoff failures make them the NHL version of the Dallas Cowboys.
Game 7 was Saturday’s top primetime show on broadcast television in viewership and the adults 18-49 demographic, more-than-doubling the competing Major League Baseball window on FOX (1.53M). It trailed the competing Timberwolves-Nuggets NBA second round game, which aired on cable network TNT (4.9M).
As for the other Game 7, Golden Knights-Stars averaged a 1.0 and 1.99 million across TNT (0.8, 1.68M) and truTV (0.17, 310K) — down from last year’s Kraken-Avalanche Game 7 (1.1, 2.02M), which had a direct lead-in from the aforementioned Panthers-Bruins game.
The complete first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs averaged 934,000 viewers, trailing only 2012 (936K) as the most-watched first round on record.
In other weekend NHL action, ESPN drew a similar 0.9 and 1.99 million for Hurricanes-Rangers Game 1 in the second round — the largest audience for a second round opener on cable in at least 20 years and the largest across all networks in three. NBC topped the two million mark for Islanders-Bruins Game 1 in 2021.
