As in the NBA, an unscheduled break in the Stanley Cup Playoffs had no apparent impact on the ratings.
Sunday’s Flyers-Islanders second round Stanley Cup playoff Game 4 averaged a 0.9 rating and 1.56 million viewers on NBC Sunday night, trailing only Bruins-Lightning in the same window a week earlier (1.1, 1.79M) as the most-watched NHL game since the season restarted August 1.
Versus NBC’s lone game on the comparable Sunday of last year’s playoffs — Hurricanes-Islanders Game 2 in the afternoon — ratings were flat and viewership increased 13% (from 1.38M).
NBC also averaged a 0.9 and 1.30 million for Lightning-Bruins Game 4 on Saturday afternoon, marking the second-largest afternoon audience since the restart. A Flyers-Bruins round robin had a 0.8 and 1.42 million on August 2. Ratings were flat and viewership fell 7% from NBC’s comparable Saturday afternoon window last year (Stars-Blues Game 2: 1.39M).
Over on NBCSN, Flyers-Islanders Game 3 averaged a 0.51 and 848,000 on Saturday night — the network’s third-largest audience of the restart, behind Games 2 and 3 of Lightning-Bruins (1.20M and 982K viewers respectively).
NBCSN also averaged a 0.40 and 715,000 for Avalanche-Stars Game 4 on Sunday, down a sharp 44% in ratings and 43% in viewership from Avalanche-Sharks in a similar window last year (0.72, 1.26M). Unlike this year’s game, which overlapped with NBC’s Flyers-Islanders, last year’s game did not compete with any other NHL windows.
Golden Knights-Canucks chipped in a 0.34 and 542,000 on Saturday and a mere 0.26 and 390,000 on Sunday. The latter ranks as the least-watched second round NHL game since 2015, falling below the previous mark set a week earlier by the same matchup in the same late night Sunday window (398K).
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 9.1]
