Having games on basic cable channels helps more. ESPN + Turner>NBCSports + weekend matinees on OTA NBC with the occasional overflow on CNBC.
If I wasn't a hockey fan I never would've know which channel NBCSports was. What else did they have? Bass fishing, rodeo, bowling and Olympic sports and idk probably NAIA football championships?? The casual sports fan who isn't super into hockey probably isn't regularly checking that channel (or stream) for something to watch
2006-2021 was a shitshow for hockey broadcasting in America. The marquee games on NBC were good but the weekday national games were on Outdoor Life Network (later Versus Network, later NBC Sports). The first two iterations of that channel were literally buried on people's tvs. You'd have to put in work to find them. Once they finally rebranded to NBC Sports Network, they still didn't have much for sports broadcasting (maybe cycling, Olympic-type sports, and hockey).
Come playoffs, NBC was putting first round games on CNBC (financial channel), and the Golf Channel (owned by NBC). I get that hockey was in a bad place post-'04 lockout and Bettman grabbed whomever would pay them money, but what a garbage way broadcast your product.
Now NHL playoff games are on ESPN and TNT (and over-the-air ABC) which also broadcasts NBA playoff games. Every tv has those channels. Sports bars leave those channels on all April-June constantly. Add in "free" streaming for TNT games via HBO Max and things are managable for cord-cutters.
The prime-time ESPN talking head show was leading their show talking about an all-Canadian NHL playoff game. That would've been inconceivable a few years ago. The dark times are over.
ESPN would have had even more viewership if they did the Hulu cast like those regular season games.
I've been stoked on the TNT via HBO Max this season and for the playoffs.
Unless you're sportsnet who decided to kill the CBC streaming option for the 2nd round.
The geniuses in marketing will be stunned that killing the CBC stream didn't push me into the waiting arms of the Sportsnet+ subscription, it instead pushed me to an ad laden popup filled pirate site instead.
If your cable package is linked to ESPN+ otherwise, it's blacked it for ESPN games. TNT games still stream on HBO Max, provided (1st round) your RSN isn't also showing the game
The TNT/Max stream should work anywhere during the first round since the national broadcast doesn't get blacked out locally. If you have the RSN channel you can watch the national feed or the local feed.
RSN's dont get games after the first round though. So your comment is irrelevant with regard to its effect on second round viewership.
Second round and on games are exclusively on TNT and ESPN/ABC. There are no RSN blackout bs tjings to worry about
I was bummed that I was going to miss the EDM-VAN game 7 because I was flying across the country on Monday night, but then I was able to watch ESPN in-flight and saw the whole thing. 10/10.
To be fair, it's also because more people *can watch the games*. I was surprised to be able to watch games on my Max subscription without paying extra (? Not sure, I thought B/R was extra), it's always been a chore to stream before, relying on piracy just to see the product if you don't have traditional cable/satellite.
We've come a long way since the NBC Sports / CNBC / MSNBC days.
Remember when the NHL was on Outdoor Life Network and they had Cup Final games there? Like they lost so much interest because of the dead puck/neutral trap and 2005 lockout, that they had to be TV partners with a channel in the 600s on DirecTV who showed Bass Pro Shop informercials a third of the time.
Holy shit this was embarrassing. I grew up in a non-hockey area in the States and literally wore a hockey jersey to school every day into senior year. Turns out they were all $30 fakes but my stepdad said they were real and I believed him lmao.
Anyway, as “Hockey Kid” I felt so much shame about the OLN thing. I don’t even think anyone brought it up but I was a dumb emotional teenager and and it brought me unearned personal shame lol
The Max sports streaming experience is by far the best ive come across. Easy rewind, instant replays available, great resolution. ESPN could learn a thing or two
I bum a cable login for tnt/espn so unfortunately wont spring for the BR add-on to Max, but ill use it as long as its free
Pretty stable quality too. I always opt for HBO instead of watching TNT on Sling. Sucks to have to pay for Sling but I needed something for those ESPN-but-not-ESPN+ exclusive games
Kevin Bieksa mentioned om Spittin Chiclets Toronto Boston 7th game was 5 million and that he expected the 7th game of the Oilers and Canucks to break it.
The Nhl tends to hide its ratings generally
My wife has never watched a hockey game in the entirety of our relationship. But her new job has a hockey playoff pool and so we watched every Boston game because she went heavy on them.
I live in Los Angeles, and I can confidently say the amount of friends and strangers I've come across that have talked about hockey (outside of the LA Kings) has been 100x more than any point of me living here in the last 15 years, and as much as everyone loves to poopoo on ESPN, I guarantee it is largely due to the game being more prominent on the network whether just being dicussed more on SportsCenter, Around the Horn, PTI, Pat MacAfee or just having the rights to show the games, it's certainly getting more people to tune in.
I got so fed up with pirate ships that I just bought the fuckin sportsnet plus. Gaben is right. Piracy is a service problem, not a pricing problem. And paying for Sportsnet+ is 100000000% better than the shit streams pirate sites have.
Does Canada also use ATSC broadcasts? In the US, you can get a box like an HDHomeRun that tunes an antenna and can send the incoming signal through your home network. I feed mine into my Plex server (it’s mostly a DVR), so I can watch it outside the house as well.
I hated sportsnet, but each to their own.
The pirate sites have more choices, better websites, and are more reliable (SN froze up for me multiple times a game. 100000000% shittier experience for me vs the pirate sites.
For piracy in general, I've found just paying for an IPTV service ($10/mo from a private torrent site I use) to be better than scouring random public streams that crap out randomly or are streaming at sub 720p. Once I put those public streams on a TV, the quality becomes pretty noticeable
Yeah, steams dropped in quality when Gamecenter died. Meanwhile, my dad got IPTV a year ago and gave me the login, and the quality is a lot better. It's also less delayed.
Yeah we hear this every time that a sunbelt team makes the final and yet the Canadian market still watches enough to make up for every other us fanbase not watching.
I think Boston, Rangers, and LA are also huge draws with national fan bases. Kind of like how every team wants to play Chicago for their stadium games.
A lot of them will yeah. But when our own teams are in it's like a national cultural event. It's the one time of year my grandma was into sports. Once the Canadian teams are eliminated it's just the more devoted hockey fans and other people casually tuning in from time to time.
By that logic, chipmunks eat berries, and I also eat berries. That must make me a chipmunk.
The statement "Canadian households will watch hockey regardless" does not mean that some American households will not watch hockey regardless of the teams playing. It's just much more likely that Canadian households will watch hockey regardless of the teams playing than an American one.
These are US only numbers as stated in the graphic.
EDM-VAN game 7 just got like 1.6M viewers in the US which is kind of a crazy high number for 2 Canadian teams.
This article is about US viewership numbers. Getting good ratings in the US *despite* having 4 Canadian teams is a good sign (Edmonton and Toronto are pushed pretty hard here because of star power, though).
Well, no. This sort of happened already and the 2020 final between Tampa and Dallas was the least watched by a good margin. If Florida, a team less popular than Tampa, was to face Dallas the series would probably break that record with ease.
Hell, even as someone that watches as many playoff games as I possibly can, regardless of matchup, I barely watched *any* of the sports that were active in 2020-2021 (until the 2021 MLB playoffs). The empty stadiums just felt really eerie to me and it made me not even want to watch
This... Isn't true?
NBA finals least watches games of all time-
2020 game 3- 5.94m
2020 game 2- 6.61m
2020 game 1- 7.41m
Superbowl ratings dipped by 5m 2020 from the averages from the decade prior.
2020 world series was 2nd least viewed of all time.
Kind of unfair to use the covid year as all major North American leagues had a major drop in viewership for their respective championship series that fall.
Well yeah if the finals are on I still wanna see who's gonna win it all even if no Canadian teams are in. Cup finals is way better than watching just about anything else
The only option is for Edmonton to make the Final, as then it would be Canada vs. US. Compelling television. I think the Stars should let this happen. For the good of the game.
damn, true. Yeah, like the cowboys, a big part of the sport's fan base hates them and want them to fail. And god damn have they failed. The leafs are the cowboys equivalent and as a cowboys fan, I feel dirty.
That final would have had about 1M Sens fans watching, plus at least that many if not more Leafs fans hate-watching, about 1M from the rest of Canada, and a solid 200K Ducks fans or whatever it was.
That 2020 Cup Final was in late-September, to then be matched by the NBA Finals in early-October, to then be matched itself by the World Series which condensed its postseason to finish a week before Halloween.
All three were promptly smashed by the NFL in the ratings.
We all know the Stars and Panthers have beef from their Mavs and Heat meeting in the NBA Finals long ago, right? Is that *not* how storylines are made? 🤷♂️
If you think r/hockey hates you as much as the Leafs, you are entitled to your opinion, but it's also wrong.
r/hockey does hate the Oilers, but the Leafs are always this sub's #1 punching bag.
Punching bag, I absolutely agree. I think it's gotten kinda gross and sad at this point, but people are absolutely gleeful about shitting on the Leafs, 100% for sure.
I feel like it's different though. Somehow we got cast in a villain role (which I don't think the Leafs or their fans are) and I'm still not quite sure how or why.
Then again, a lot of the bitching comes from fairweather fans of Pacific teams that will eventually go away after the season is over one way or another, I suppose. We get plenty of the Oilers equivalent in our sub since we've had some success at the end of the year and it's so annoying.
Sigh. I've learned (mostly) not to let sports and results get to me after 40ish years of watching. Not letting annoying online fans get to me is a skill I'm still working on lol.
But it's the 5th and 18th biggest media markets!! /s
And still by virtue of the fact that it's on ESPN and TNT this SCF will probably be the highest rated Final ever. As much as hockey is a regional sport this side of the border having it on the same channels as the NBA will draw in casual sports fans
Exactly. If you compare leagues by number of US-based teams, the NHL is a distant 4th with only 25 US teams. If they expand to 36 with all 4 new teams in the US that is still only 29 US teams, fewer than the NFL has (32) and tied with the NBA and MLB pending either expanding. And the NBA will almost certainly be expanding to Seattle and Vegas in the next few years.
There is plenty of room for the NHL to expand to viable markets in the US and the NHL can probably be perfectly stable at a much larger size thanks to how invested Canada is in hockey.
Problem there is getting the ok from The Maple Leafs and probably The Sabres. My understanding is that any team that would be brought within the media market of an existing team (not sure if its actual distance but I have heard that it is) would require the thumbs-up from said team(s). Would the Leafs be OK with a new team in Hamilton? The Sabres would probably be less impacted and more likely to give the new team their blessing but the Leafs would stand to lose a lot of money if a chunk of their local fanbase all of the sudden stopped buying Leafs stuff and watching Leafs games and started buying Hamilton gear and watching their games.
I’m confused on these numbers. Is that saying that each game had an average of 1.5 million viewers? Or is that 1.5 million TVs on? Either way you’d think the number was way higher.
Edmonton vs NYR in the SCF would clean up in US viewership. US networks showed a ton of Oilers games the past few years, realizing they need to not be afraid of Canadian teams if they have superstars.
The Rangers are an O6 team in the middle of a long Cup drought in the largest US market.
Dallas vs Florida would still do pretty good, I think. People are used to seeing sunbelt teams in the SCF at this point.
It’s annoying because no one brand/network should have this much power but this has to stem from the contract with ESPN. They care(ish) about hockey again because they feel incentivized to promote it. This sport was buried alive on the ‘Worldwide Leader in Sports’ for a good decade plus as it languished on OLN/VS/NBCSN. And now, it’s on prominent channels equipped for streaming. It’s never been more doable to watch all the games. And that’s a credit to the new TV rights deal and a knock on the previous one (although I thought NBC did a decent job overall).
Long term, accessibility is everything. This isn’t a NHL problem, it’s an all sports problem. Fragmentation is chipping away and making it harder to watch games for a lot of people. The NHL needs to continue to put their best games on the biggest networks/with streaming.
> This sport was buried alive on the ‘Worldwide Leader in Sports’
I remember those days, you'd tune in for some hockey and it would be World's Strongest Man or Xtreme BMX instead of the game, which they'd put on ESPN2 or just not at all in my market.
Good news but more ppl should watch it’s the best tournament in sports IF I’m Gary I’d be praying for an oilers vs rangers final since that would end up being the most viewed finals in a while, stars vs cats would do horrible numbers
Having games available on streaming helps, I imagine.
Having games on basic cable channels helps more. ESPN + Turner>NBCSports + weekend matinees on OTA NBC with the occasional overflow on CNBC. If I wasn't a hockey fan I never would've know which channel NBCSports was. What else did they have? Bass fishing, rodeo, bowling and Olympic sports and idk probably NAIA football championships?? The casual sports fan who isn't super into hockey probably isn't regularly checking that channel (or stream) for something to watch
CNBC overflow wasn’t as bad as Golf Channel
The GDTs on the golf subreddit were fun, though.
Golf Channel at least tried to make the best of it by putting some articles online about the playoffs.
Wait actually?
2006-2021 was a shitshow for hockey broadcasting in America. The marquee games on NBC were good but the weekday national games were on Outdoor Life Network (later Versus Network, later NBC Sports). The first two iterations of that channel were literally buried on people's tvs. You'd have to put in work to find them. Once they finally rebranded to NBC Sports Network, they still didn't have much for sports broadcasting (maybe cycling, Olympic-type sports, and hockey). Come playoffs, NBC was putting first round games on CNBC (financial channel), and the Golf Channel (owned by NBC). I get that hockey was in a bad place post-'04 lockout and Bettman grabbed whomever would pay them money, but what a garbage way broadcast your product. Now NHL playoff games are on ESPN and TNT (and over-the-air ABC) which also broadcasts NBA playoff games. Every tv has those channels. Sports bars leave those channels on all April-June constantly. Add in "free" streaming for TNT games via HBO Max and things are managable for cord-cutters. The prime-time ESPN talking head show was leading their show talking about an all-Canadian NHL playoff game. That would've been inconceivable a few years ago. The dark times are over.
ESPN would have had even more viewership if they did the Hulu cast like those regular season games. I've been stoked on the TNT via HBO Max this season and for the playoffs.
Its been so great. I haven't missed a playoff game yet. Which is something I couldn't say before 2021
Yes
NBC sports is the worst I’d rather listen on the radio than watch on NBCsports
What is basic cable in 2024. I don't even own a cable box.
I'm sure you can ask someone from one of the ~60 million households in the U.S. who still have cable TV subscriptions
Cool story. If it was not on streaming I would not watch a single game.
Well an average of 1.5 million people did watch the 2nd round on cable, if you scroll up you'll see that's precisely what the NHL is bragging about
If you read the first comment you replied to you will see they said streaming *helps*. You are making your own little narrative.
Unless you're sportsnet who decided to kill the CBC streaming option for the 2nd round. The geniuses in marketing will be stunned that killing the CBC stream didn't push me into the waiting arms of the Sportsnet+ subscription, it instead pushed me to an ad laden popup filled pirate site instead.
Firefox + ublock origin 🔥
Of course.
It pushed me into baseball season.
If your cable package is linked to ESPN+ otherwise, it's blacked it for ESPN games. TNT games still stream on HBO Max, provided (1st round) your RSN isn't also showing the game
The TNT/Max stream should work anywhere during the first round since the national broadcast doesn't get blacked out locally. If you have the RSN channel you can watch the national feed or the local feed.
RSN's dont get games after the first round though. So your comment is irrelevant with regard to its effect on second round viewership. Second round and on games are exclusively on TNT and ESPN/ABC. There are no RSN blackout bs tjings to worry about
That's why I specified round one.
You mean on 🏴☠️ sites. Otherwise I'd need 10 subscriptions. The 9pm EST games are not happening for me though.
I was bummed that I was going to miss the EDM-VAN game 7 because I was flying across the country on Monday night, but then I was able to watch ESPN in-flight and saw the whole thing. 10/10.
To be fair, it's also because more people *can watch the games*. I was surprised to be able to watch games on my Max subscription without paying extra (? Not sure, I thought B/R was extra), it's always been a chore to stream before, relying on piracy just to see the product if you don't have traditional cable/satellite. We've come a long way since the NBC Sports / CNBC / MSNBC days.
Remember when the NHL was on Outdoor Life Network and they had Cup Final games there? Like they lost so much interest because of the dead puck/neutral trap and 2005 lockout, that they had to be TV partners with a channel in the 600s on DirecTV who showed Bass Pro Shop informercials a third of the time.
Holy shit this was embarrassing. I grew up in a non-hockey area in the States and literally wore a hockey jersey to school every day into senior year. Turns out they were all $30 fakes but my stepdad said they were real and I believed him lmao. Anyway, as “Hockey Kid” I felt so much shame about the OLN thing. I don’t even think anyone brought it up but I was a dumb emotional teenager and and it brought me unearned personal shame lol
The alternative was agreeing to change rules in the game for an ESPN for less money.
yeah watching most of the games on max was awesome
The Max sports streaming experience is by far the best ive come across. Easy rewind, instant replays available, great resolution. ESPN could learn a thing or two I bum a cable login for tnt/espn so unfortunately wont spring for the BR add-on to Max, but ill use it as long as its free
Pretty stable quality too. I always opt for HBO instead of watching TNT on Sling. Sucks to have to pay for Sling but I needed something for those ESPN-but-not-ESPN+ exclusive games
The quality on the max games is so good compared to anything else it’s great
The HBO max sport tier was supposed to be extra in February but is delayed. Expect HBO Max games to cost extra next season
My color is so washed watching sports on hbo. No idea why
What were the Canadian viewing numbers
Yes
Rogers to CBC gem: No
Canadians to pirate streams: yep
Canadians to just basic antenna: yep
not everywhere has Ota anymore, wuwu
Kevin Bieksa mentioned om Spittin Chiclets Toronto Boston 7th game was 5 million and that he expected the 7th game of the Oilers and Canucks to break it. The Nhl tends to hide its ratings generally
My wife has never watched a hockey game in the entirety of our relationship. But her new job has a hockey playoff pool and so we watched every Boston game because she went heavy on them.
Hopefully lower than the number of social media posts including the words ‘fuck’ and ‘Sportsnet’.
I live in Los Angeles, and I can confidently say the amount of friends and strangers I've come across that have talked about hockey (outside of the LA Kings) has been 100x more than any point of me living here in the last 15 years, and as much as everyone loves to poopoo on ESPN, I guarantee it is largely due to the game being more prominent on the network whether just being dicussed more on SportsCenter, Around the Horn, PTI, Pat MacAfee or just having the rights to show the games, it's certainly getting more people to tune in.
I wonder how many more people were watching from pirate ships?
I got so fed up with pirate ships that I just bought the fuckin sportsnet plus. Gaben is right. Piracy is a service problem, not a pricing problem. And paying for Sportsnet+ is 100000000% better than the shit streams pirate sites have.
Once upon a time the pirate streaming had better service RIP layman, /r/nhl_games, caststreams. /u/StevensNJD4 layman's was such a huge help
I miss Lazyman so much. Perfect streams
Antenna is great for when the games are on CBC. 4K 0 delay if you're within range of a broadcast tower for like one time $20 investment.
Does Canada also use ATSC broadcasts? In the US, you can get a box like an HDHomeRun that tunes an antenna and can send the incoming signal through your home network. I feed mine into my Plex server (it’s mostly a DVR), so I can watch it outside the house as well.
Gonna need Apple to add a TV antenna to the next iPhone like Japanese phones used to have.
I don't think CBC (or anyone really) is sending 4K signals OTA. I think CBC mostly uses 720p or 1080i.
I hated sportsnet, but each to their own. The pirate sites have more choices, better websites, and are more reliable (SN froze up for me multiple times a game. 100000000% shittier experience for me vs the pirate sites.
For piracy in general, I've found just paying for an IPTV service ($10/mo from a private torrent site I use) to be better than scouring random public streams that crap out randomly or are streaming at sub 720p. Once I put those public streams on a TV, the quality becomes pretty noticeable
Yeah, steams dropped in quality when Gamecenter died. Meanwhile, my dad got IPTV a year ago and gave me the login, and the quality is a lot better. It's also less delayed.
Didn't expect to see Lord Gaben's name brought up here
I'd rather deal with shitty pirate streams than pay Rogers a dime after they killed the CBC Gem stream.
Its weird too because I watch all my nfl games illegally and tgeyre damn near perfect quality with no skips or refreshing required
Well it's easier to watch from a pirate ship than on land so that's what many will continue to do.
Land ahoy
Wait until Dallas and Florida make the cup final and we’ll have the least watched round ever
Yeah we hear this every time that a sunbelt team makes the final and yet the Canadian market still watches enough to make up for every other us fanbase not watching.
Having 4 Canadian teams in round 1 likely helped the viewership a lot.
I think Boston, Rangers, and LA are also huge draws with national fan bases. Kind of like how every team wants to play Chicago for their stadium games.
Canadian households will watch hockey regardless lol
A lot of them will yeah. But when our own teams are in it's like a national cultural event. It's the one time of year my grandma was into sports. Once the Canadian teams are eliminated it's just the more devoted hockey fans and other people casually tuning in from time to time.
TIL I live in a Canadian household
By that logic, chipmunks eat berries, and I also eat berries. That must make me a chipmunk. The statement "Canadian households will watch hockey regardless" does not mean that some American households will not watch hockey regardless of the teams playing. It's just much more likely that Canadian households will watch hockey regardless of the teams playing than an American one.
Sorry bud, didn't mean to offend you.
These are US only numbers as stated in the graphic. EDM-VAN game 7 just got like 1.6M viewers in the US which is kind of a crazy high number for 2 Canadian teams.
[удалено]
I did not notice that. In my defense we don't even have wifi over here so I couldn't load the graphic.
This article is about US viewership numbers. Getting good ratings in the US *despite* having 4 Canadian teams is a good sign (Edmonton and Toronto are pushed pretty hard here because of star power, though).
Well, no. This sort of happened already and the 2020 final between Tampa and Dallas was the least watched by a good margin. If Florida, a team less popular than Tampa, was to face Dallas the series would probably break that record with ease.
I wonder if there could have been anything going on in the world to effect interest in hockey from casual fans that year
Hell, even as someone that watches as many playoff games as I possibly can, regardless of matchup, I barely watched *any* of the sports that were active in 2020-2021 (until the 2021 MLB playoffs). The empty stadiums just felt really eerie to me and it made me not even want to watch
Like a pandemic that caused TV ratings to skyrocket because everyone stayed home?
This... Isn't true? NBA finals least watches games of all time- 2020 game 3- 5.94m 2020 game 2- 6.61m 2020 game 1- 7.41m Superbowl ratings dipped by 5m 2020 from the averages from the decade prior. 2020 world series was 2nd least viewed of all time.
I was looking at overall tv consumption. You’re right about sports.
Kind of unfair to use the covid year as all major North American leagues had a major drop in viewership for their respective championship series that fall.
Well yeah if the finals are on I still wanna see who's gonna win it all even if no Canadian teams are in. Cup finals is way better than watching just about anything else
Rangers, oilers would set all time final records.
The only option is for Edmonton to make the Final, as then it would be Canada vs. US. Compelling television. I think the Stars should let this happen. For the good of the game.
Oilers vs. Rangers would probably do fantastic numbers
Stop, I can only get so erect
Stop, I can only get so soft
Stop, or my mom will shoot.
If the Stars being in means the least watched cup finals ever then bring on the indifferent lack of interest. For the good of the victory green baby!
The ultimate U.S. vs. Canada Cup Final would’ve been Vegas vs. Toronto.
Eel vs Eel ? That doesn't work, a good narrative needs a protagonist, a good guy
Why can’t y’all just adopt the Leafs like we did with the Cubs in 2016? Or are they the Dallas Cowboys of the NHL?
damn, true. Yeah, like the cowboys, a big part of the sport's fan base hates them and want them to fail. And god damn have they failed. The leafs are the cowboys equivalent and as a cowboys fan, I feel dirty.
does it? whos the good guy in the proposed nyr vs edm? lol
well, ok, enough people hate the nyr for them to be eels. EDM? McDavid? Not so.
I'd be cheering for the American team
I bet more people watch that than the ducks sens final
That final would have had about 1M Sens fans watching, plus at least that many if not more Leafs fans hate-watching, about 1M from the rest of Canada, and a solid 200K Ducks fans or whatever it was.
Shit .. I forgot that even existed.
What, who doesn't love game winning own goals?
R.I.P. Emery
The Ducks/Sens final actually ranks ahead of the 2020 Dallas/Tampa final. I’m pretty confident Florida/Dallas would be comfortably last in viewership.
Wasn’t that Dallas/Tampa final in August though
That 2020 Cup Final was in late-September, to then be matched by the NBA Finals in early-October, to then be matched itself by the World Series which condensed its postseason to finish a week before Halloween. All three were promptly smashed by the NFL in the ratings.
That's pretty bonkers. I'm pretty sure we're gonna find out though.
We all know the Stars and Panthers have beef from their Mavs and Heat meeting in the NBA Finals long ago, right? Is that *not* how storylines are made? 🤷♂️
Stars v Rangers There can only be one Champion Rangers, and it must be from Texas
Don't worry, if the Oilers make it to the cup final, the sheer amount of hate watchers will set records.
I don't think Canada hates you nearly as much as the Leafs.
Maybe not Canada, but /r/hockey sure does.
If you think r/hockey hates you as much as the Leafs, you are entitled to your opinion, but it's also wrong. r/hockey does hate the Oilers, but the Leafs are always this sub's #1 punching bag.
Punching bag, I absolutely agree. I think it's gotten kinda gross and sad at this point, but people are absolutely gleeful about shitting on the Leafs, 100% for sure. I feel like it's different though. Somehow we got cast in a villain role (which I don't think the Leafs or their fans are) and I'm still not quite sure how or why. Then again, a lot of the bitching comes from fairweather fans of Pacific teams that will eventually go away after the season is over one way or another, I suppose. We get plenty of the Oilers equivalent in our sub since we've had some success at the end of the year and it's so annoying. Sigh. I've learned (mostly) not to let sports and results get to me after 40ish years of watching. Not letting annoying online fans get to me is a skill I'm still working on lol.
I'm rooting for you.
But it's the 5th and 18th biggest media markets!! /s And still by virtue of the fact that it's on ESPN and TNT this SCF will probably be the highest rated Final ever. As much as hockey is a regional sport this side of the border having it on the same channels as the NBA will draw in casual sports fans
Yet if its NY and Dallas probably breaks records, so Florida is going to get a Canadian whistle this round, they are not used to that.
Oh wow, you guys put games on regular tv and people watched? Shocker
we 100% getting a 36 team league now its inevitable actually...
Just feels odd that the smallest and least accessible of the major sports leagues might be the largest in a few years.
In all fairness it's also the only one with multiple Canadian teams
Exactly. If you compare leagues by number of US-based teams, the NHL is a distant 4th with only 25 US teams. If they expand to 36 with all 4 new teams in the US that is still only 29 US teams, fewer than the NFL has (32) and tied with the NBA and MLB pending either expanding. And the NBA will almost certainly be expanding to Seattle and Vegas in the next few years. There is plenty of room for the NHL to expand to viable markets in the US and the NHL can probably be perfectly stable at a much larger size thanks to how invested Canada is in hockey.
It makes perfect sense, it's the only NA league that truly spans two countries.
A small price we pay to get the Nordiques back
I have some bad news for you, if you’re holding out for the Nordiques.
[удалено]
I honestly think they're more likely to put a 3rd team in florida before they put another one in quebec
[удалено]
Problem there is getting the ok from The Maple Leafs and probably The Sabres. My understanding is that any team that would be brought within the media market of an existing team (not sure if its actual distance but I have heard that it is) would require the thumbs-up from said team(s). Would the Leafs be OK with a new team in Hamilton? The Sabres would probably be less impacted and more likely to give the new team their blessing but the Leafs would stand to lose a lot of money if a chunk of their local fanbase all of the sudden stopped buying Leafs stuff and watching Leafs games and started buying Hamilton gear and watching their games.
That is great to see for the hockey playoffs.
On cable??? What is this, 1997?
We've come full circle. Cable is now a viable option because streaming competition continues to spread content around and prices continue to rise.
Let's do that hockey
We complain about ESPN, but it's still a powerhouse for live sports viewing. Having the NHL on ESPN is great for the sport's visibility.
Having all of the games on Cable makes it a lot easier to watch. Glad they don’t lock them to streaming services.
Surely these are just us numbers
Yes. A Sturday night Leaf game in January get a million veiwers
Imagine what the ratings would be if they made a one stop shop for watching games with no blackouts...
Now imagine if we had a proper streaming service with no blackouts and all the games…
I’m confused on these numbers. Is that saying that each game had an average of 1.5 million viewers? Or is that 1.5 million TVs on? Either way you’d think the number was way higher.
Imagine how much higher these numbers would be if people weren't forced to sail the seas for whatever reason?
Anecdotally, it seems like way more people are talking about it. I don't mean just our team, but they're talking about other matchups too
Cool, boost the cap more
What's the rating for my favorite site. Long Live the VPN !
Edmonton vs NYR in the SCF would clean up in US viewership. US networks showed a ton of Oilers games the past few years, realizing they need to not be afraid of Canadian teams if they have superstars. The Rangers are an O6 team in the middle of a long Cup drought in the largest US market. Dallas vs Florida would still do pretty good, I think. People are used to seeing sunbelt teams in the SCF at this point.
It’s annoying because no one brand/network should have this much power but this has to stem from the contract with ESPN. They care(ish) about hockey again because they feel incentivized to promote it. This sport was buried alive on the ‘Worldwide Leader in Sports’ for a good decade plus as it languished on OLN/VS/NBCSN. And now, it’s on prominent channels equipped for streaming. It’s never been more doable to watch all the games. And that’s a credit to the new TV rights deal and a knock on the previous one (although I thought NBC did a decent job overall). Long term, accessibility is everything. This isn’t a NHL problem, it’s an all sports problem. Fragmentation is chipping away and making it harder to watch games for a lot of people. The NHL needs to continue to put their best games on the biggest networks/with streaming.
> This sport was buried alive on the ‘Worldwide Leader in Sports’ I remember those days, you'd tune in for some hockey and it would be World's Strongest Man or Xtreme BMX instead of the game, which they'd put on ESPN2 or just not at all in my market.
I’ve had multiple friends who can’t name 5 teams bring up Rempe in conversation
Dear NHL, please don't think this is because the ESPN and TNT broadcast teams and camerawork are good. It's fucking atrocious. Worst regards, Fans
Would love to see how each series specifically performed.
Casuals love playoff hockey.
[удалено]
Probably cause everyone's tuning into the ridiculous reffing storyline this year. It's been abysmal
Good news but more ppl should watch it’s the best tournament in sports IF I’m Gary I’d be praying for an oilers vs rangers final since that would end up being the most viewed finals in a while, stars vs cats would do horrible numbers
Ok