NHL conference finals both down double-digits in U.S.

Continuing a playoff-long trend, both NHL conference finals declined double-digits from last year on American television.

Thursday’s Oilers-Stars NHL Western Conference Final Game 5 averaged 1.57 million viewers on ESPN, down 3% from the same matchup last year, which aired on TNT Sports (1.62M). Compared to last year’s ESPN conference final, Panthers-Rangers in the East, viewership fell 25% from 2.08 million.

The full, five-game Oilers-Stars series averaged 1.53 million viewers — down 10% from last year’s matchup of the same teams, which lasted an additional game (1.71M). Viewership also declined 29% from last year’s Panthers-Rangers series on ESPN, which also extended to an additional game (2.29M).

ESPN finished its portion of the NHL postseason averaging 966,000 viewers, down 31% from last year.

As for TNT Sports, which has the Stanley Cup Final this season, coverage of the four-game Panthers-Hurricanes Eastern Conference Final averaged 1.4 million — down nearly 40 percent from last year’s six-game Panthers-Rangers series on ESPN/ABC (2.3M) and also down from the four-game Panthers-Hurricanes series on TNT two years ago (1.6M).

The clinching Game 5 of that series averaged 1.6 million. For more on the ECF, see the SMW ratings tracker.

While viewership is down on American television, the combined U.S. and Canadian average of 2.9 million through the conference finals is even with a year ago, per the league.

The Panthers and Oilers won their respective conferences to set up a rare Stanley Cup Final rematch. Last year’s series went the full seven games — the first major sports championship to go to a seventh game since 2019 — but started out lopsided, as Florida opened up a 3-0 lead.

This year’s series will be hard-pressed to match a year ago, as all seven games will air on cable. All seven games last year aired on broadcast network ABC.