After a double-digit drop in regular season viewership, the NHL has gotten no repreive in the early days of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Viewership has declined across the board for the first three days of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, with all nine game windows posting declines and none hitting the million viewer mark. The most-watched game thus far was Avalanche-Stars Game 1 on TNT and truTV Saturday night, which averaged 981,000 viewers — down 14% from Maple Leafs-Bruins in the same window last year (1.14M).
Monday’s overtime Canadiens-Capitals Game 1 ranks second with 901,000 on ESPN, down 20% from the same year-ago Maple Leafs-Bruins series (1.13M).
Further down the list, Sunday’s Devils-Hurricanes Game 1 averaged 880,000 on ESPN — down 34% from Capitals-Rangers a year ago (1.34M) — and Saturday’s Blues-Jets opener 810,000 on TNT and truTV (-7%). The all-Canadian Senators-Maple Leafs series opened with 794,000 on ESPN2 Sunday night (-27%), followed by Wild-Golden Knights on ESPN at 735,000 (-8%).
Oilers-Kings was the least-watched series opener with 323,000 on ESPN2 Monday night, down 11% from Game 1 between the same two teams in the same window last year (362K).
In Game 2 action, Avalanche-Stars drew 661,000 on ESPN (-15%) and Blues-Jets 372,000 on ESPN2 (-33%) Monday night.
Lower ratings were to be expected given a playoff field bereft of the usual draws — none of the U.S.-based “Original Six,” including the Bruins and Rangers, made the playoffs this year — and the general trend this season. While the midseason Four Nations Face-Off delivered the largest NHL-affiliated audience in Nielsen people meter history, viewership for the league’s traditional games declined 12 percent during the recently-completed regular season.
So far, the postseason is declining at a steeper rate. The ESPN networks saw a 14 percent decline in regular season viewership (571K) and so far this postseason are down 24% (to 670K).
The Four Nations Face-Off was such a disproportionate draw that it is possible the full NHL season could finish up from last year even with double-digit declines for both the regular season and playoffs. Already, including Four Nations in the regular season average takes the NHL from a 12 percent decline to a 24 percent increase, and the ESPN networks from down 14 percent to up by a full third.
It is not standard practice for leagues to include All-Star events in their viewership averages, and the addition of Four Nations would be an even bigger stretch given it was functionally an international competition.