Last Hurrah for TSN

After more than a month of furious action on TSN, the curtain closes tonight on the specialty channel’s coverage of this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs with game three of the third round Blackhawks-Sharks series from Chicago. This spring has seen the network establish a number of hockey milestones and, even though luck sometimes played a part, those involved with the station should give themselves a pat on the back for a job well done. In chronological order, the network can report these impressive numbers:

• TSN’s coverage of the first round Canadiens-Capital series ranks as the most-watched playoff series ever on the specialty channel with an average audience of 1.8 million viewers over seven games. Game two of this series earned TSN its highest NHL playoff audience ever at 2.1 million viewers . . . that is until this figure was surpassed in game seven of the same series with an audience of 2.8 million.
• The network ranked first, fourth, fifth, and seventh in APH ratings in the first round, despite the fact that TSN selected its series in the third, fifth, seventh, and eighth draft spots.
• The specialty channel’s game seven coverage of the second round Flyers-Bruins series earned the network its highest audience ever recorded for a game not involving a Canadian-based team at 2.1 million.
• TSN’s game one coverage of the third round Blackhawks-Sharks series, which drew an audience of 1.225 million (not including NBC viewers), earned the highest APH for any afternoon game played throughout this year’s playoffs at 0.136 – beating even CBC’s game two afternoon coverage of the Canadiens-Penguins series (again, not including NBC viewers).

The most telling milestone from above was the second bullet point – even though the network selected its first round series from a position of weakness in comparison to rival CBC, the specialty channel was rank ahead of the public broadcaster in many of the APH ratings. In fact, after removing the three first round series in which Canadian teams participated, TSN ranked first, second, and fourth for the remaining all-American matchups with CBC placing third and fifth. So, whereas CBC will always benefit from its near-stranglehold on Canadian teams in the playoffs, viewers appear to prefer TSN when the playing field is levelled and Canadian content is no longer part of the equation. This either means that (a) TSN does a better job than CBC in selecting the all-American series, thereby attracting more viewers than CBC, and/or (b) TSN delivers a better overall broadcast than CBC, thereby attracting more viewers than the public broadcaster. Either way, the NHL on TSN team deserves the credit.

THIS WEEKEND’S GAMES:
Tonight
Sharks at Blackhawks - Game 3, 8 p.m. (TSN)/(RDS)
Saturday
Flyers at Canadiens - Game 4, 3 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
Sunday
Sharks at Blackhawks - Game 4, 3 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
Monday (Victoria Day)
Canadiens at Flyers - Game 5, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)