Is Tonight The Night?

Nearly two months have gone by since the start of this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, and tonight could play host to their final game. The Chicago Blackhawks have the chance to win their first Stanley Cup since 1961 – that is, provided they can beat a Philadelphia Flyers team that has only lost once on home ice in these playoffs. If the Flyers continue their home dominance, there will be a decisive game seven on Friday in Chicago. Whenever the Stanley Cup is ultimately presented, U.S. viewers will get to watch the ceremony on NBC, while those of us in Canada can choose between CBC and French-language RDS.

For NBC, these are the playoffs that started with a whimper and promise to end with a bang. It’s no secret that the U.S. broadcaster was pretty unhappy with the available matchups in the first three rounds: In the East, superstars Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby never got a chance to play an American team (let alone each other) before their premature ouster by the Montreal Canadiens and, in the West, ratings magnets Detroit and Chicago (which also managed to avoid each other) played against small market franchises like Phoenix and Nashville. The Stanley Cup Final, however, has represented a complete change in fortune for NBC, with two of the largest U.S. hockey markets going head-to-head for the NHL’s most coveted prize. Indeed, NBC is averaging 5,390,000 viewers for the series so far, which represents the best numbers on the southern side of the border since 2002.

For RDS, it was exactly the opposite: The first three rounds got better and better for the French-language broadcaster, with its beloved Canadiens stunning the hockey world with back-to-back upsets against the Capitals and Penguins, before finally bowing out in the third round against the Flyers. But without the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Final, RDS can’t hope to come close to attracting the number of eyeballs that were glued to their televisions during the first three rounds. Whereas the average RDS audience grew from 1,338,000 to 1,746,000 during the rounds with the Canadiens involved (which is amazing, considering the channel is only available in 3,000,000 households), it was only able to attract a fraction of that – 610,000 – for the first game of the Stanley Cup Final.

That leaves CBC, which has experienced a less volatile ratings rollercoaster than the league’s other broadcasting partners. Although the public broadcaster did benefit from Canadian content throughout the first three rounds, the network made the mistake of not picking the Canadiens-Capitals series in the first round and, consequently, was not able to maximize the potential audience for the Canadiens surprising Stanley Cup run. And, although the Stanley Cup Final features two American-based teams, CBC has managed to draw decent audiences through the first half of the series.

So, the question remains, is tonight the night? Or will viewers be treated to a seventh game in the Stanley Cup Final for consecutive years? Regardless the network, you've got to think it will be good for ratings.

TONIGHT’S GAME:
Blackhawks at Flyers – Game 6, 8 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)