NBC drew a 3.8 overnight rating for the Blackhawks' 2-1 win over the Lightning on Saturday night, down 19% from a 4.7 overnight for the series-clinching Kings-Rangers Game 5 last year, which aired on a Friday night. The 3.8 also is down from a 4.0 overnight for Blackhawks-Bruins Game 5 in '13 (Friday), but up from a 2.6 overnight for Kings-Devils Game 5 in '12 (Saturday). Chicago led all markets on Saturday night with a 26.2 local rating, followed by Tampa-St. Pete with a 14.3 rating (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
BLADE OF TRUTH: In Boston, Kevin Paul Dupont noted he is "on board" with NBC Sports Group Chair Mark Lazarus' suggestion that NHL players shave their playoff beards and wrote, "I like personalities." Dupont likes to "know who these guys are, what makes them unique, what defines them, and their faces are the most obvious part of that package." Personality and player identity has "been lost in a game layered in safety equipment and coached to the point of near robotics." Dupont: "Shave those beards and let’s see what you’ve got" (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/14). In N.Y., Bob Raissman chose Lazarus as his "Dude of the Week" and wrote it was "refreshing for a network suit to actually issue a provocative, newsworthy opinion that wasn’t scripted by a PR lackey or some audience research gnome" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 6/14).
HELP WANTED: In Chicago, Mike Imrem writes under the header, "Blackhawks, NHL Need More Help From ESPN." Americans "prefer the NBA to the NHL" in part because hockey "doesn't get much attention on ESPN." The NHL is "pretty much the only major sport that ESPN doesn't exploit for programming and it's difficult for a league to be all it can be without a footprint on the self-proclaimed worldwide leader" (Chicago DAILY HERALD, 6/15).
