The Penguins' 5-3 win over the Predators in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday finished with 4.97 million viewers on NBC, marking a 22% increase from Penguins-Sharks Game 1 last year (4.08 million). Monday's game did not have NBA competition, while last year's Final opener went up against Game 7 of the Warriors-Thunder Western Conference Finals. Predators-Penguins Game 1 peaked with 5.5 million viewers between 10:45-11:00pm ET. Digitally, Game 1 had the second-most live minutes ever for a Stanley Cup Final contest, with 13.7 million, up 58% over last year. Game 1 also was the third-most streamed game of the '17 Stanley Cup Playoffs, behind only Game 7 of the Penguins-Senators Eastern Conference Final, as well as Game 7 of the Penguins-Capitals Eastern Conference Semifinal (Josh Carpenter, Assistant Editor).
STEP IT UP, WOULD YOU? In Buffalo, Alan Pergament writes NBC's “treatment of hockey was illustrated by how quickly it signed off after the end of Game 1 to allow its affiliates” to go to local news. All the post-game coverage “immediately shifted to NBCSN.” What was “even more amusing was the analysis” by NBC's Eddie Olczyk of the Penguins’ challenge of an early Predators goal on the belief a Predators player was offsides. Olcyzk was “pretty certain the goal was going to stand after repeated looks at the play,” but the goal was “disallowed.” However, Olcyzk did not “instantly cry foul.” Pergament: “The only thing more ridiculous than coaching challenges on plays like that might be announcers who protect the league from embarrassment” (BUFFALO NEWS, 5/31). In Pennsylvania, David Jones wrote if the NHL wants to “finally reach across the vast spectrum of American sports fans,” the TV component should “act like your sport's biggest event is a big deal.” NBC’s NHL studio crew of Liam McHugh, Mike Milbury and Keith Jones has “all the boom-pow of a special committee session on city street ordinances.” Jones: “What are McHugh and Milbury doing here?” The two “don't seem excited by anything.” Jones: “I don't want the happy horsecrap of Fox's NFL crew, for example.. But NBC's NHL crew might actually be worse. They don't laugh, they don't argue, they don't exude any discernible emotion of any kind” (PENNLIVE.com, 5/30).
