Canada vs Sweden game delivers best ratings of the season in the USA

Earlier this season a report from Drew Lerner of the sports broadcasting blog 'Awful Announcing' brought to light that the NHL saw a 'sharp decline' in its viewership to start the season, with its major games ranking well behind the likes of the MLB and... the WNBA.

Well... the NHL may have just solved their problem with the 4 Nations Face-off.

Last night's tournament opener between Canada and Sweden eclipsed over 1 million viewers in the United States. Compare that to the NHL's opening night three game slate that aaveraged just 559,000 viewers, a 39% decline from 2023's season opening night.

So... yeah... a million viewers is a nice improvement. I'm excited to what the numbers look like on Saturday night when Canada and USA finally meet.

I think it's safe to say that the NHL's most recent foray onto ESPN has been a disaster from the start. TNT shows potential, but the viewership numbers just aren't there yet.

So... what's next? What has to happen for these numbers to improve?

Here's just a wild idea... stop forcing people to have 400 subscription services just to watch a hockey game. Oh, and stop blacking out games like it's the 1970s...