Posted on 02/24/2025 5:40:29 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
The 4 Nations Face-Off championship between the USA and Canada on Thursday night drew a significant audience for ESPN's broadcast.
Canada's 3-2 victory over the USA in overtime averaged 9.3 million viewers, the largest audience ever for an NHL broadcast. The previous high was 8.9 million for NBC's telecast of Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final between the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues.
The ESPN audience peaked at 10.4 million viewers and gave the network its largest non-NFL or college football viewership on the network's platforms since the 2024 NBA Finals.
Thursday's 4 Nations championship match still trails the gold medal game between the USA and Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, which averaged 27.6 million viewers for NBC. However, the most-watched non-Olympic ice hockey game is an impressive showing for a midseason international tournament in February announced just last year during the NHL All-Star Game.
The USA-Canada final drew an audience on par with sports typically perceived as more popular in the United States, as Awful Announcing pointed out. For instance, the final round of the Masters drew 9.59 million for CBS. The late-November Big Ten college football match between Indiana and Ohio State attracted 9.33 million viewers on Fox.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
A big hit no doubt.
The Russians should have been a part of it.
Alex Ovechkin did not have a chance to participate in the tournament.
Do fans give a puck? 🏒 🥅
Are there enough Russian players in the NHL to field a team?
They did North America vs. Rest of the World one year.
At the time 52% of the NHL’s players were Canadian.
I don’t recall how many American.
Oleg Kolzig (sp?) was born in Africa. I don’t believe he’s still playing.
There were a couple of Asian players in the league - South Korea, I think.
66 Russian players 24-2025 season.
More than enough.
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