As clincher grows closer, Stanley Cup ratings rise in Pittsburgh market
As the Stanley Cup gets closer to being awarded, local hockey fans are paying more attention to the final series between the St. Louis Blues and Boston Bruins.
The Pittsburgh market ranked fifth in the country with a 6.0 rating for Thursday night’s 2-1 Blues victory on NBC, behind Boston, St. Louis, Providence and Buffalo.
Pittsburgh also ranked fifth for Game 2 earlier in the series, but with a 4.0 rating. For Game 4, the Kansas City market moved ahead of Pittsburgh into the fifth spot.
Last year, with Marc-Andre Fleury’s Vegas Golden Knights facing the Washington Capitals, Game 5 drew a 10.7 rating in the Pittsburgh market.
The national overnight rating of 3.97 on Thursday was the fourth-best recorded by NBC Sports for a non-clinching game. The best was a 4.41 for Game 5 between the Penguins and Detroit Red Wings in 2008, a game won by the Penguins on a Petr Sykora goal in the third overtime.
Jonathan Bombulie is the TribLive assistant sports editor. A Greensburg native, he was a hockey reporter for two decades, covering the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for 17 seasons before joining the Trib in 2015 and covering the Penguins for four seasons, including Stanley Cup championships in 2016-17. He can be reached at jbombulie@triblive.com.
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