NHL riding a playoff ratings wave

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It’s sliding under the radar a bit, but the NHL playoffs have been getting some notable positive ratings numbers.

Games on NBC and Versus in the first round averaged 742,000 viewers per telecast according to the NHL and Nielsen ratings service. That’s more for a first round since 2000 (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2) when the average was 750,000. And it’s a 24% increase from last year. And through Monday, Versus’ conference semifinal round coverage has averaged 1.055 million viewers, up 31% from last year’s 806,000 viewers.

So far NBC’s six broadcasts are averaging 1.71 million viewers, up 4% from a year ago.

-- Diane Pucin