NHL First-Round Playoff Ratings Up Nearly 70%

The NHL is in boom times with the ratings. WBD Sports averaged 1. 2 million viewers per game across TNT, TBS, truTV, and HBO Max, a 68% increase from last season, and its highest first round since adding the NHL in the 2021-22 season.

Meanwhile, ESPN averaged 1. 2 million viewers through its 22 first-round games, up 69% from 2025 and the network’s most-watched first round since the NHL returned to its airwaves five years ago. There are several reasons the NHL is succeeding.

One of the foremost explanations is that it is coming off an electrifying Winter Olympics, in which the United States defeated Canada in a thrilling 2–1 overtime gold-medal game . The NHL’s late regular-season ratings had previously experienced a post-Olympics bump . The NHL also barreled into the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with riches in storylines.

The headline was the Sabres, who broke the league’s longest playoff drought—14 years out of the postseason—after finishing first in the Atlantic. There was also the Battle of Pennsylvania, with the Penguins and Flyers facing off after both squeaked into the playoffs in the final beats of the regular season. The Mammoth made their first playoffs in only their second season as a franchise in Utah; the Golden Knights took the ice under the tutelage of John Tortorella, who was installed in Vegas with only eight regular-season games to go.