Washington and Pittsburgh will play Game 7 in front of a sellout crowd tonight at Verizon Center — but that’s not all who will be watching. The battle between the NHL’s two marquee players has been setting records — not just locally, but worldwide.
The series between the Capitals and Penguins has captured the imagination of both the hardcore and casual hockey fans alike.
Let’s take a look in Pittsburgh — they have set a FOX regional sports record for a hockey telecast. FSN Pittsburgh recorded a 21.38 rating on Saturday when the Penguins defeated the Capitals, 4-3 in OT. It marked the highest-rated game ever on FSN Pittsburgh and the highest-rated NHL game on any of the 12 FSN regional sports networks. The Pens’ 5-3 win over the Caps on Friday recorded a 19.26 rating — the third-highest game ever on FSN Pittsburgh.
In Washington (a bigger market) the numbers were equally impressive on Comcast SportsNet. The CSN numbers were an impressive 5.3 rating for Game 6. Washington is a top-10 market and scoring a rating higher than a 5 is a stunning number for the Caps. Washington could see an all-time ratings record on CSN and that just goes to show how popular the team is. Clearly, the Caps have become the solid No. 2 team in D.C. behind the Redskins.
VERSUS also set ratings records for at least three of the six games in this series. Game 2 was the highest-rated NHL game on VERSUS. The series is on pace to become the most-watched in the network’s history.
In Canada, all seven games have been seen on CBC — the top network in the country — and RDS, Canada’s top French speaking network.
Worldwide, the Caps-Pens series has been broadcast on every continent (except Antarctica) and in more than 125 countries.
At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, CSN’s Al Koken, Jill Sorenson and Lisa Hillary will be on hand from Verizon Center and will be joined by the game broadcasters, Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin, in the biggest sporting event held in Washington in many years. But fans in D.C. will not be alone, as you can bet that fans throughout the world will be rocking the red and hopefully watching a Capitals victory.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on washingtonexaminer.com.
