Far from a ratings breakthrough, in wins or in ratings, the Toronto Maple Leafs seem to be stalled in round two of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Sunday’s Game 3 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers drew an overnight, estimated audience of 1,507,000 CBC viewers and another 2,015,000 on Sportsnet National for a total of 3,523,000 estimated viewers.
Last Thursday’s Game Two loss had a 1,569,000/1,734,000— CBC/Sportsnet National split for an overnight total of 3,303,000 viewers.
The series opener the Tuesday night before that saw the losing Leafs drawing an estimated 3,326,000 combined in overnights.
These are solid numbers for NHL playoff games on Sportsnet and CBC, but not the surge in viewers one might have expected after the Leafs finally punched through to a second round after 19 years of frustration. The team drew close to a million more viewers for their final Round 1 victory over Tampa Bay than what they are averaging in round two.
With the Leafs on the brink of elimination, again, are viewers just too fed up or they simply afraid to look anymore? The two teams face off again Wednesday in the best of 7 series. Games are carried on CBC, Sportsnet, TVAS and ESPN.
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