“We lost to a really good team. Nobody quit, nobody threw the towel in, but they’re a heck of a team. They’re back-to-back Stanley Cup champions for a reason,” Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid said after losing 5-1 to the Florida Panthers in the final Game 6 of the NHL Stanley Cup championship. However, this defeat marked a loss beyond the rink. With fans who were all tuned in to support their respective teams and win, they didn’t show the same enthusiasm while viewing the sport, especially Game 6.

Well, what went wrong with the finals that should have been the real buzz of the entire season? After all, it’s a big deal when 3.8 million people watched each of the first five games on average on Sportsnet and CBC adding to a 2% rise in viewership compared to last year. With 4.5 million viewers for Game 1 and 4.8 million for Game 2, showing strong interest at the start, Game 6 failed to have the same spark!

Despite the high stakes and the presence of star players, the NHL failed to capture widespread attention from fans and spectators worldwide, reporting surprisingly low viewership numbers. Braylon Breeze shared the update on X, “Game 6 of the Oilers–Panthers Stanley Cup Final averaged 4.327 million viewers across English and French networks. The 2025 Stanley Cup Final averaged 4.366 million viewers across Canada — down 4% from the first six games of last year’s series.” The lack of audience raised serious concerns about the league’s reach and relevance!

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons people didn’t tune in is because the games weren’t on big channels like ABC or NBC! “This is an issue that every sport is contending with, and you only get an opportunity to do course corrections every decade or so in a very fast-moving industry,” said Ed Desser, a senior NBA executive and founder of Desser Sports Media. Because it was broadcast on TNT, a cable network with the NHL signing a big-money deal with Turner Sports in 2021, the deal did bring the league more money but fewer people in terms of viewership.

And this isn’t the first time it’s happened, but TNT also faced low ratings during the 2023 Stanley Cup Final, while on the other hand, channels like ABC and NBC pulled consistently stronger ratings while broadcasting in 2022 and 2024 as well as 2021-22 respectively. While another major issue came up between hardcore hockey fans and casual fans. While the former can scroll through the guide to find the broadcast, the casual viewers didn’t get the memo, with TNT still being relatively new to NHL coverage. “There’s a difference in not being on an ESPN-branded platform. For better or worse, ESPN is kind of special, and in combination with ABC, it’s just a different animal,” Desser further stated.

Another reason came with the fact that Edmonton was the only team from a U.S. market involved, thereby losing a big chunk of American interest. Because there was only Florida, playing in a relatively small market where it became the state with two teams, the Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning, leading to divided fans who might have contributed to lower viewership! While others point out perhaps the ratings would improve for Game 6 and a potential Game 7, with how great this series has been so far! “I find it really disappointing considering how remarkable the series was last year with seven games and how many of the star players here played in the Four Nations Face-Off, which was really highly rated on ESPN,” said John Kosner, the ESPN executive, pointing out the low fan engagement rate.

What can the NHL do to improve the viewership in the coming years?

With the overall series averaging just 2.5 million viewers, which is down from TNT’s 2.6 million average last year, this raises concerns about the sport’s traction in both Canadian and American markets. Did the NHL fans just decide to walk away from hockey? Well, not really—but when we look at the viewership numbers for this year’s Stanley Cup Final, it might feel that way.

However, with the NHL being in a better financial position, this isn’t a sign that people are giving up on hockey altogether! Because of the media deals made by the commissioner, Gary Bettman, the players are receiving higher salaries and with increased marketing budgets, there seem to be more growth opportunities. But with low viewership, especially because the series itself was electric, full of drama, and history-making moments, what can be done to improve the scenario?

As Desser further quoted, “To generate two or three million viewers in today’s environment is no small feat. But the challenge for all sports programming today is you’re competing not with what else is on TV that night but with all of the best TV and movie programming that’s ever been created.” Perhaps stating the league needs a revamp in terms of officiating, broadcasting, and even commentaries!

After all, it wasn’t just a cut in viewership but an impact in history that marked the lowest fans watching the broadcast since the Stanley Cup Final Game 6 in 1994! Underscoring how significantly the fan interest has dwindled, this was also the first time since 1999 that a Game 6 was broadcast on cable instead of network television—a shift that highlights how broad the issue had been and how the NHL needs to rethink its media strategy.