One of the fascinating things about COVID and sports was the thought that we might have everything return at once, which would take us from a barren desert wasteland to a lush oasis of nightly television options. We were going to have baseball, football, hockey, basketball, soccer, golf, and NASCAR in season at the same time.

That’s what happened, and one manifestation of the oversaturation was really crappy ratings for the Stanley Cup Finals between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars.

From Awful Announcing, on game six:

“The clincher drew 2.88 million viewers on NBC, far fewer viewers than not only Monday Night Football, but also various cable news programs, Dancing With the Stars on ABC, and reruns of both The Neighborhood and Young Sheldon on CBS. It was the least-watched Game 6 and least-watched clincher since at least the 2004-05 lockout.

Overall, the six game series averaged just 2.03 million viewers, the second-lowest since the lockout. Only 2007’s Ducks-Senators series was lower, averaging 1.6 million viewers.

In addition to the post-locket record-low for Game 6, this year’s Final drew record lows for Games 3 and 5. Games 1, 2, and 4 all clocked in as the third least-watched since the lockout.”

This shouldn’t surprise anybody. Dallas and Tampa are not hockey hotbeds. More eyeballs would be on a Stanley Cup final featuring the Blackhawks, Penguins, Flyers, etc.

And beyond the matchup, there was just too much going on. Too many other sports to choose from, which meant that casuals were inundated with choices that took them away from hockey. Twice the NHL went up against Monday Night Football, which would never be the case in a pre-COVID world.

This will probably just be a one-off blip with a big asterisk.* Last year’s Blues/Bruins series did really well, and pulled 8.7 million viewers for game seven.