Anybody who has been watching the NHL for more than a few seasons knows that the game has changed. Scoring is up, save percentages are down, and power play percentages are as high as they’ve been in 40 years. There’s really no arguing that the league is more skilled now than it ever was, and yet, ratings and interest seem to be trending in the wrong direction.
At the All-Star break, Austin Karp of the Sports Business Journal reported that NHL U.S. TV national viewership is down 22% this season and that, to that point, games on ESPN/TNT averaged 373,000 viewers compared to 478,000 in 2021-22.
There are plenty of salient arguments to be made as to why ratings and interest seem down in a year when scoring and comebacks are soaring, but perhaps the one that nobody wants to admit is the driving force behind all of this is that tanking has become endemic in the National Hockey League.
Over the past few seasons, the NHL has been a competition of “haves and have-nots.” In other words, half the teams in the circuit seem to be actively trying to win, while the other half is tanking. And the gap between the camps is as wide as it’s ever been.