The NHL opened its 2026-27 season with mixed television results, as ESPN saw a slight decline on Opening Night while TNT posted a significant year-over-year increase on the second night of the season.
ESPN’s Tuesday tripleheader averaged 747,000 viewers, down 3% from the 768,000 average for last year’s Opening Night. The decline came amid considerably stronger competition, with the NHL sharing the night with the opening day of the MLB postseason and the WNBA playoffs.
The Rangers-Bruins matchup was the most-watched game of the night, averaging 878,000 viewers. That was 19% below last year’s Penguins-Rangers opener, which drew 1.09 million viewers.
The afternoon matchup between the Panthers and Hurricanes delivered 859,000 viewers, up 16% from last year’s Blackhawks-Panthers game and the NHL’s most-watched Opening Day afternoon game since 2021.
The night concluded with Blackhawks-Golden Knights, which averaged 473,000 viewers, down 7% from last year’s Avalanche-Kings matchup.
The NHL faced an unusually crowded sports television landscape on Tuesday. The season began in September for the first time since 2007 following the league’s expansion to an 84-game schedule, putting Opening Night directly against the start of the MLB postseason.
A Red Sox-Yankees game on NBC attracted 7.31 million viewers, while the WNBA playoffs drew 1.42 million on Prime Video for Aces-Fever and 1.06 million on USA Network for Lynx-Liberty.
TNT, however, delivered a much stronger opening on Wednesday.
The network’s season-opening doubleheader averaged 587,000 viewers, up 58% from 372,000 for its comparable doubleheader last year and its most-watched NHL season debut since 2023.
The Penguins’ 7-0 victory over the Flyers led the night with 745,000 viewers, a 44% increase from last year’s Bruins-Capitals opener. Kings-Avalanche followed with 420,000 viewers, up 75% from the 240,000 viewers for last year’s Kings-Golden Knights matchup.
Competition from MLB and the WNBA remained broadly similar on Wednesday, including almost identical audiences for Red Sox-Yankees and the WNBA playoff games. Last year’s comparable night also featured four MLB postseason games, including the Yankees and Dodgers in primetime, as well as Game 3 of the WNBA Finals.
The contrasting results give the NHL an uneven start to its new season on U.S. television, with the strength of the surrounding sports schedule playing a significant role in the early ratings picture.