NBC exceeded audience expectations for its coverage of the Buffalo outdoor game on New Year's Day by earning a 2.6 overnight rating (percentage of the potential U.S. audience tuned in).
Sources said an American network has not produced an audience of that size for an NHL regular season game since the Fox Sports telecasts in the 1990s.
Last season, NBC's regular season NHL telecasts earned an average rating of 1.0.
Canadian audience figures for the CBC telecast were not available.
