The Buffalo Sabres failed to reach the playoffs again in 2019, but that didn’t stop the people of Western New York from tuning into their games night after night.
While MSG Western New York is used to big ratings for Sabres broadcasts, the 2018-2019 season was a special one. The team jumped from being amongst the top 5 local broadcasts to virtually lapping the rest of the NHL. The Sabres averaged an 8.13 rating for games on MSG Western New York, putting them well ahead of the second place Pittsburgh Penguins, whose games on AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh averaged a 6.38 rating.
Buffalo hasn’t seen a playoff team in eight years. It is worth wondering how long this kind of support will last. The other teams that showed up in the top five of Sports Business Journal’s survey of the NHL’s US markets (Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, St. Louis, and Minnesota) have all made the playoffs at least one of the last two seasons.
The bottom five markets for local NHL broadcasts included Arizona, LA, Florida, Anaheim, and New Jersey bringing up the rear. Ratings for the Carolina Hurricanes and the Nashville Predators were excluded from SBJ’s survey.
