FanHouse

For 24 hours now, I have been watching the news and internet reports, wondering how the NHL is going to screw the pooch on this one. You know that game that everyone is talking about (I've read so much about it, I'm going to stop mentioning it by name). The one with the highest ratings in 11 years. The one that was scripted better than Ocean's 12 and 13 (but not 11). The game with the guys, playing the sport with the ice. You know the one.

The point is, all that has come out of this is good news, and as I have at least a little knowledge of how things work with the NHL, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Well, I might have found the snowy footprint of that shoe in this breakdown by city of the ratings from that game with the snow and outdoors. There are some negatives to it, but before I get all pessimistic, I must admit that there is a lot of good news here, especially for small markets. Via NBC:

Top Ten Metered Markets:
1. Buffalo 38.2/58
2. Pittsburgh 17.7/30
3. Minneapolis 5.1/11
4. Denver 3.7/7
T5. Providence 3.5/7
T5. Las Vegas 3.5/6
7. St. Louis 3.3/5
8. Boston 3.2/6
9. Sacramento 2.9/6
T10. Richmond 2.8/5
T10. Hartford 2.8/5

This list brings up a lot of questions -- where are the major American markets? Detroit, the supposed HockeyTown? New York, a place with no vested college football interests? Chicago? Los Angeles? To add to that, if Gary Bettman ever needed some evidence for further expansion into Las Vegas, he just got it. Sigh ... But let's take a little bit more coherent and thought out look at this list. What exactly is going on here? Does Hartford have a case for a team again? Sacramento -- is that a joke?

Answers to all that and more after the jump.

Well, hi! Glad to see you didn't get caught in a wormhole on your way through the jump.

As you can see, the list of cities that had the greatest viewership is an interesting one. The first two, Buffalo and Pittsburgh are no-brainers. Those fans are almost obligated to watch the game. Minneapolis and Denver follow, two cities that are not a surprise to see up there. They are big hockey towns, even if the attendance in Denver these days may say otherwise.

That's when things get weird.

Providence finishes in a tie for fifth with Las Vegas. Las Vegas? Were there really that many people betting on the game? This one really just confuses me, but it certainly adds ammunition to the tank if the NHL hopes to expand into Sin City sometime soon. Providence is a whole different story. Being a northeastern city and more or less a suburb of Boston, they are probably on there thanks to a sheer love of hockey (and potentially lots of hungover people). There's also a first place AHL team in Providence, which likely has something to do with it.

In the same boat as Providence are St. Louis and Boston who finish seventh and eighth, respectively. It's common knowledge that those are big hockey towns. I can't help but think that had the Patriots been in action or the Boston College Eagles played in a New Year's Bowl game, it's possible that the outcome would have been different.

If you thought seeing Vegas all the way up on the chart was odd, then chew on this one -- Sacramento, California. Your guess is as good as mine here. Maybe there is nothing else to do in Sacramento than watch hockey. One thing is certain, it's probably not much of a college football town, given that USC is so far downstate and the Sacramento Kings were not in action.

Richmond, Virginia is next on the list, and seeing it there is just as befuddling as Sac-town. It has no professional teams and is better known for NASCAR than any other sports. I've got nothing. Sacramento, congratulations on confusing the crap outta me. The list finishes up with Hartford tying Richmond on the list. Hartford is one place that is certainly a mini-HockeyTown, or at least a clone of Providence, and they prove that there is still love of the NHL in Hartford with their mention on the list. Their connection to hockey is still intact, as they are the home to the Wolfpack of the AHL.

As wacky as that list was, there are a lot of notable omissions from it. The following major American cities are missing in action:

• Chicago
• New York
• Philadelphia
• Detroit
• Los Angeles
• Atlanta
  

That's not nearly a comprehensive list, as warmer cities like Dallas and Miami get a free pass for, you know, being warm weather cities. Add that into the fact that people in Texas will choose football over hockey 10 times out of 10 and I'm not even going to try and debate the issue. There are far more pressing omissions ahead. Cities that did and did not have vested interests in a New Year's Day college football bowl games are going under the microscope.

It's certainly interesting to consider how all these large American cities, with their own hockey teams mind you, had fewer citizens watching the game than the likes of Providence, Sacramento and Richmond. Where was Detroit? All year we have heard excuses about the decline of attendance in HockeyTown being due to high ticket prices and poor economic conditions. Now, that's out the window. When given the option to watch the game on free, broadcast television, HockeyTown balked. In all fairness, it should be mentioned that the University of Michigan was playing in a bowl game that kicked off on ABC the same time that the puck was dropping on NBC. In my opinion, Detroit eked out a pass on this one, but they're skating on thin ice. With other colleges in the area (see: Michigan State), I know not all of your at fans of Big Blue.

New York and Philadelphia, teams with newly rejuvenated and competitive teams came up empty as well. They aren't college football towns, either. Outside of New Jersey's Rutgers, there isn't much big time football anywhere near either of these cities. Lame, guys. Just lame.

Los Angeles is, well, Los Angeles and you never know what to expect out there. The NFL has been trying for years to get a team to succeed there with no luck. Meanwhile, USC and the Lakers flourish as the city loves winners. Nonetheless, there may be a valid excuse for the City of Angels as well as Chicago. The University of Illinois and University of Southern California football teams were squaring off on ABC at about the same time that Sid the Kid was netting a game winning goal, five o'clock eastern time. One would assume, that many of the fans in these cities were taking in some kind of pre-game festivities, but I'm not completely buying it. What I do buy though is that with the hockey game starting at 10 AM pacific time, no one was awake to see it. I can't imagine anyone in L.A. getting up to watch hockey that early after a long New Year's Eve.

That leaves us with Atlanta. Oh, woe is the biggest city in the south. Attendance is not good. Ratings were not good. What else can I say but that it is the same old story in the heart of the south. Yikes.

There's a lot to be made from this list. Some cities may be fueling their case for an NHL team, while others are showing their disinterest, and even more may have been preoccupied by college football. One thing is for sure, Buffalo hockey found it's way back into America's consciousness with it's highest regular season television rating since 1996.