Stanley Cup Final ratings continue to suffer in the pandemic era of the NHL.

The current health crisis around the globe has had a devastating economic impact on many people, businesses and industries over the past year and half and the National Hockey League has been no exception. The league has not only taken a massive loss in revenue due to their inability to sell tickets for the overwhelming majority of the season, but also as a result of the added financial burden of playing out a season with all the additional safety measures and precautions that must be taken during a pandemic.

The pandemic hasn't helped the NHL in terms of its viewer ratings either with the last Stanley Cup Final receiving very low viewership. Of course that Cup Final was played out of season, the league ended up finishing out the playoffs in September after shutting down midseason, and featured a bizarre format inside of the bubble which many pointed to as reasons for a decline in viewers.

It would seem however that the league may be looking at a bounce back and the ratings from the past 3 Stanley Cup Finals would appear to indicate that the pandemic slump may be coming to an end. This year's final game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Montreal Canadiens drew 3.6 million viewers on NBC which was a noticeable increase from the previous Final's Game 5 between the Lightning and Dallas Stars which drew just 2.7 million sets of eyeballs. That is made all the more impressive when you consider the fact that only one American team was featured in the final this time around, which in theory should have hurt the viewership on NBC which is an American network.

That number is still a far cry from the pre pandemic era number that we saw in Game 5 between the Boston Bruins and the St. Louis Blues in their Stanley Cup Final, with that one drawing in 5.5 million. Even further still from the 6.7 million that was drawn when the Washington Capitals defeated the Golden Knights in Game 5 of their Stanley Cup Final in 2018.

Hopefully though this is a sign that the NHL can expect viewership to return in full force when things get back to normal (we hope) in the 2021 - 2022 NHL season.