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Corey Perry's mini-stick, Patrick Kane's Superman goal, Carey Price's backwards save ... how is the NHL All-Star Game supposed to compete with that carnival?
Thus, Saturday's NHL Skills Competition in Ottawa topped Sunday's All-Star Game in the ratings for CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, according to the overnight ratings. From CBC:
Broadcast live from Ottawa on Sunday, January 29, the 2012 Tim Hortons NHL All Star Game on CBC'S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA drew an average audience of 2.461 million viewers, besting the previous record of 2.389 million viewers set last year. In total, more than 7.3 million people took in some or all of the game, representing 22 per cent of the population.
The Molson Canadian NHL All-Star Skills Competition broadcast on Saturday, January 28 also set a new record, drawing an audience of 2.468 million. More than 6.9 million people, or one in five Canadians, saw at least part of the competition.
This marks the highest rating for an NHL All-Star Game and the Skills Competition on CBC'S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA since metered audience measurement began in 1989-90.
In 2010, the first season of the NHL's current Fantasy Draft format, the Skills Competition averaged 2.45 million viewers to the NHL All-Star Game's 2.39 million viewers.
Two years in a row having obviously indicated a concrete, indisputable trend, we can only deduce that Canadians love the Skills Competition more than the All-Star Game and, hence, the All-Star Game needs to go 4-on-4 to compete. (Climbs off soapbox).
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