SCF game #3 is Saturday
Game #3 of the Stanley Cup Finals is Saturday at 8pm on NBC. The Ottawa Senators look to earn their first victory of the series at home, while the Anaheim Ducks hope to win and go up 3-0 in the series on the road. I’ve only been able to watch the second half of both games, but the first one especially was a fantastic game to watch. I look forward to watching Saturday’s game and not having any stress about the outcome of the game really lets you enjoy it on a different level.
Unfortunately, the US ratings for the first two games have been disappointing.
Paul @ Kukla’s Korner provided his readers with a snippet from Sports Business Daily:
Versus earned a 0.62 overnight Nielsen cable rating for Game One of the Senators-Ducks Stanley Cup Finals on Monday night, down 28.7% from a 0.87 for Oilers-Hurricanes Game One last season. The net earned a 1.7 rating in L.A. on Monday, its best mark ever in the market. The three top local markets were Buffalo (3.9), Denver (2.2) and Pittsburgh.
Game #2 was watched by less than half a million households (in the US) for a game in the SCF. That sucks.
CBC ratings were down slightly for Game #1, but up by a little for Game #2. Their overall average has dropped.
On Versus in the U.S., Game 2 got a 0.6 cable rating and was watched in just 446,000 homes. That was down 33 per cent from last year’s second game, which received a 0.9 cable rating (600,000 homes) on OLN, as the same network was known then. This year’s Game 1 was watched in just 523,000 households in the United States.
Through two games, the Stanley Cup final has averaged a 0.7 rating in the U.S., down 22 per cent from last year’s 0.9, and households are down 20 per cent, to 485,000 from 606,000 last year.
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Overall, the Canadian ratings are down slightly as Games 1 and 2 have averaged 2.493 million viewers, a five per cent dip compared to the first two games last year.
Early in this SCF series, Ducks’ goaltender JS Giguere seems to be the early favorite for the Conn Smyth hardware.
Giguere, who had five shutouts in the 2003 playoffs, has long since established himself as one of the NHL’s top postseason goalies and is only burnishing his reputation in this series. Through two games, Giguere has stopped 34 of 36 shots, and both Ottawa goals came on the power play.
“I’m feeling pretty good on the ice,” Giguere said. “But this is a totally different season (from 2003). We have a totally different team. Our team is a lot more talented. We have a lot more offensive power and a lot more size. It just makes my job easier. I just have to go out and give our team a chance to win.”
Two more victories are still needed, but if they come, Giguere is almost certain to be playoff MVP for the second time in four seasons. Giguere’s playoff GAA fell to 1.76 with the shutout.
Giguere didn’t need to be at his best in Game 2. For the most part, the Ducks did an excellent job of keeping the speedy Senators out of their zone and kept the traffic in front of Giguere to a minimum.
Spector posted a pre-game look at the two teams this afternoon at Fox Sports:
Why Anaheim will win: Their size, strength and aggressive forechecking have thus far proven too much for the Senators to contain. They’ll continue to out-muscle the Senators defense with their forecheck, forcing turnovers and winning the battles for loose pucks, as well as break up Ottawa’s transition game. They’ll try to score early to take the Ottawa crowd out of the game.
Their blueline corps had a more disciplined effort in Game 2, shutting down the Senators offense, which should carry over into Game 3. The Ducks will try harder to get their power play working against the Senators penalty killers. Goaltender J.S. Giguere has maintained top form despite a limited workload in this series.
Why Ottawa will win: They cannot afford to fall behind 0-3 in this series thus they’ll be forced to play more aggressively. The Senators should also get a big emotional lift playing on their home ice for the first time in this series. Head coach Bryan Murray has the last change on home ice and will try to use it to keep his top line away from the Ducks checking lines.
They need Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley to score if they’re to win this game. The Senators got more physical in Game 2 and will try to do the same in this game. Their defense corps must outwork the Ducks forecheckers and do a better job clearing their zone. Ray Emery has been outstanding between the pipes for the Senators in this series and will give them a chance to win Game 3.
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4 Responses to “SCF game #3 is Saturday”
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June 1st, 2007 at 6:35 pm
FYI: G3 is tomorrow night (Saturday), not tonight.
Silly SCF schedule, I know. But the Senators needed another day for reporters to properly harass them about their G2 performance.
June 1st, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Oh man. I made quite a mistake! Thanks for catching it Earl- I owe you!
I’ve had a rough day. EMG test this morning + lots of knee pain so I’m kind of in a haze. I guess I just wanted to watch hockey tonight and decided to pretend that there was a game tonight.
Wow. I still can’t believe I did that and I call myself a hockey blogger. Haha.
June 1st, 2007 at 6:43 pm
No worries, it’s a sort of lazy schedule if you ask me. Monday-Wednesday-Saturday and repeat as needed.
I’d like a game tonight too, but Bettman probably wants to watch horse racing instead.
Hope the knee feels better!
June 1st, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Thanks again Earl. I definitely wish that they had more of the SCF games on the weekend especially Friday games.
And your Ducks are doing great!