The 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs have delivered some memorable games and series, and the television ratings is showing that fans have been paying attention.
As a whole, the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, which is averaging 1.4 million viewers — up 63% from last season and 24% from 2024 — are the most-watched in the U.S. in NHL history, per the Associated Press.
According to ESPN, female viewership is up 106% with the biggest chunk of that number coming from 18-to-34-year-olds. TNT Sports claims female viewership has increased 66%.
ESPN VP of production Linda Schulz believes the success of the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament last year, the U.S. men’s and women’s teams winning gold in the Milano Cortina Olympics, and oddly enough the growing popularity of Amazon Prime’s hockey romance show “Off Campus” has sparked a surge in female interest in the sport.
“We see the numbers up everywhere,” Schulz told the AP. “(Hockey) is a particular challenge because sports fans tend to follow something that they themselves have participated in and hockey is one that is not as commonplace for people to have actually strapped on skates. I approach it with, if I get a new fan coming to hockey, what is going to keep them.”
The NHL has also been catering to more fans, especially female ones, through social media. The league has had several videos from playoff games this year go viral on TikTok and Instagram.
Several series have also been captivating as well.
The Montreal Canadiens-Tampa Bay Lightning first-round series and the Canadiens-Buffalo Sabres second-round series have both gone to seven games. Buffalo beat the Boston Bruins, the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Minnesota Wild beat the Dallas Stars in entertaining six-game series.
The Vegas Golden Knights and Carolina Hurricanes will face-off in the Stanley Cup Final, which begins on Tuesday, June 2 at 6 p.m.
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