If You Are Looking For A Record Number, Just Add The Chicago Blackhawks!

Mar 1, 2013; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook (7) is congratulated by his teammates for scoring a goal for scoring the game winning goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets during overtime at the United Center. The Blackhawks beat the Blue Jackets 4-3 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Rob Grabowski-USA TODAY Sports

What has the current Chicago Blackhawks done for the NHL and all of its partners? They are bringing in the masses from the old school hockey guy, novice sports fan, disgruntled hockey fan, and of now just people wanting to see history.

First off locally in Chicago, CSN is seeing record ratings on a nightly basis.  The top ten games ever on the network have been played this season, and it seems like each and every game on CSN seems to break the record set the night before on the network. Like I have stated before, the Hawks were televised on CSN during their Stanley Cup run in 2010 and the streak has totally eclipsed those nightly ratings.

Sunday’s NBC telecast of the Hawks vs Detroit rivalry game drew the highest ratings ever for a regular season game if you exclude the Winter Classic games.  The game started at 12:30 east coast and 11:30 in Chicago and it still broke records, which is pretty wild since it wasn’t played during a great prime-time watching period.  NBC posted a 60% gain over last season games played at the same time last season which is incredible.

Wednesday night was rivalry night on NBCSN which most people scoffed at because they tried to make up rivalries like the Hawks vs Colorado. While watching the game there wasn’t any old highlights of the old rivalry between the Hawks and Av’s?!? It might be the marketing of “rivalry night” or people having nothing else to watch but the rivalry concept has worked for the network with all of their matchups this season ending up in their top 10 viewed games on the network all-time.  The Hawks in their two made up rivalry games against the Wild and Avalanche have made the top 6 rated shows on the network. NBCSN has the last laugh since the realignment will now put the Wild and Av’s in the Hawks division!

Lastly, on our family member fansided network of teams, the St Louis Blues site BleedinBlue.com has found the Blackhawks magic work for them too.  With help from Chicago fans the site gets more visits then ever because they no longer look for St Louis Blues stories for their ratings measurements.  Yesterday for the second time in two weeks the Blues wrote an article about how not to worry about the Blackhawks and that they won’t win in June.  I guess when your team is 19 points out of first with only a half of a season gone the only way to attract readers is to write about the successful team in your division.  The Blues are a short losing streak away from being outside of the playoffs so might as well “Strike While the Iron is Hot” and ride the Blackhawks coat tails.

As you can see the Blackhawks are not only record breakers in NHL  history, but if you show or write about the Hawks you will break your own records too!!

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