Rogers relishing glut of Canadian NHL teams headed to playoffs
What a difference a year makes.
Last April, Scott Moore, president of Rogers’ (TSX:RCI.B) Sportsnet and NHL properties, was trying to put a positive spin on the fact that, for the first time since 1970, not one Canadian NHL team made the playoffs.
Rogers, which a few years earlier paid a record $5.2 billion to lock up the rights to a dozen years of national NHL broadcasts, saw ratings take a punishing body check. Canadian sports fans abandoned hockey telecasts in record numbers and not one of the opening-round series averaged a million or more viewers.
This spring, with days to go in the regular season schedule, five Canadian teams stand poised to make the playoffs: the Montreal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs. Only the Winnipeg Jets and Vancouver Canucks are out of the hunt.