While viewership for the deciding Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final is not out yet, viewership for the first five games is at its highest level since 2013.

Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights averaged 5.8 million viewers. That marks the largest Game 5 audience since the Washington Capitals-Golden Knights series in 2018 on NBC (6.59 million).

Viewership peaked at 6.9 million viewers in the 9:30 p.m. quarter-hour.

Through Game 5, the Stanley Cup Final is averaging 5.1 million viewers. That is the highest audience for the first five games of a Stanley Cup Final since 2013.

The last time a full Stanley Cup Final averaged over 5 million viewers was the seven-game St. Louis Blues-Boston Bruins series in 2019, which averaged 5.3 million viewers.

The NHL is having a bit of a viewership moment recently, and Stanley Cup Final viewership suggests the momentum may not be slowing anytime soon. Notably, neither the Hurricanes nor the Golden Knights are traditional hockey powers.

If this series had featured an Original Six team or even just a team in a bigger market, viewership may have been even stronger.

But while viewership momentum is good for the NHL, caution is warranted. Next year’s Stanley Cup Final will be cable-only on TNT Sports, and that has been a viewership drag for the league in 2023 and 2025.

Unless the NHL convinces TNT to simulcast games over the air on its new sibling, CBS, maintaining these favorable ratings may prove difficult next year.

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Ron MacLean, one of Canada’s most beloved hockey broadcasters, issued an apology for a remark he made on-air before Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Prior to the Carolina Hurricanes winning their second Stanley Cup in franchise history with a shutout win over the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 6, Hockey Night in Canada aired a skit that caused MacLean to make a controversial joke. The skit was meant to parody a scene from The Hangover, where Sportsnet reporter Kyle Bukauskas jokingly finds Stanley Cup keepers Phil Pritchard and Craig Campbell passed out on a rooftop after a night of partying in Las Vegas.

Ron McLean actively trying to get himself into an early retirement tonight by making a roofie joke.

“the roofies, they’ll get you every time.”

Don’t even try to suggest this isn’t worse than what Cherry was done in for. Unreal. pic.twitter.com/gFp0omVe8m

— Daniel Perianu (@perianudan) June 15, 2026

After Bukauskas failed to wake Pritchard and Campbell, Sportsnet went back to MacLean, who commended the skit before adding, “The roofies, they’ll get you every time.”

Roofie is commonly slang for any sedative used as a date-rape drug.

MacLean later apologized on the broadcast for using the term so lightly.

Ron Maclean apologizes for this comment #NHLplayoffs#StanleyCuphttps://t.co/QvldmCKbHkpic.twitter.com/1NqXYu6ZgG

— bnpeki Matthew Knies Enjoyer (@bnpeki) June 15, 2026

“We had a fun spoof on the movie The Hangover, and I referenced a scene in the movie where Mike Tyson’s tiger is put to sleep,” MacLean said. “The Keepers of the Cup, of course, are asleep in the skit, and I used the term, the slang term for the drug, which has far more serious connotations in reality, and I should have made that connection. I did not.”

“I know I triggered some people,” he continued. “I know I offended some people with that remark, and I feel very badly for that. And I want to thank you for bringing it to my attention, to our attention, I’m very sorry.”

This is not the first time MacLean has needed to apologize for something said on-air. In 2021, he issued a statement after making a joke that many considered homophobic. MacLean was also on Hockey Night in Canada in 2019, when longtime analyst Don Cherry launched an offensive rant about immigrants that led to his firing. Sportsnet has not issued a public comment on MacLean’s “roofie” joke from Sunday night.

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