Game 7 generated a 5.7 overnight rating for NBC, tying Game 7 of the 2003 Stanley Cup Final between the New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks for the most-watched Game 7 in League history, according to overnight data released by The Nielsen Company.
It's a 14-percent jump from the last Game 7, in 2009 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings.
The 5.7 also tied for the second-best rating of any Stanley Cup game in 37 years, just behind the 5.8 rating from Game 6 of last year's Final between the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers.
The game also was the highest-rated Stanley Cup game featuring a Canadian team in 38 years.
As impressive as the national number was, the rating in the Boston market also was phenomenal. The game earned a 43.4 rating and 64 share, the best overnight rating for a hockey game in Boston (dating to 1991), and the best overnight rating in the Boston market for a game featuring a Boston team in any major sports championship since Super XLII between the New England Patriots and New York Giants earned a 55.6 rating.
Also, the average rating in Boston for the seven-game series was 28.1, far ahead of last year's seven-game NBA Finals series between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, which drew a 25.0.
The 64 share for Game 7 means 64 percent of the households with televisions in the Boston market were watching the game.
More than just the Boston market enjoyed the game, however. Of the top individual markets, three of them were in New England -- No. 2 Providence, R.I. (25.9 rating) and No. 4 Hartford, Conn. (8.7). Buffalo was third with a 10.6 rating, while Detroit tied Hartford with an 8.7 rating.
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