Hockey ratings on the rise in New York
Mikhail Grabovski of the New York Islanders celebrates his first period goal against the New York Rangers at Nassau Coliseum on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015 in Uniondale, New York. Credit: Jim McIsaac
It has been a long time since the New York area had a hockey regular season such as this one - not only on the ice but also as reflected by television ratings.
Take the Islanders: Their games on MSG Networks have averaged 0.60 percent of homes, which might not sound like much but is 76 percent better than at this point last season.
The Rangers were up 26 percent to 1.63 percent of area homes entering Monday night's game and easily will surpass the Knicks for the first time since 2007-08.
The Knicks' average rating is 1.32, down 39 percent from 2013-14.
In 2007-08, the Rangers out-rated the Knicks, 1.15 to 0.91. Those Rangers reached the second round of the playoffs, while those Knicks finished 23-59 in Isiah Thomas' second and final season as coach.
Even the Devils, who will not make the playoffs, are up 41 percent this season, to a still-modest 0.25 rating.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
