Ratings dive

Congratulations to the Anaheim Ducks, the first NHL team from the West Coast to hoist the Stanley Cup. That means the last three teams to win the most storied trophy in all of sports hail from Orange County, Carolina, and Tampa. No Canadian team has won it since Montreal in 1993, unless you want to consider the ’01 Avalanche a default considering they still fly the Nordiques flag in certain downtown Quebec locales.

Anaheim. Might as well be Nashville or Columbus in 2008, as the NHL further completes its spiral into utter irrelevancy.

What hath Gary Bettman wrought? Not that the Cup ratings were great north of the border, but they were certainly better than what NBC experienced. CBC touted nearly three million viewers for its broadcast of Saturday’s Game 3. The same night, NBC’s coverage received a 1.1 Nielsen rating, the network’s lowest ever for a prime-time broadcast.

Lowest ever.

Remember, this is a network that carried the XFL and gave the green light to “My Mother the Car.” This is a network that gave Jonathan Silverman his own show. More people watched the “Cheers” spinoff, “The Tortellis.” Think about that for a moment.

Granted, TV ratings across the board are down, what with the advent of DVR and such, but with only 1.6 million viewers tuning in, Saturday was certainly a low point for NBC and the NHL overall.

Here are a few of the programs that have recently had higher ratings: Disney’s Hannah Montana (5.8 rating), Univision’s La Fea Mas Bella (2.0), and Fox’s Cops (1.4). In fact, Cops tripled the rating of Saturday’s game in the same 8 p.m. time slot. Even NESN’s SportsDesk, following Monday’s West Coast Red Sox game, which ended at 2 a.m., did somewhat close to a 2.0 in the books.

But anyway, congrats to the Ducks and all. Even if Teemu Selanne is about as recognizable to most of America as a beat cop from Southern Alabama, chasing a criminal through the streets.