Fox Sports North recently put out a news release noting the Wolves had a 2.6 rating in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market on FSN this season, up 78 percent from a year ago and reflective of the team's improvement from 31 to 47 victories.
RandBall: Still 'State of Hockey,' but hoops is gaining
April 27, 2018 at 1:45AM
I don't recall seeing a similar release on the Wild this season, but Sports Business Daily nicely filled in the gap with a recent piece on local NHL TV ratings this season.
Per that report, the Wild had a 3.43 rating on FSN — down 22 percent from the previous year. I'm not overly surprised by the decrease. Even as the Wild churned toward a sixth consecutive playoff berth, it wasn't an overly compelling or different team than we had seen in past years. On nights when both the Wild and Wolves were televised on FSN and FSN Plus, the Wild might have lost some battles it previously won.
So as far as TV ratings go, this is still the State of Hockey. But the gap has considerably narrowed.
Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.
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The star forward came back from a brief injury absence, and two goals from Frederick Gaudreau helped Minnesota to another road victory.
