from Ben Strauss of the New York Times,

When the Chicago Blackhawks and the Anaheim Ducks met in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals, the Blackhawks’ owner, Rocky Wirtz, had an idea about where besides Chicago he would find a jittery audience: Rockefeller Center, home of NBC, the N.H.L.’s broadcast partner.

“They probably had candles lit, praying we would win that game,” Wirtz said last week.

The Blackhawks prevailed, and NBC was rewarded with nearly 5.5 million viewers for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals Wednesday, another Chicago win. That was nearly a million more than the average for last year’s matchup between the Rangers and Los Angeles Kings, featuring the country’s two biggest markets.

Eight years after Wirtz inherited the team, the Blackhawks are a juggernaut, a few victories away from their third Stanley Cup championship in six seasons. They are also by a number of metrics — ratings, jersey sales, social media — the most popular hockey team in the United States.

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