Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 6/6/2009 4:28:06 PM MT
Before the puck dropped on the National Hockey League playoffs, Versus executive vice president of programming, production and business operations Marc Fein talked about how cool it would be for Comcast's national sports network, which had rights to Game 3 and 4, to show the winning team hoisting the Stanley Cup.

While that scenario didn't materialize, Versus president Jamie Davis nonetheless was elated about the way the NHL postseason has played out.
Game 4 Stanley Cup 2009"It's a great matchup; the first Stanley Cup Final rematch in 25 years. There was a lot of buzz coming in. Potentially, we could have shown the crowning of the Stanley Cup champion on our air, or be in the middle of very exciting series," said Davis in a phone interview from Pittsburgh Wednesday, the day after the Penguins beat the Detroit Red Wings in Game 3. "Either way, it was a no-lose situation for us."

Although Nielsen Media Research had not yet tallied the numbers for Game 3, Davis, during the Wednesday afternoon conversation, was confident the contest would yield the highest-rated telecast in the network's history. He proved to be a prudent prognosticator: Versus netted records with a 2.6 household rating and 2.96 million viewers.
As for Game 4 in which the Penguins knotted the series, Nielsen was experiencing technical difficulties and had not calculated a number for the June 4 Cup contest by press time. But the number promised to be large and put a nice cap on what has been an extremely successful NHL season. Indeed, the 2008-09 campaign, Versus' fourth with the pro puck league, was its best with the Nielsens.

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