Americans Don't Like Hockey?

I know the Olympics make it something of a different animal than a run-of-the-mill NHL game-- or even a Stanley Cup Finals game-- but NBC's ratings for Sunday's Canada-USA gold medal hockey game have to be making Gary Bettman feel slightly less completely useless today.

Using numbers provided by Sports Business Daily, Sports Media Watch tells us that "Sunday's game drew a higher overnight rating than every World Series game since 2004 (including every game of Yankees/Phillies last year), every NBA Finals telecast since 1998, and every NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four game since at least '98."

It looks as though it might become the highest rated hockey game in the US since 1980, and "excluding the NFL, the 17.6 overnight for the game is the second-highest of the year for any sporting event, behind only the Texas/Alabama BCS National Championship Game in January (18.2)."

Impressive numbers from an audience that we're constantly told don't really care about "our" game.