NHL Finals Ratings: Almost -Whelming!

If one can be overwhelmed by something, then it stand to reason that one should be able to be “whelmed,” meaning your expectations have been met and not exceeded by something.
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↵I mention the word because game one of the NHL finals pulled the highest ratings in six years for the league, garnering a 1.8 national rating overall and giving Versus their most viewers since Lance Armstrong’s final stage of the 2006 Tour de France. (A 2.1 share, for the record.)
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↵Yahoo trumpets this as a 157 percent raise from last year, but put that in perspective: first, the ratings last year were so low they may have been the same as the number of televisions left on randomly for pets at home. Second, compare the ratings for funzies to the NASCAR race on Fox on Sunday: in its lowest hour, the race earned a 2.1 share of viewers; in its highest, the race got a 2.9 share.
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↵Just to put a hockey ratings renaissance in perspective: it pulled below NASCAR when it had the two most intense stateside fanbases fully engaged on a Saturday night. Hockey fans may take comfort in the fact that even with a 1.8 share, they still beat the NBA playoffs (a 1.0 rating; David Stern just grabbed his chest and remembered to move up his cardiologist appointment.)
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↵There’s a word for that, too: underwhelming.↵