PITTSBURGH—Sportsnet and the CBC think they’ve struck it big when four million Canadians tune in to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

NBC was ecstatic to announce average viewership of five million for Monday’s Game 1 of the Cup final between Nashville and Pittsburgh, a 22 per cent increase over Pittsburgh-San Jose last year.

But those numbers pale in comparison to the regular audience in China: 22 million.

“We have a lot of people,” said Chinese broadcaster Wei Wu, who calls himself Marvin. “Viewership is not a problem.”

Indeed, the nation of 1.3 billion people has warmed to hockey in a big way and the NHL has noticed.

“Before we starting broadcasting the NHL four years ago, there were only 200 players playing in Beijing,” said Wu. “Right now, the number has increased to 12,000.”

Wu calls four NHL games a week from back home, but has ventured around the world to cover the Cup final live since 2015, with colour commentator Longmou Li. There are now as many Chinese media members on hand as there are from the usual suspects of the hockey-playing world — Finland, Sweden and Russia.

“I love this event,” said Wu. “It’s a passionate, fast, skilful game.”

According to the IIHF’s website, China has 206 outdoor and 154 indoor rinks. The national women’s team is ranked 16th in the world, the men 37th.

Former NHL coach Mike Keenan has been working behind the bench for the men’s team, which will train in Toronto in June. The team went 5-0 in the six-nation IIHF Division II-B tournament in New Zealand in April. Israel, Mexico, Turkey, New Zealand and North Korea were also in the tournament.

In January, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said if the International Olympic Committee doesn't cover out-of-pocket expenses, the league doesn't "even have to think about" participating in the 2018 Olympics.

The KHL has a team in Beijing, but it’s the NHL they want. Chinese fans are upset that the NHL isn’t sending players to Winter Games in South Korea next year, an opportunity to show off hockey’s stars in prime time in front of large Asian audiences.

“We are very disappointed,” said Wu. “It’s bad news.”

Signs point to the NHL returning to the Olympics in 2022, when Beijing will be the host. The league has also arranged for the Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings to play an exhibition game in China in September as part of a long-term strategy.

“We’re working very hard and are very focused on developing the Chinese market — in part because we have been told from the Chinese government at very high levels that there is, leading to 2022, a priority to develop winter sports,” said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. “I was told by the minister of sport when I was there about a month ago that they would like to see 300 million more participants in winter sports, particularly and including hockey. We said we would work very closely with the government to try and help grow the game at all levels. They said they would help us grow the business of the game at all levels. It looks like the making of a very good partnership.”

In his state-of-the-game address prior to Game 1, Bettman insisted that no one in the Chinese federation negotiating to bring the Kings and Canucks to Beijing brought up Olympic participation.

“The issue of the Olympics of 2022, in all my meetings when I was in Beijing, never came up. I think the focus is more about long-term development of the sport — not necessarily what happens for two weeks in 2022,” said Bettman.

What Bettman didn’t say was that Olympic hockey was on the minds of fans in Beijing and journalists covering the NHL’s visit.

“We want to see the best players in the world take part in the Olympics,” said Wu. “Maybe they will.”

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Some hockey terms, in Chinese

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Puck: Bing-Qiu

Skate: Hua-Bing

Stick: Qiu-gan

Forecheck: Qian-Qiang

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