NBC's New Jersey Devils-Los Angeles Kings Stanley Cup Final opener Wednesday night drew a 2.4 overnight rating -- down 25% from last year's Boston Bruins-Vancouver Canucks opener.

That's surprising. Overtime action -- the Kings won at 8:13 of OT -- tends to help an event's TV rating in any sport because ratings tend to peak at the conclusion of events, and overtime extends that peak. And the game pitted teams from the USA's two biggest TV markets. Last year's Cup Final included a Canadian team -- Vancouver -- whose hometown fans didn't count in U.S. TV ratings. (NBC's 2.4 overnight represents 2.4% of households in the 56 urban markets measured for overnights.)

But, not surprisingly, the market with the highest local TV rating was hockey-friendly Buffalo, where the game drew 7.8% of local households. (And that doesn't even count the many Buffalonians who regularly watch hockey on Canadian TV.) Next came New York with 5.1% and L.A. at 4.2%.

But even in the Cup teams' home towns, NBC's NHL couldn't keep up with the Boston Celtics-Miami Heat NBA playoff game airing at the same time on ESPN: The Celts-Heat game drew 7.4% in New York and 6.1% in L.A.