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The World Juniors holiday tradition continues to captivate the nation, as preliminary overnight data confirms an average audience of 3 million viewers tuned in to TSN (2.5 million) and RDS (554,000) to watch Team Canadas 8-0 defeat over Slovakia on Boxing Day. Team Canadas 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship debut ranked as the most-watched program of the day on Canadian television in all key demographics – and ranks as the top-rated hockey game on any network to date in the 2014/15 broadcast year. Canadians continued to rally behind the World Juniors on Saturday, as the Canada-Germany tilt attracted an average audience of 2.62 million viewers on TSN (2.1 million) and RDS (549,000). Overall, 11.3 million Canadians have tuned in to watch some or all of TSN and RDSs wall-to-wall coverage of the 2015 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship in Montréal and Toronto on December 26 and 27. World Juniors Audience Snapshot: December 26-27 ? The audience for the Canada-Slovakia opener on TSN and RDS was 23% higher than Team Canadas opening Boxing Day game in 2011 – the last time the tournament took place in Canada ? The World Juniors elevated TSN to the #1 network in Canada on both December 26 and 27 – ahead of all conventional networks ? The Canada-Slovakia Boxing Day and Canada-Germany December 27 games rank as the two most-watched preliminary round games ever on RDS ? An average audience of 1 million viewers watched the Finland-USA Boxing Day game on TSN and RDS – ranking as the most-watched non-Canada preliminary round game on record ? On Twitter, various World Juniors-related hashtags were trending across Canada throughout Boxing Day including TSN and Hockey Canadas official World Juniors hashtags #HereWeGo and #2015WJC .Y. -- Phil Jackson lost out on his preferred coach, but hes working hard on keeping his star player. . The 155th edition of the Plate for Canadian-foaled three-year-olds, the oldest continuously run stakes race in North America, will be televised live on TSN in HD (High Definition) in a special presentation from 4:30 – 6:00 pm ET. Post time is 5:38 pm. . “The shootout, theres nothing wrong with it, I think its an exciting part of the game but its just one small aspect,” said Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman. “Its a skill exhibition. If you can get it back closer to regular hockey and have it decided that way; that would be my preference.” “I dont think its a knock on the shootout, I think more of the managers would like to see it end in overtime,” added Washington Capitals GM George McPhee. . Im very excited about the playoffs, particularly in the Western Conference with amazing match-ups, as well as the wonderful local story in the Toronto Raptors. It should be a blast. Here are my predictions, but based upon my lousy prognostications during the NCAA Tournament, you might be better off going the other way on some of mine - particularly with the Raptors, who I hope and pray are able to win an incredibly difficult match-up. . -- Mississippi State was crushed twice by Florida last season, once by 35 points and the other by 25. ' ' '
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