The Great Canadian Ratings Report: World juniors just what doctor ordered for TSN (Eh Game)

Just in time for the holiday season, there's a bit of Christmas cheer in TSN's stocking. After falling behind hated rival and perennial runner-up Sportsnet in the ratings battle, TSN could use the kind of good news that the world junior hockey tournament provides every winter. That news came on the weekend when a meaningless pre-tournament game finished seventh in the sports ratings, outdrawing a Saturday night NFL game and the Raptors. That's encouraging for TSN, which fully expects this year's tournament to come up short compared with last year's. That's because this event is in Helsinki, meaning none of the prime-time games that pushed the Canadian-based 2015 tournament to ratings heights. Sunday's Canada-Czech Republic exhibition averaged 332,000 viewers -- down substantially from last December's highest-rated preliminary game between Canada and Russia (480,000 viewers.) But that game was at 8 p.m. ET on a Friday, a far better slot than Sunday's 10 a.m. slot. It also featured a much better matchup, what with the Czechs generally not evoking the same emotions as the Russians do. How the world juniors do this time around depends on the usual factors: Will Canada make it to the...