The Penguins didn't live up to expectations on the ice in their season opener Wednesday against New Jersey, but they were a spectacular success in almost as important an area.

Television ratings for the game on FSN Pittsburgh were an absolute smash. The overall rating number was 7.5, which comes close to tripling the number of viewers watching the team when it last played at the end of the 2003-04 season.

The Pirates averaged about a 4.5 rating for their recently completed season.

The rating numbers of the national game between the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers that was carried on OLN were miniscule compared to those of the Penguins, but there were extenuating circumstances.

In what was the debut telecast for OLN, which is the prime national network for the NHL, the Rangers-Flyers game had a rating number of 0.4. The biggest factor was the national game was going up against 14 other games being shown in local markets. Additionally, OLN is not available to many viewers. In the Pittsburgh region it is available to customers of the largest cable provider, Comcast, but not on Armstrong and only to the digital-plus Adelphia customers.

The 15 games scheduled for opening night played to 98 percent capacity. The total attendance of 275,447 was a single-date record for the NHL.