Not really a surprse considering Raptors has a national fan base as opposed to Oilers.
Raptors NBA Finals viewership was incredible. But yup, once the playoffs start they're essentially the "Canada Raptors."
Very different from NHL. Lot of people were missing the boat trying to make it out like the Oilers were Canada's team.
Also, the Raptors playoffs/Finals viewership is very different from their regular season viewership. They're routinely beat by not just the obvious of national NHL broadcasts in Canada, but Raptors national broadcasts in Canada are beaten nightly by regional NHL broadcasts. That's essentially where they compete at viewership wise, their national broadcasts are in the range (but well behind the highs) of regional Canadian NHL broadcasts.
I believe 710k is still the Raptors regular season record viewership up north?
Haven't seen this season but last season when I followed the Top 3-5 Sports Viewership in Canada lists the only time in the regular season the Raptors were on top of the list was their season opener (704k) and a couple nights later on a Monday night (648k), the rest of the season was between 150k to sub-500k or the # wasn't listed because they weren't Top 3-5 in Canada that night.
Outside of the Raptors, NBA regular season national broadcasts in Canada for non-Raptors games were between 30k to 150k that I saw, don't remember seeing any breaking 200k (note: doesn't mean it didn't happen, just means wasn't Top 3-5 that night but generally that meant not breaking 200k.)
NBA isn't as popular as many think in Canada. The Raptors are popular, when they're in the playoffs. In the regular season they're usually losing out to regional NHL broadcasts, and they're way behind the Blue Jays in regular season viewership.