Video: Penguins' Final Outdoor Viewing Party of the Season

As they did during last year's Stanley Cup playoff run, the Pittsburgh Penguins had their outdoor video board set up outside of Gate 3 at Mellon Arena, allowing thousands of additional fans to take in the game day experience of an NHL playoff game. The party, however, was suddenly canceled earlier this postseason when NBC decided to end the fun by not allowing its games to be rebroadcast on arena screens.

Since Games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Final were broadcast on VERSUS, however, Penguins fans had two more opportunities to take in the experience. Video after the jump.

The turnout for Game 4 on Thursday was the largest one of the past two years, while the size of the crowd seems to grow every time it's discussed (Pittsburgh Police estimated that nearly 10,000 people showed up).

Here's a 10-minute video (discovered by Seth Rorabaugh at the Post Gazette's Empty-Netters blog) that captures the sights and sounds.



During last year's Stanley Cup Final, the Penguins opened the arena and showed the games in Detroit on the scoreboard, while the Red Wings had similar viewing parties for the games taking place in Pittsburgh.

In case you're wondering what such a crowd did to the television ratings, consider that VERSUS averaged a very solid 3.4 million viewers for Game 4, and had a local rating of 27.5 in Pittsburgh (via Steve Lepore of Puck The Media).