The next two weeks are audience locks -- with the Leafs visiting Vancouver and Montreal. But if Toronto's record still stinks after that, the CBC won't hesitate to adjust the picture in its national distribution.

"After that, we may start to play with how much of the country sees the Leafs or the Sens or the Habs based on team performance and matchup," Scott Moore, the executive director of CBC Sports said yesterday in an e-mail.

For now, the numbers are holding up surprisingly well. The Leafs most recent loss this past Saturday against the New York Rangers brought in a healthy 1.7 million viewers, the most watched sports show of the week.

Seven days earlier, the Leafs-Penguins were strong at 1.69 million and the first Saturday, a three-game national split, which included the Leafs and Washington, drew 1.74 million.

The longer the slide goes, however, interest is bound to wane and those numbers surely will soften. And then Moore and the other CBC suits will take a closer look at how best to serve the country.

"We are ready to make changes whenever we have to," Hockey Night executive producer, Sherali Najak said yesterday. "We'll watch every week and rely on the numbers, but what we've learned is that fans want to see some variety."


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