There’s been much talk this morning about NBC and the NHL hitting the jackpot with a Stanley Cup Final featuring the nation’s two top markets.

As Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast, my friends.”

The trouble is, they don’t watch really watch hockey in New York and Los Angeles. They do in my town, Chicago.

Just look at the ratings.

Last night’s Game 7 did a huge 22.7 rating in Chicago, which translates to more than 800,000 homes tuning in.

Chicago powered a national 3.17 overnight rating, the highest ever for any NHL game on NBCSN, and that includes Stanley Cup Final games. It surpassed Game 3 of last year’s Chicago-Boston Final, which did a 3.10 rating.

Chicago accounted for at least 25 percent of the national rating Sunday. Percentage could get higher when overall national rating is released later.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the Kings did a 4.8 rating (268,800 homes). A 4.8 rating for a Game 7 that put the Kings in the Stanley Cup Final? Are you kidding? The Blackhawks do better than that for a regular-season game against Carolina.

What about the Rangers? Their Game 6 clincher over Montreal did an 8.5 rating (620,500 homes) in New York Thursday.

New York is an Original 6 town, and it can’t break double-digits for a game that puts the Rangers in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 20 years? Are you kidding, part 2?

No, these aren’t passionate hockey towns. However, New York and Los Angeles still will deliver viewers just because of the sheer size of the nation’s No. 1 and 2 markets.

Also, the NY-LA thing holds some appeal throughout the country. It will bring some fans to their TVs.

Listen, NBC isn’t going to complain about a Rangers-Kings series. It is much better than a Winnipeg-Ottawa Final, and various other possibilities among the NHL’s less attractive teams and markets.

The Blackhawks, though, represented the jackpot for NBC and the NHL. Hockey fever is so high here, there would have been ratings in the 30s for some Final games. And as I have written many time, those numbers add up since Chicago is the nation’s third largest market.

Oh well, it is hard to repeat in the NHL. Enjoy your vacation, Blackhawks.