With a little help from BBM’s new Portable People Meters, the National Hockey League returned with a bang on CBC, where numbers soared for the first games of the 2009/10 season.

The marquee match between the Toronto Maple Leafs and rival Montreal Canadiens kicked off Hockey Night in Canada coverage with a whopping 2.5 million viewers on Thursday. The numbers are miles ahead of last year’s first game of the season which averaged one million viewers — though it featured the Leafs in a less-compelling matchup against the Detroit Red Wings. (All numbers 2+.)

Numbers were also up at French caster RDS, which averaged 861,000 for the Leafs/Canadiens bout that saw Montreal win in overtime, jumping from 796,000 for last year’s first game. The broadcast peaked at 1.1 million. Quebec has had PPMs in use for some time.

The second game of the night, featuring the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks, nabbed 1.3 million viewers on CBC. That’s a significant increase over last year’s second game between the same two teams which averaged 726,000 viewers.

On Saturday Hockey Night in Canada aired three games regionally — Leafs/Capitals, Canadiens/Sabres and Senators/Rangers — which scored an average 1.7 million, followed by 1.1 million viewers for the national broadcast of the Flames/Oilers at 10 p.m.

RDS averaged 767,000 viewers on Saturday for the Canadiens/Sabres game, peaking at 929,000.

TSN aired mostly European matches over the weekend, while its broadcasts from North America kicked off Monday with an all-U.S. matchup between the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils. The caster’s first all-Canadian game airs Tuesday.

Rogers Sportsnet joins the party on Thursday with its regional coverage of the Senators/Islanders and Oilers/Flames games.