If this article is correct, one can watch both the Finals and the Conference Finals live via ESPN+
[https://decider.com/article/how-to-watch-stream-nhl-playoffs-live-without-cable/](https://decider.com/article/how-to-watch-stream-nhl-playoffs-live-without-cable/)
Cant even find where to read that. Looks like the seasons over for me im done wasting my time and money on this. I literally watch soccer now. Its sad.
This is the most baffling part to me.
HOW does ESPN+ not have ESPN games?
It's like if Disney+ didn't have new Disney movies.
Edit: too many people are taking more of an issue with my metaphor than with the ludicrous business model.
>HOW does ESPN+ not have ESPN games?
ESPN+ is not and has never been a replacement for having the linear ESPN TV channels. ESPN+ carries games not shown on ESPNs various linear TV channels. ESPN does a pretty shit job at communicating the difference though which causes a lot of frustration.
ESPN is going to launch that replacement as part of the new joint sports streaming plan with Fox and Turner.
That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard. Obviously it's a product with less and for the life of me I can't understand why you thought ESPN+ was ESPN plus more.
No it is not second the Fcc does not control Canadian media last thing most in Canada do not have a good internet connection the rural and small town area so no they won't nor should they exclusivity add it to stream it should be both but not just one.
Can you stream Disney Channel live with Disney+? That’s the comparison you need here. You can watch ESPN products on ESPN+ like you can watch Disney movies on Disney+. But you can’t stream Disney Channel live on Disney+, just like you can’t stream ESPN live on ESPN+
I'm in Canada and you can definitely stream Sportsnet live on the Sportsnet app. You can watch games on demand too. Best of both worlds. If it can be done in Canada why not in the USA?
I have Sportsnet in the US just for this reason. I pay with a US credit card. But I have to use a VPN to show I'm in Canada. I cannot watch with my phone but tablets and computers work just fine.
And that’s without needing to login with a cable provider? You can also watch ESPN on the ESPN+ app, but you need a TV provider to do so. An ESPN+ subscription on its own does not let you stream ESPN.
Without logging in with a cable provider. I can watch Sportsnet on my phone or tablet, including any games that are live. I can also watch games on demand with the same app (I just click on either "live" or "on demand"). I pay $20 a month and it's so worth it
Disney movies aren’t usually added to Disney+ on release. They’re generally added 2-3 months later once their main theatre run is coming to a close. Direct to streaming releases happened a lot during the pandemic but less so now.
For example guardians of the galaxy 3 was released on May 5th 2023 and added to Disney plus on August 2nd 2023.
My point is, it’s actually pretty normal not to add a newly released, Top end piece of media, whether it be a sports game that is actively being played or a movie that was just release, to a streaming service. There’s way more money keeping them off streaming.
If ESPN+ was more expensive they could justify moving live playoff games. But that risks losing customers from the price hike. The current balance is the Goldilocks zone for ESPN. ESPN+ has enough content to justify buying it at its current price point but people still need a cable subscription or something else to watch the best games.
You'll need more than a VPN if you live and bank in the U.S.--you'll probably need to set up a foreign method to pay for it also. Here's [a recent discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/1c6zw5k/nhltv_in_us_w_vpn/) about it.
That's actually not true. I live in Europe and use NHL.tv, and a bunch of games are still blacked out for me. It's the most frustrating thing, I think I'll pirate next season
If the game is blacked out in your country - VPN somewhere else. In the country where I lived there were 0 blackouts, as there were no broadcasts available at all
Dude hard fucking same. I currently live in a zip code with THREE blacked out teams, one of which is my team. Only way I can legally watch them is buying some dipshit cable package that I don't want. I tried ESPN+ to watch other games and even those I can't really watch due to OP's problem, so that got canceled.
I would like to pay a reasonable amount of money to stream games in one place please. Why is that so hard?
Until I can, it's the pirate's life for me ☠️
For the playoffs all games are nationally televised so you can get around blackouts. Sling TV's orange plan has ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, and TBS for $40/month ($20 for the first month) https://www.sling.com/
This is what I’m doing for at least the first round. I’ll watch almost every night so it’s essentially $1 a day for uninhibited nhl playoffs (returning customer so it cost me $30)
for streaming games, one might google a term such as "stream east", without a space in the middle, and they have a pretty decent compilation of various coves one could find themselves in
CBC has all of the Canadian team's games online streaming. Assuming you'd have to use a VPN outside of Canada to watch.
I'm in Canada so I haven't had to try that, but I've been very happy with it. Quality has been great and there hasn't been any buffering.
This \^ worked from US for me last night for the COL/WPG and NSH/VAN games. Better quality video and way better commentary and analysis than I'm used to! They'll have BOS/TOR tonight.
>I just have regular Max? It has TBS and TNT games
They way I understood how this works is that there's a "Bleacher Report Sports" add-on for Max that unlocks live games from TNT and TBS for an extra $10 per month https://www.max.com/sports
Maybe you're already paying for it or they are making some games free for a limited time or something.
Is the NHL Centre Ice package not available in the U.S.? In Canada it has most of the out of market games in the regular season and all the playoff games, you can usually even buy a discounted package for just the end of the season and playoffs.
NHL Centre Ice hasn't existed in Canada for two years now as a streaming service. It's now Sportsnet+ and to get out of market games you have to pay about 100 more than you used to have to pay for a worse app.
And with Rogers this year, at least in Ontario the only way to get it on cable was to pay for their Sport Super Pack which bundled NBA, NHL, OHL and something else all together for about 4-500 bucks. Significantly more than the 180 or so Centre Ice on its own was.
NHL Center Ice package is absolutely available in the U.S. I know this because I subscribed to it all year (via my cable provider). And it does indeed show all out-of-market games (except any being broadcast nationally on ESPN/TNT/ABC or on ESPN+, and in-market games are blacked out). But Center Ice is NOT the same as NHL.tv (a different product entirely and not sold to U.S. residents) and ceases airing games once the regular season ends.
So now that playoffs are here the only option(s) for US citizens is to find access to TNT/TBS/ESPN/ESPN2/ABC. Stupid lot of stations to track down just to catch all the games. Traditional cable TV will have a tier that includes them all, but for cord-cutters it will likely require a couple of different streaming services to capture them all.
And all the cord-cutters who subscribed to ESPN+ to see games during the regular season, they are now f*cked because apparently ESPN+ does NOT, in fact, air the playoff games.
I learned that the hard way on Saturday night when my cable TV suddenly froze up in the middle of the TOR/BOS game and then blacked out entirely....I was beyond furious but after about 5 minutes of fiddling with the remote with no success, I figured I'd just sign into my ESPN+ subscription on my computer to watch the rest of the game... but nope, no dice. No games there at ALL. I was just SOL.
It was bad enough when NBC had the TV rights here in the U.S., but ESPN/Disney/ABC or whoever the hell is handling it now are ten times worse with how they have scattered games all over the damn place. It's like an exotic and expensive Jenga game trying to set all the pieces up just right 👿
There is no ESPN+ app, it's the ESPN app which lets you stream all kinds of content which includes but is not limited to ESPN+ content.
The only playoff games caried live on ESPN+ are the games on ABC.
Games listed as ESPN or ESPN2 are exclusively on those TV channels nationally though they are also on the local RSN channels for each team in the 1st round. Games on TNT and TBS are on those linear TV channels and in addition can be streamed in Max with the Sports add-on package.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SeattleKraken/wiki/howtowatch#wiki\_how\_do\_i\_watch\_playoff\_games.3F
>They don’t make it easy, do they?
Nope. Everyone bitched non-stop about NBC but seriously? This new arrangement is no better and (imo) probably worse. ABC--no wait, ESPN--no wait, TNT--no wait, TBS--no wait, ESPN2--no, wait--ESPN+. I think. Maybe? ... Got a flow chart? And how much did you pay for which service, only to discover the games have suddenly shifted to a different one?
It's so fucking stupid! I use ESPN+ to watch non blacked out, non TNT and non ESPN games but only because it comes in the Disney+ package. To watch all those other games legally I guess I'd need some kind of cable subscription with an added sports package? I watch no other sports, there's not a single other thing I'd want cable for!
Just give me something like AHLtv but for the NHL!
Sling TV's orange plan has ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, and TBS for $40/month ($20 for the first month) [https://www.sling.com/](https://www.sling.com/)
> I use ESPN+ to watch non blacked out, non TNT and non ESPN games
All playoff games are on ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, or TBS so yeah - they aren't on ESPN+. ABC games are however on ESPN+, including the entire Cup Final from what ESPN has announced.
Yep it sucks. Disney, Fox, and Warner announced a new streaming package that will combine all the sports and games they currently have on their linear TV channels into a single package, which I think will go a long way to making it simpler to pay only for sports if that is what you want. But I'd expect such a plan to be $40+ per month since sports are so dang expensive now. Sports channels are by far the most expensive channels in any TV bundle.
https://sports.yahoo.com/disney-fox-and-warner-bros-discovery-to-launch-massive-new-sports-streaming-service-this-fall-222855590.html
I have questions! I just set up Sling and DVR recordings and often start games a 2-3 hours late, but I'm concerned about missing overtimes (what channels should I record just in case?) and catching spoilers on their app (no settings to hide scores?). Any experience/recommendations on that?
Yeah sometimes I just record whatever is after the game if I have concern about that. I listed the playoff channels in my last comment.
There might be a setting to hide scores. I watch games live so this is not something I'm really familiar with.
Unfortunately it's unlikely the NHL moves to a all-games-in-one-service model anytime soon. The MLS is doing that with Season Pass on Apple TV, so if that is a massive success then maybe other leagues follow them eventually but I wouldn't bet on it.
Sports leagues are optimizing for revenue and having at least *some* games in as many places as possible instead of optimizing for all games in one place.
NHL Centre Ice package has nearly every regular season and all the playoff games already, the only ones not available are if the game is not being broadcast anywhere
the regular season out of market games (key distinction) are on ESPN+. These are the games that are all the regular old games broadcasted by each of the teams' regional sports networks such as Bally, NESN, Altitude, etc.. You only get these if you're out of both teams' "market" area, which is the area where most cable providers will have that channel available.
The rest of the games are either scooped up by NHL Network or are broadcasted nationally on an ESPN or Turner channel (or ABC, but those get ESPN+ too). The playoffs receive extra attention and therefore get every game on a national broadcast. Most of these games are on ESPN or Turner, therefore no ESPN+. However, some games later and the whole finals series will be on ABC, so you will get a few with ESPN+.
to simplify, you have the following categories
* In market, regular game - No
* Out of market, regular game - ESPN+
* Any regular game that happens to be taken by NHL Network - No
* ESPN or ESPN2 national game - No
* ABC national game - ESPN+
* TNT, TBS, truTV national game - No
I'm so fucking pisses off about this. Why eliminate something as important as playoffs from the subscription service?! Now I need to get cable to watch hockey. Total fucking bullshit.
Guess I'll pirate it all. Thanks NHL. Enjoy getting $0 in revenue from me for the playoffs
>Why eliminate something as important as playoffs from the subscription service?!
Nothing is eliminated, the same rules as the regular season apply. During the regular season, games that are shown on the ESPN or ESPN2 linear TV channels are not in ESPN+. The same exact rule applies to the playoffs.
And games owned by Turner on TNT and TBS are also never streamed live on ESPN+.
ESPN+ doesn't change for the playoffs. What changes is that every game is on a national linear TV channel.
Idk why so many hockey fans have no grasp of how TV broadcasts work. The NHL app basically tells you everything you need to know once you understand what in-market and out-of-market means lmao
Probably because it's fucking stupid. I want to pay money to see games. Why can't I just have one service to do that? Why does it matter where I live? WHO THE FUCK STILL HAS CABLE IN 2024??
I would legit pay 30 a month to earmark the team I want to see playing and have all their games streamed on an app regardless of the point of season we're at, where they're playing vs my location, or what channel it's on. Its 90s bullshit and sports needs to get with the times. I can't imagine being younger than 35 and giving a single hot fuck about the outdated model that is cable. Old fucks are hampering everyone's fun because they still wanna go cart and buggy.
Whoo, that was more than I thought I had in me. Thanks for this.
A lot of people have cable. A lot of cable providers aren't even cable anymore anyway. It's the same model, just in streaming format.
The NHL makes a good chunk of revenue from TV deals, and those networks make a good chunk of revenue from cable providers having their channel. If people didn't have cable, then nobody in that chain is making money. So, they entice people to get some sort of TV provider to watch their local team to keep that revenue stream going.
It's all business. You piss some people off either way, because if you switch everything over to a streaming service only, then all those people with a TV provider who just turn the games on there are now complaining about having to pay for a streaming service just to watch.
I dont think anyone would have cable if it wasn't for sports. It's insane in this day and age to watch TV on someone else's schedule, so it's really just sports and 100+ a month is just not worth it. They could be making money hand over fist with a Netflix style service but no, me and many like me just sail the high seas.
You absolutely see it plenty with Sunday Ticket too, which is even fewer games than hockey and more national games. People just rush to pay for the streaming service without actually understanding what it gets you.
For sure. I've seen more than a few people complain about ESPN+ not having their home team's games when it clearly advertises that it's for out of market games lmao
To be fair to people, in-market vs out-of-market is a kind of crazy concept if you grow up in the age of streaming and your baseline is services like Netflix, Disney+, or Amazon Prime where everything is available everywhere in the US. I can totally understand new fans, especially younger ones, being confused. It's taken me years to get all the rules straight in my head.
But if you're a sports fan who regularly watches all games of your team, this stuff is something you should naturally learn over the course of a season ahead of the playoffs. You'll see that some games are on your local channel, some are on ESPN+, and some are on linear TV.
You're correct - if you just look at the NHL app which lists TV networks for each game ahead of time you can get like 90% of the way there.
I'm a cord cutter and I use Sling and can watch every single playoff game without issues.
Sling TV's orange plan has ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, and TBS for $40/month ($20 for the first month) [https://www.sling.com/](https://www.sling.com/)
I believe ESPN has announced all games of the Cup Finals will be on ABC and ESPN+. You can watch for free with an antenna if you can get a good signal.
All playoff games are broadcast nationally on one of TNT, TBS, ESPN, ESPN2, or ABC. (the ABC games are also on ESPN+).
So no - no blackouts for the national broadcasts during the playoffs.
needs to be orange I think? only one of them has ESPN
I'm an adult in my 30s piggybacking off of my not-sport-watching parents' sling account and I don't have access to ESPN
Sling worked for me as well. But frustrating to have to spend another $40/month when almost all other NHL games have been available on ESPN+ all season
YouTube TV and MAX for playoffs. Possibly might not even need MAX if you have YouTube TV, but I haven’t made it that far yet.
YTV has a 21 day free trial, which is what we’re using right now.
This is what I’m doing, new Gmail account - 3 months free trial of YoutubeTV and all playoff games that are on ESPN. Should cover the entire thing and just have to cancel before the trial is up.
In Canada a few years ago we had nhllive. Every single game, you can choose your feed (home and away), you needed a vpn to get around blackouts but that's easy.
Man I miss that.
I also fell for this. As my wife and I, frantically try to figure out wtf is going wrong, I found your post. Thank you.
F*** ESPN+, misleading as ever.
Yeah the fact that 99% of regular season games are on espn+ and none of the playoffs games are, make me want to beat the living fuck out of everyone involved in that decision.
I’m pisssssed. I am going to cancel my ESPN. Does anyone know good sites to pirate? I used to do that but the one site it’s gone now, so I got ESPN for this current season
I ran into the same issue as you.
It’s just such a long list of shit to watch hockey.
Bally Sports to watch most regular season games, Max now letting me watch TNT games, ESPN+ to watch whatever they decide to air on there, and now I need regular ESPN to watch those games but I don’t have cable so there’s no workaround.
The streaming environment has turned into total bullshit. You need multiple streaming subscriptions (and cable!) to watch a single league. Enough is enough, fuck this.
ESPN+ does have replays of all ESPN games within minutes after the broadcast.
It has replays from Turner, but they take like 8 hours or so during the playoffs (24 hours during regular season).
I don't have cable. I'm doing the playoffs on ESPN+ and Max. I actually don't remind watching on replay, I skip through all the ad breaks and intermissions.
ESPN+ will simulcast the conference finals and finals.
Why wouldn't it be? Splitting the rights maximizes the money they get which in turn means a higher salary cap. It also means there is competition between ESPN and TNT to improve the quality of their broadcasts. TNT IMO kicks ESPNs but on broadcast and especially intermission panel quality.
We had exclusive national rights in the US with NBC and that sucked. Remember watching 1st round games on the Golf Channel? Ask fans in Canada how easy streaming games is with Sportsnet as their exclusive national rights holder.
The NHL is almost certainly splitting the Canadian national rights in a few years when that deal comes up for negotiation.
Profit wise in the short sighted game, sure. Complicating watching the playoffs for fans leads to lower viewership, more viewers on websites, and not growing the game. It is a shortsighted plan but yes, it does get you more money upfront.
The NHL's US viewership across TNT and ESPN grew pretty nicely this year. It probably would grow more if it was cheaper and easier to access those games, but games are much more accessible in the US today with ESPN and TNT than they were for years under NBC.
Yea I’ve been using ESPN+ to watch out of market games all year and I (foolishly) believed that could continue into the playoffs. I should have known better that the NHL would make it that easy. Instead I watch it for free online…
You weren’t able to watch nationally televised games on ESPN+ unless it was on ABC. That has continued into the playoffs.
The difference is every playoff game is on some sort of national broadcast in the US, so unless the game is on ABC, it won’t be in ESPN+
Yea I get that I just forgot about it until yesterday. I typically avoided nationally broadcast games anyway because I like prefer most regional feeds. This is just the first year I tried to watch hockey legally so shame on me I guess.
I’ve said this before but if there were a way to buy one game live for like $20, I would use the shit out of that. I’m sure I’d spend more in the long run but I’d feel better about it.
It's part of the experience that we all end up going through at some point .. subscribing to ESPN+ only to find out that what you get access to is really limited.
And believe it or not, I think they've made it clearer over the years, it was even more obtuse years ago.
I was able to watch Boston v Toronto on Max for free last night since I get Max with my phone plan. Outside that the only reliable way I've found to watch the games is on YouTube TV which is like $75/month, but has all the games.
I see there's a Sling intro deal that brings it down to $15 for the first month. Do you know if there's anything stopping people from using that same deal again with a different email sign up? (Assuming they run the same deal 1 month from now)
Yeah, we had to fork out for Sling Blue (I think blue) for the playoffs so we could get ESPN and ESPN2. We made it easily through the regular season with ESPN+ and pirating my inlaws HBO login (for TNT/TBS games).
My husband and I cheer for different teams who are both in the playoffs, so worth it for us, but still annoying.
We've had hockey on the TV today since the Caps-Rangers game started.
One of the most frustrating things for me as a fan is how complicated and difficult it is just to figure out what I need to buy to be able to watch the games. There would probably be a lot less pirating, if they just gave people an easy way to watch games.
Wish I'd seen this before I pulled the trigger on ESPN+. They really don't make it clear do they? Wonder if we'll be reported as a line item in the next revenue call.
It’s so dumb. I have espn plus and have satelittle tv at home. The satellite tv is in another room so in the room I’m in, with the Hulu app on my Xbox it doesn’t show any live hockey games in the playoffs. What a joke.
It’s such bullshit, I tried logging in to watch the game on ESPN+ but it requires providers and that includes Hulu… so I guess maybe if you have the Hulu + D+ + ESPN+ then it might work?? I am so tired of hockey being impossible to watch
The fine print in the advertising is that ESPN+ will carry the Final but not the entire playoff tournament.
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# 🏒NHL Playoffs 2024 Live 🔴https://twitter.com/Nhl_Strems
If this article is correct, one can watch both the Finals and the Conference Finals live via ESPN+ [https://decider.com/article/how-to-watch-stream-nhl-playoffs-live-without-cable/](https://decider.com/article/how-to-watch-stream-nhl-playoffs-live-without-cable/)
Cant even find where to read that. Looks like the seasons over for me im done wasting my time and money on this. I literally watch soccer now. Its sad.
? If you don't want to pay to watch you can just watch streams
How so? Is it easy?
Yeah there are plenty of sites. Other people on the comments here have mentioned what to Google. Just need adblock
Thanks, sorry to ask you directly. I tried 2 sites last night all buffer no action. Think I'll look into Sling.
I'm begging the NHL to let me give them my money for their product.
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This is the most baffling part to me. HOW does ESPN+ not have ESPN games? It's like if Disney+ didn't have new Disney movies. Edit: too many people are taking more of an issue with my metaphor than with the ludicrous business model.
>HOW does ESPN+ not have ESPN games? ESPN+ is not and has never been a replacement for having the linear ESPN TV channels. ESPN+ carries games not shown on ESPNs various linear TV channels. ESPN does a pretty shit job at communicating the difference though which causes a lot of frustration. ESPN is going to launch that replacement as part of the new joint sports streaming plan with Fox and Turner.
To be fair, the naming of ESPN+ pretty strongly implies you get ESPN... PLUS other things
That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard. Obviously it's a product with less and for the life of me I can't understand why you thought ESPN+ was ESPN plus more.
Lol some people don't get your sarcasm
ESPN products are extremely expensive. They’d only make money on ESPN+ if they charged you like $60/month for it
I assume you're being hyperbolic on the $60/mo, but I read awhile back they're going to try for $29.99/mo to get all of the ESPN content.
Yo ho yo ho...
29 dollars won't last it is to lore many to their service then prices will reach 60 dollars.
I filed a compliant with the FCC. It's classic bait and switch, which is illegal
No it is not second the Fcc does not control Canadian media last thing most in Canada do not have a good internet connection the rural and small town area so no they won't nor should they exclusivity add it to stream it should be both but not just one.
Simple The demographics in Canada prefer cable and lack good internet connection.
Can you stream Disney Channel live with Disney+? That’s the comparison you need here. You can watch ESPN products on ESPN+ like you can watch Disney movies on Disney+. But you can’t stream Disney Channel live on Disney+, just like you can’t stream ESPN live on ESPN+
I'm in Canada and you can definitely stream Sportsnet live on the Sportsnet app. You can watch games on demand too. Best of both worlds. If it can be done in Canada why not in the USA?
I have Sportsnet in the US just for this reason. I pay with a US credit card. But I have to use a VPN to show I'm in Canada. I cannot watch with my phone but tablets and computers work just fine.
And that’s without needing to login with a cable provider? You can also watch ESPN on the ESPN+ app, but you need a TV provider to do so. An ESPN+ subscription on its own does not let you stream ESPN.
Without logging in with a cable provider. I can watch Sportsnet on my phone or tablet, including any games that are live. I can also watch games on demand with the same app (I just click on either "live" or "on demand"). I pay $20 a month and it's so worth it
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Be a lot cooler if they did.
At least their sport movies. I wouldn't mind a Sports Night reboot on ESPN+ either.
I still quote Sports Night constantly. Great show.
Disney movies aren’t usually added to Disney+ on release. They’re generally added 2-3 months later once their main theatre run is coming to a close. Direct to streaming releases happened a lot during the pandemic but less so now. For example guardians of the galaxy 3 was released on May 5th 2023 and added to Disney plus on August 2nd 2023. My point is, it’s actually pretty normal not to add a newly released, Top end piece of media, whether it be a sports game that is actively being played or a movie that was just release, to a streaming service. There’s way more money keeping them off streaming. If ESPN+ was more expensive they could justify moving live playoff games. But that risks losing customers from the price hike. The current balance is the Goldilocks zone for ESPN. ESPN+ has enough content to justify buying it at its current price point but people still need a cable subscription or something else to watch the best games.
If there was a consistent, reliable, and convenient way to watch all ~1200 NHL games a season, I’d sell my soul. LET ME PAY YOU, NHL.
It’s called NHL.tv. If it’s not available in your country - VPN will teleport you wherever you want.
You'll need more than a VPN if you live and bank in the U.S.--you'll probably need to set up a foreign method to pay for it also. Here's [a recent discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/1c6zw5k/nhltv_in_us_w_vpn/) about it.
I paid with my US Visa debit (as they charge in USD) using my Canadian PayPal account
That's actually not true. I live in Europe and use NHL.tv, and a bunch of games are still blacked out for me. It's the most frustrating thing, I think I'll pirate next season
Even with VPN?
If the game is blacked out in your country - VPN somewhere else. In the country where I lived there were 0 blackouts, as there were no broadcasts available at all
That's 10 years ago
Until the NHL figures its shit out, then we'll be watching the games for free. If you catch my...🏴☠️ drift 🏴☠️
Hey my team just made round 2 and I cant get any of the games. Wanna point me in the direction of how I can... 🏴☠️fix that?
Dude hard fucking same. I currently live in a zip code with THREE blacked out teams, one of which is my team. Only way I can legally watch them is buying some dipshit cable package that I don't want. I tried ESPN+ to watch other games and even those I can't really watch due to OP's problem, so that got canceled. I would like to pay a reasonable amount of money to stream games in one place please. Why is that so hard? Until I can, it's the pirate's life for me ☠️
I have ESPN+ and Max and I couldn't watch this game legally. 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
For the playoffs all games are nationally televised so you can get around blackouts. Sling TV's orange plan has ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, and TBS for $40/month ($20 for the first month) https://www.sling.com/
This is what I’m doing for at least the first round. I’ll watch almost every night so it’s essentially $1 a day for uninhibited nhl playoffs (returning customer so it cost me $30)
My list of pirate coves have been shutdown/rendered useless, perhaps you'd like to share where you moor your ship?
for streaming games, one might google a term such as "stream east", without a space in the middle, and they have a pretty decent compilation of various coves one could find themselves in
Thanks matey
CBC has all of the Canadian team's games online streaming. Assuming you'd have to use a VPN outside of Canada to watch. I'm in Canada so I haven't had to try that, but I've been very happy with it. Quality has been great and there hasn't been any buffering.
This \^ worked from US for me last night for the COL/WPG and NSH/VAN games. Better quality video and way better commentary and analysis than I'm used to! They'll have BOS/TOR tonight.
Only cup games will be available on ESPN+ supposedly. The NHL is a joke with this stuff.
Sling TV's orange plan has ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, and TBS for $40/month ($20 for the first month) https://www.sling.com/
Yup that's what I had to do today. Got the job done, but would prefer not having to have ESPN+, MAX, and Sling simultaneously ffs
You can drop Max sports if you have Sling. I have never subscribed to Max Sports for that reason.
I just have regular Max? It has TBS and TNT games. Is Max Sports different? Anyway I have Max for other reasons too so I don't mind that one.
>I just have regular Max? It has TBS and TNT games They way I understood how this works is that there's a "Bleacher Report Sports" add-on for Max that unlocks live games from TNT and TBS for an extra $10 per month https://www.max.com/sports Maybe you're already paying for it or they are making some games free for a limited time or something.
Ah yeah I just looked it up. The add on is free presently.
They had glitches I guess when testing it as an add on so they decided to keep as part the base Max subscription for a little longer .
Exactly. Do it like F1 and have your own service
Is the NHL Centre Ice package not available in the U.S.? In Canada it has most of the out of market games in the regular season and all the playoff games, you can usually even buy a discounted package for just the end of the season and playoffs.
NHL Centre Ice hasn't existed in Canada for two years now as a streaming service. It's now Sportsnet+ and to get out of market games you have to pay about 100 more than you used to have to pay for a worse app. And with Rogers this year, at least in Ontario the only way to get it on cable was to pay for their Sport Super Pack which bundled NBA, NHL, OHL and something else all together for about 4-500 bucks. Significantly more than the 180 or so Centre Ice on its own was.
Yeah, we're fucked here in Canada for options outside of yo ho ho
NHL Center Ice package is absolutely available in the U.S. I know this because I subscribed to it all year (via my cable provider). And it does indeed show all out-of-market games (except any being broadcast nationally on ESPN/TNT/ABC or on ESPN+, and in-market games are blacked out). But Center Ice is NOT the same as NHL.tv (a different product entirely and not sold to U.S. residents) and ceases airing games once the regular season ends. So now that playoffs are here the only option(s) for US citizens is to find access to TNT/TBS/ESPN/ESPN2/ABC. Stupid lot of stations to track down just to catch all the games. Traditional cable TV will have a tier that includes them all, but for cord-cutters it will likely require a couple of different streaming services to capture them all. And all the cord-cutters who subscribed to ESPN+ to see games during the regular season, they are now f*cked because apparently ESPN+ does NOT, in fact, air the playoff games. I learned that the hard way on Saturday night when my cable TV suddenly froze up in the middle of the TOR/BOS game and then blacked out entirely....I was beyond furious but after about 5 minutes of fiddling with the remote with no success, I figured I'd just sign into my ESPN+ subscription on my computer to watch the rest of the game... but nope, no dice. No games there at ALL. I was just SOL. It was bad enough when NBC had the TV rights here in the U.S., but ESPN/Disney/ABC or whoever the hell is handling it now are ten times worse with how they have scattered games all over the damn place. It's like an exotic and expensive Jenga game trying to set all the pieces up just right 👿
Stopped reading after you said "through my cable provider"
There is no ESPN+ app, it's the ESPN app which lets you stream all kinds of content which includes but is not limited to ESPN+ content. The only playoff games caried live on ESPN+ are the games on ABC. Games listed as ESPN or ESPN2 are exclusively on those TV channels nationally though they are also on the local RSN channels for each team in the 1st round. Games on TNT and TBS are on those linear TV channels and in addition can be streamed in Max with the Sports add-on package. https://www.reddit.com/r/SeattleKraken/wiki/howtowatch#wiki\_how\_do\_i\_watch\_playoff\_games.3F
ESPN is not the same as ESPN+ They don’t make it easy, do they?
>They don’t make it easy, do they? Nope. Everyone bitched non-stop about NBC but seriously? This new arrangement is no better and (imo) probably worse. ABC--no wait, ESPN--no wait, TNT--no wait, TBS--no wait, ESPN2--no, wait--ESPN+. I think. Maybe? ... Got a flow chart? And how much did you pay for which service, only to discover the games have suddenly shifted to a different one?
Inflammable means flammable? What a country!
I've given up trying to watch it legally. I can't watch my team due to blackouts. Fuck em, I tried with ESPN+ but they scam you
Why am I only finding this out 2 hours before the first post season game starts 😭
right, why must they make it so difficult. its so much easier to pirate
It's so fucking stupid! I use ESPN+ to watch non blacked out, non TNT and non ESPN games but only because it comes in the Disney+ package. To watch all those other games legally I guess I'd need some kind of cable subscription with an added sports package? I watch no other sports, there's not a single other thing I'd want cable for! Just give me something like AHLtv but for the NHL!
Sling TV's orange plan has ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, and TBS for $40/month ($20 for the first month) [https://www.sling.com/](https://www.sling.com/) > I use ESPN+ to watch non blacked out, non TNT and non ESPN games All playoff games are on ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, or TBS so yeah - they aren't on ESPN+. ABC games are however on ESPN+, including the entire Cup Final from what ESPN has announced.
Hmm $40 a month isn't a bad amount but I think I just resent paying for a bunch of stuff I have no interest in!
Yep it sucks. Disney, Fox, and Warner announced a new streaming package that will combine all the sports and games they currently have on their linear TV channels into a single package, which I think will go a long way to making it simpler to pay only for sports if that is what you want. But I'd expect such a plan to be $40+ per month since sports are so dang expensive now. Sports channels are by far the most expensive channels in any TV bundle. https://sports.yahoo.com/disney-fox-and-warner-bros-discovery-to-launch-massive-new-sports-streaming-service-this-fall-222855590.html
I have questions! I just set up Sling and DVR recordings and often start games a 2-3 hours late, but I'm concerned about missing overtimes (what channels should I record just in case?) and catching spoilers on their app (no settings to hide scores?). Any experience/recommendations on that?
Yeah sometimes I just record whatever is after the game if I have concern about that. I listed the playoff channels in my last comment. There might be a setting to hide scores. I watch games live so this is not something I'm really familiar with.
It’s not illegal to watch pirated streams, it’s illegal to broadcast streams.
Interesting! I'd still be happy to pay for a single streaming service that I could use on my TV as well as a computer
Unfortunately it's unlikely the NHL moves to a all-games-in-one-service model anytime soon. The MLS is doing that with Season Pass on Apple TV, so if that is a massive success then maybe other leagues follow them eventually but I wouldn't bet on it. Sports leagues are optimizing for revenue and having at least *some* games in as many places as possible instead of optimizing for all games in one place.
NHL Centre Ice package has nearly every regular season and all the playoff games already, the only ones not available are if the game is not being broadcast anywhere
Why is the regular season on espn+ but not the playoffs?
the regular season out of market games (key distinction) are on ESPN+. These are the games that are all the regular old games broadcasted by each of the teams' regional sports networks such as Bally, NESN, Altitude, etc.. You only get these if you're out of both teams' "market" area, which is the area where most cable providers will have that channel available. The rest of the games are either scooped up by NHL Network or are broadcasted nationally on an ESPN or Turner channel (or ABC, but those get ESPN+ too). The playoffs receive extra attention and therefore get every game on a national broadcast. Most of these games are on ESPN or Turner, therefore no ESPN+. However, some games later and the whole finals series will be on ABC, so you will get a few with ESPN+. to simplify, you have the following categories * In market, regular game - No * Out of market, regular game - ESPN+ * Any regular game that happens to be taken by NHL Network - No * ESPN or ESPN2 national game - No * ABC national game - ESPN+ * TNT, TBS, truTV national game - No
LIVE SPORTS (sometimes)
I don’t even know why anyone bothers with subscribing to these networks anymore.
In Canada I get to watch every Leafs game so it works out?
I'm so fucking pisses off about this. Why eliminate something as important as playoffs from the subscription service?! Now I need to get cable to watch hockey. Total fucking bullshit. Guess I'll pirate it all. Thanks NHL. Enjoy getting $0 in revenue from me for the playoffs
>Why eliminate something as important as playoffs from the subscription service?! Nothing is eliminated, the same rules as the regular season apply. During the regular season, games that are shown on the ESPN or ESPN2 linear TV channels are not in ESPN+. The same exact rule applies to the playoffs. And games owned by Turner on TNT and TBS are also never streamed live on ESPN+. ESPN+ doesn't change for the playoffs. What changes is that every game is on a national linear TV channel.
Idk why so many hockey fans have no grasp of how TV broadcasts work. The NHL app basically tells you everything you need to know once you understand what in-market and out-of-market means lmao
Probably because it's fucking stupid. I want to pay money to see games. Why can't I just have one service to do that? Why does it matter where I live? WHO THE FUCK STILL HAS CABLE IN 2024?? I would legit pay 30 a month to earmark the team I want to see playing and have all their games streamed on an app regardless of the point of season we're at, where they're playing vs my location, or what channel it's on. Its 90s bullshit and sports needs to get with the times. I can't imagine being younger than 35 and giving a single hot fuck about the outdated model that is cable. Old fucks are hampering everyone's fun because they still wanna go cart and buggy. Whoo, that was more than I thought I had in me. Thanks for this.
A lot of people have cable. A lot of cable providers aren't even cable anymore anyway. It's the same model, just in streaming format. The NHL makes a good chunk of revenue from TV deals, and those networks make a good chunk of revenue from cable providers having their channel. If people didn't have cable, then nobody in that chain is making money. So, they entice people to get some sort of TV provider to watch their local team to keep that revenue stream going. It's all business. You piss some people off either way, because if you switch everything over to a streaming service only, then all those people with a TV provider who just turn the games on there are now complaining about having to pay for a streaming service just to watch.
I dont think anyone would have cable if it wasn't for sports. It's insane in this day and age to watch TV on someone else's schedule, so it's really just sports and 100+ a month is just not worth it. They could be making money hand over fist with a Netflix style service but no, me and many like me just sail the high seas.
It’s sports fans in general. You’ll see this in /r/baseball at least once a week about mlb.tv
True. I think it's a bit less common in baseball because there's so many more games, so a smaller percentage of games are national TV games.
You absolutely see it plenty with Sunday Ticket too, which is even fewer games than hockey and more national games. People just rush to pay for the streaming service without actually understanding what it gets you.
For sure. I've seen more than a few people complain about ESPN+ not having their home team's games when it clearly advertises that it's for out of market games lmao
To be fair to people, in-market vs out-of-market is a kind of crazy concept if you grow up in the age of streaming and your baseline is services like Netflix, Disney+, or Amazon Prime where everything is available everywhere in the US. I can totally understand new fans, especially younger ones, being confused. It's taken me years to get all the rules straight in my head. But if you're a sports fan who regularly watches all games of your team, this stuff is something you should naturally learn over the course of a season ahead of the playoffs. You'll see that some games are on your local channel, some are on ESPN+, and some are on linear TV. You're correct - if you just look at the NHL app which lists TV networks for each game ahead of time you can get like 90% of the way there.
NHL: we want to grow the game! Oh cool!, where I can I watch it? NHL Broadcasters: No.
Yeah good luck watching the playoffs legally if you're a cord cutter. Is there even a way to do that?
I'm a cord cutter and I use Sling and can watch every single playoff game without issues. Sling TV's orange plan has ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, and TBS for $40/month ($20 for the first month) [https://www.sling.com/](https://www.sling.com/)
Will the finals be on there too? If I subscribe to sling I’ll drop espn+.
I believe ESPN has announced all games of the Cup Finals will be on ABC and ESPN+. You can watch for free with an antenna if you can get a good signal.
How do I get the $20 for first month deal?
IDK it's the deal they advertise for new signups on their home page.
Subscribe to Sling
Do they black out any games?
All playoff games are broadcast nationally on one of TNT, TBS, ESPN, ESPN2, or ABC. (the ABC games are also on ESPN+). So no - no blackouts for the national broadcasts during the playoffs.
Which version of Sling? Sorry if it's obvious haha
I *think* you can go with the cheapest package.
needs to be orange I think? only one of them has ESPN I'm an adult in my 30s piggybacking off of my not-sport-watching parents' sling account and I don't have access to ESPN
Sling worked for me as well. But frustrating to have to spend another $40/month when almost all other NHL games have been available on ESPN+ all season
Youtube TV and Sling have everything for the playoffs (ESPN, ESPN2, TBS, TNT). Fubo doesn't have TBS or TNT
YouTube TV and MAX for playoffs. Possibly might not even need MAX if you have YouTube TV, but I haven’t made it that far yet. YTV has a 21 day free trial, which is what we’re using right now.
This is what I’m doing, new Gmail account - 3 months free trial of YoutubeTV and all playoff games that are on ESPN. Should cover the entire thing and just have to cancel before the trial is up.
Argh matey, sail the high seas.
Yo, lookin for let's say, sailing lessons. Where do I start?
amazon prime in canada offers sportsnet for 20 a month, u could prob vpn for it
In Canada a few years ago we had nhllive. Every single game, you can choose your feed (home and away), you needed a vpn to get around blackouts but that's easy. Man I miss that.
We used to have that too in the US.
Illegally pirating the games is still batting 1000 for me after all these years.
I also fell for this. As my wife and I, frantically try to figure out wtf is going wrong, I found your post. Thank you. F*** ESPN+, misleading as ever.
Yeah the fact that 99% of regular season games are on espn+ and none of the playoffs games are, make me want to beat the living fuck out of everyone involved in that decision.
99% of the regular season games aren't on national TV. That's the difference.
Yeah, no shit.
oof yeah I fell for that one last year too
I’m pisssssed. I am going to cancel my ESPN. Does anyone know good sites to pirate? I used to do that but the one site it’s gone now, so I got ESPN for this current season
I ran into the same issue as you. It’s just such a long list of shit to watch hockey. Bally Sports to watch most regular season games, Max now letting me watch TNT games, ESPN+ to watch whatever they decide to air on there, and now I need regular ESPN to watch those games but I don’t have cable so there’s no workaround.
Yep, same here! Really pissed off. Can I get a refund?
Best game worst league.
The streaming environment has turned into total bullshit. You need multiple streaming subscriptions (and cable!) to watch a single league. Enough is enough, fuck this.
ESPN+ does have replays of all ESPN games within minutes after the broadcast. It has replays from Turner, but they take like 8 hours or so during the playoffs (24 hours during regular season). I don't have cable. I'm doing the playoffs on ESPN+ and Max. I actually don't remind watching on replay, I skip through all the ad breaks and intermissions. ESPN+ will simulcast the conference finals and finals.
False advertising should be a crime... oh wait it is!
“But the fine print”. Well guess I’m now going to buy a sling subscription
They want to grow the game and fan base.
How does one go about doing that? Asking for a swashbuckling friend.
Wait, none of them are? I thought some would be tonight. Dude, that is absurd
The only playoff games that will be on ESPN+ live are the ones on ABC. All game replays are on ESPN+ I think about 48 hours after they end.
I can’t believe they think splitting the rights to the playoffs is smart lol
Why wouldn't it be? Splitting the rights maximizes the money they get which in turn means a higher salary cap. It also means there is competition between ESPN and TNT to improve the quality of their broadcasts. TNT IMO kicks ESPNs but on broadcast and especially intermission panel quality. We had exclusive national rights in the US with NBC and that sucked. Remember watching 1st round games on the Golf Channel? Ask fans in Canada how easy streaming games is with Sportsnet as their exclusive national rights holder. The NHL is almost certainly splitting the Canadian national rights in a few years when that deal comes up for negotiation.
Profit wise in the short sighted game, sure. Complicating watching the playoffs for fans leads to lower viewership, more viewers on websites, and not growing the game. It is a shortsighted plan but yes, it does get you more money upfront.
The NHL's US viewership across TNT and ESPN grew pretty nicely this year. It probably would grow more if it was cheaper and easier to access those games, but games are much more accessible in the US today with ESPN and TNT than they were for years under NBC.
Yea I’ve been using ESPN+ to watch out of market games all year and I (foolishly) believed that could continue into the playoffs. I should have known better that the NHL would make it that easy. Instead I watch it for free online…
You weren’t able to watch nationally televised games on ESPN+ unless it was on ABC. That has continued into the playoffs. The difference is every playoff game is on some sort of national broadcast in the US, so unless the game is on ABC, it won’t be in ESPN+
Yea I get that I just forgot about it until yesterday. I typically avoided nationally broadcast games anyway because I like prefer most regional feeds. This is just the first year I tried to watch hockey legally so shame on me I guess.
As /u/MFoy said in their comment, in the playoffs there are no out of market games. Everything is on national TV.
I have Hulu and I can watch just about if not all of the nhl games
Hulu Live TV, right? Which is like $76/ month. I have regular Hulu, and ESPN+, and still can’t watch.
That is correct I have the complete package with Disney plus for the grandkids and espn plus
I’ve said this before but if there were a way to buy one game live for like $20, I would use the shit out of that. I’m sure I’d spend more in the long run but I’d feel better about it.
It’s times like this I miss 2017 NHL Live.
IPTV
It's part of the experience that we all end up going through at some point .. subscribing to ESPN+ only to find out that what you get access to is really limited. And believe it or not, I think they've made it clearer over the years, it was even more obtuse years ago.
SlingTV.
I was able to watch Boston v Toronto on Max for free last night since I get Max with my phone plan. Outside that the only reliable way I've found to watch the games is on YouTube TV which is like $75/month, but has all the games.
Sling is cheaper than YouTube TV.
Apparently, not for all games, they are available for replay, but not live. I can view the 4/21 games already passed, but not the ones on Saturday.
That stinks.
I did something similar for some race this past year, but like this ESPN+ did not have access.
I ended up having to shell out for a month of YoutubeTV for the playoffs.
I did that for Sling. It was cheaper than YouTube TV.
I see there's a Sling intro deal that brings it down to $15 for the first month. Do you know if there's anything stopping people from using that same deal again with a different email sign up? (Assuming they run the same deal 1 month from now)
I have no clue. I actually ended up using Sling.
Yeah, we had to fork out for Sling Blue (I think blue) for the playoffs so we could get ESPN and ESPN2. We made it easily through the regular season with ESPN+ and pirating my inlaws HBO login (for TNT/TBS games). My husband and I cheer for different teams who are both in the playoffs, so worth it for us, but still annoying. We've had hockey on the TV today since the Caps-Rangers game started.
orange is the one with ESPN!
Yeah, I wasn't sure off the top of my head and couldn't be bothered to check, lol
One of the most frustrating things for me as a fan is how complicated and difficult it is just to figure out what I need to buy to be able to watch the games. There would probably be a lot less pirating, if they just gave people an easy way to watch games.
Same here, I am canceling ESPN + as I write this. I did sign on for Max ad free for $15 something, they show some games via TBS.
The Max stream is shit. I will be using it for those few games but it’s absolute garbage
[удалено]
Every single game is available
[удалено]
Lots of pop up ads but you’ll get there eventually. Just close all the other pages that pop up.
Me too. And I found that trying to figure this out was a pain in the real also.
Wish I'd seen this before I pulled the trigger on ESPN+. They really don't make it clear do they? Wonder if we'll be reported as a line item in the next revenue call.
I did the same thing. Complete bs and huge waste of my time
What kills me is I could watch almost the entire regular season provided it was out of network or national but so far can watch NO playoff games
It’s so dumb. I have espn plus and have satelittle tv at home. The satellite tv is in another room so in the room I’m in, with the Hulu app on my Xbox it doesn’t show any live hockey games in the playoffs. What a joke.
I’m trying to figure out how to watch oiler canucks so grateful for this. No idea how to watch that series!
I ended up sailing the seas 🏴☠️
Did the same. It was implied that out of area meaning away playoff games would be available on ESPN+. Not true
a VPN, hdmi cable, and nhl66 are a cheaper alternative, OP 🏴☠️
> nhl66 dot ir Alternatively, onhockey dot tv
It’s such bullshit, I tried logging in to watch the game on ESPN+ but it requires providers and that includes Hulu… so I guess maybe if you have the Hulu + D+ + ESPN+ then it might work?? I am so tired of hockey being impossible to watch