While ESPN has the exclusive broadcast rights to the next 2 Pittsburgh Penguins games, the game tonight vs. Washington requires an ESPN+ or Hulu subscription, and does NOT include Thursday’s matchup against Boston.
Meanwhile, those who have a “linear” TV service that includes ESPN gets Thursday’s game but not tonight’s game.
This is ridiculous.
Vandy1358v2_0
Local AVS fans don’t get to watch most games unless you have Fubo or DirectTV and pay a lot extra. Only thing we get is national
yakkabrori
I’m here to tell you that if you’re just willing to sail the seven seas then you won’t have to pay anyone anything
TampaJayLightning
People need to start finding less legal ways to watch games. I’m all for paying for a service to watch NHL, but the rights are so scattered that you have to pay so many different services to watch all your games.
When NHL provides a subscription service to watch all games without regional blackouts, then I will happily pay. Until then, the seven seas for me.
Dmonic666
I’ve watched hockey my entire life, been a pens season ticket holder for 10 years, and I’ve officially given up trying to watch hockey. We cut cable years ago and won’t return, until they make it easier to watch my home team I will continue not to even attempt to watch. The NHL has lost a lifetime fan.
PKG0D
I’m convinced the NHL will fold as a league before they offer convenient access to all of a team’s games with no restrictions.
League owners are incapable of even considering it as an option… Absolute dinosaurs.
differentiated06
Annoyed people in the comments: the PWHL started yesterday and all their games are free on YouTube (for now).
Emperor_TaterTot
I subscribed to Hulu and ESPN + plus thinking hockey would now be covered, boy was I wrong all the local games that I actually want to watch are blacked out night after night. Literally zero point in subscribing to these services for me.
gabarooch86
Dear NHL, I will gladly pay a small sum to watch my team without blackouts or restrictions. I’m sure the majority here would as well. What I won’t do is sign up for 40 different services. It will never happen and you are losing revenue because of it. Until then, I have the one service that I can get the majority of the games (ESPN+) and I’ll pirate every game that is blacked out.
Anxietyriddenstoner
yarrr matey 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
eXile200
This isn’t new. Been this way for at least a couple years now. The NHL is awful at providing its content to its consumers. I get it’s caught up in the death of traditional cable and streaming but they don’t seem to have a plan beside decoupling the product to a handful of different broadcast.
Chicagoblew
ESPN + is more of a scam the more I think about it
Bigdoga1000
☠️☠️☠️
quidproquolaspe
The thing that cracks me up about this sort of thing, is that it’s not technically illegal to sail the seas 🏴☠️🏴☠️ it’s illegal to be the person(s) responsible for hosting the sites, not to be on/watch from those sites. I haven’t paid a dime to watch a single sporting event (UFC, boxing, NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB) in almost 4 years now and can’t imagine doing so ever again.
Pure-Two7600
Yo ho ho! Hoist the colors!
FierceDeity14
Wait, you guys are paying??
insert-originality
I assume most of the users here have found “other means” of watching games but that doesn’t go for everyone. It’s really unfair to lockout the local fans like this.
pubzywubzy
Arrrggggg yeee maties. The open seas be calling me
Habay12
ESPN+ blacks out the games locally anyway when they’re on cable, which is also crap.
Having to use streameast to watch the games because the NHL tv deals are atrocious is comical and annoying.
xtzferocity
Nothing like making your product harder to consume. GOOD JOB NHL!!
Lilpfighter
Ahoy matey time to sail the seven seas
SiidChawsby
Bro what
Evergreen27108
I miss HockeyStreams so much.
DanTreview
Legally, just use a burner account to sign up for Sling.tv and they’ll give you all those channels (get the “Orange” package) with a free, 30-day subscription trial. Just cancel on like day 29 and you’re all set.
Flyers have three games like this in February and that’s what I’ll be doing. I also do this every year for the World Series.
No biggie.
BoognishRisen
NHL doesn’t want to grow its fan base or expanding its viewership. This is the only logical reasoning for how awful their broadcasting handled. Worst sports league on earth for fans when it comes to simply wanting to watch your teams games.
StatikSquid
Yeah screw the NHL and their antique service.
To the seven seas!
remosiracha
I’ve given up on trying to do it the legal way. Family had cable so I thought, oh we are paying for cable, surely I can watch hockey games now on ESPN.
Nope. Doesn’t matter. For tonight’s game you have to also have ESPN+. Oh tomorrow? No that game isnt on ESPN+ even though you paid a ton of money to JUST watch hockey. But we also aren’t showing it on any of the regular ESPN channels. It’s only a local broadcast. Sorry you don’t live in the same city as your team. Too bad.
Rimmatimtim22
Why is the NHL the only league that actively tries to make it as difficult as possible to be a fan or welcome new fans. God damn I miss the NBC days.
n8ned
Onhockey it is
Admirable-Dot-2435
Yarrr…
MrNtkarman
Can we please stop with the market blackouts and just pay a sub fee for every team we want, and a bundle for multiple teams? The market used to make sense when everything was cable, but in the days of streaming the fact that I can’t watch a Winnipeg game from BC without pirating or paying 30$ a month is ridiculous
OUsnr7
I just moved to NYC from a city with no team. I figured “I’m going to start following the NHL and be a Rangers fan so I have something to bond with people over”.
I had no idea this was about to be one of the biggest pains in the ass I’ve dealt with in sports.
33 Comments
While ESPN has the exclusive broadcast rights to the next 2 Pittsburgh Penguins games, the game tonight vs. Washington requires an ESPN+ or Hulu subscription, and does NOT include Thursday’s matchup against Boston.
Meanwhile, those who have a “linear” TV service that includes ESPN gets Thursday’s game but not tonight’s game.
This is ridiculous.
Local AVS fans don’t get to watch most games unless you have Fubo or DirectTV and pay a lot extra. Only thing we get is national
I’m here to tell you that if you’re just willing to sail the seven seas then you won’t have to pay anyone anything
People need to start finding less legal ways to watch games. I’m all for paying for a service to watch NHL, but the rights are so scattered that you have to pay so many different services to watch all your games.
When NHL provides a subscription service to watch all games without regional blackouts, then I will happily pay. Until then, the seven seas for me.
I’ve watched hockey my entire life, been a pens season ticket holder for 10 years, and I’ve officially given up trying to watch hockey. We cut cable years ago and won’t return, until they make it easier to watch my home team I will continue not to even attempt to watch. The NHL has lost a lifetime fan.
I’m convinced the NHL will fold as a league before they offer convenient access to all of a team’s games with no restrictions.
League owners are incapable of even considering it as an option… Absolute dinosaurs.
Annoyed people in the comments: the PWHL started yesterday and all their games are free on YouTube (for now).
I subscribed to Hulu and ESPN + plus thinking hockey would now be covered, boy was I wrong all the local games that I actually want to watch are blacked out night after night. Literally zero point in subscribing to these services for me.
Dear NHL, I will gladly pay a small sum to watch my team without blackouts or restrictions. I’m sure the majority here would as well. What I won’t do is sign up for 40 different services. It will never happen and you are losing revenue because of it. Until then, I have the one service that I can get the majority of the games (ESPN+) and I’ll pirate every game that is blacked out.
yarrr matey 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
This isn’t new. Been this way for at least a couple years now. The NHL is awful at providing its content to its consumers. I get it’s caught up in the death of traditional cable and streaming but they don’t seem to have a plan beside decoupling the product to a handful of different broadcast.
ESPN + is more of a scam the more I think about it
☠️☠️☠️
The thing that cracks me up about this sort of thing, is that it’s not technically illegal to sail the seas 🏴☠️🏴☠️ it’s illegal to be the person(s) responsible for hosting the sites, not to be on/watch from those sites. I haven’t paid a dime to watch a single sporting event (UFC, boxing, NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB) in almost 4 years now and can’t imagine doing so ever again.
Yo ho ho! Hoist the colors!
Wait, you guys are paying??
I assume most of the users here have found “other means” of watching games but that doesn’t go for everyone. It’s really unfair to lockout the local fans like this.
Arrrggggg yeee maties. The open seas be calling me
ESPN+ blacks out the games locally anyway when they’re on cable, which is also crap.
Having to use streameast to watch the games because the NHL tv deals are atrocious is comical and annoying.
Nothing like making your product harder to consume. GOOD JOB NHL!!
Ahoy matey time to sail the seven seas
Bro what
I miss HockeyStreams so much.
Legally, just use a burner account to sign up for Sling.tv and they’ll give you all those channels (get the “Orange” package) with a free, 30-day subscription trial. Just cancel on like day 29 and you’re all set.
Flyers have three games like this in February and that’s what I’ll be doing. I also do this every year for the World Series.
No biggie.
NHL doesn’t want to grow its fan base or expanding its viewership. This is the only logical reasoning for how awful their broadcasting handled. Worst sports league on earth for fans when it comes to simply wanting to watch your teams games.
Yeah screw the NHL and their antique service.
To the seven seas!
I’ve given up on trying to do it the legal way. Family had cable so I thought, oh we are paying for cable, surely I can watch hockey games now on ESPN.
Nope. Doesn’t matter. For tonight’s game you have to also have ESPN+. Oh tomorrow? No that game isnt on ESPN+ even though you paid a ton of money to JUST watch hockey. But we also aren’t showing it on any of the regular ESPN channels. It’s only a local broadcast. Sorry you don’t live in the same city as your team. Too bad.
Why is the NHL the only league that actively tries to make it as difficult as possible to be a fan or welcome new fans. God damn I miss the NBC days.
Onhockey it is
Yarrr…
Can we please stop with the market blackouts and just pay a sub fee for every team we want, and a bundle for multiple teams? The market used to make sense when everything was cable, but in the days of streaming the fact that I can’t watch a Winnipeg game from BC without pirating or paying 30$ a month is ridiculous
I just moved to NYC from a city with no team. I figured “I’m going to start following the NHL and be a Rangers fan so I have something to bond with people over”.
I had no idea this was about to be one of the biggest pains in the ass I’ve dealt with in sports.
I feel a SPORT SURGE coming on…