The puck has dropped on the 2019-2020 NHL season, and for those of you who can’t get to the games, watching them on TV or your smartphone or laptop is the only way to get your fix.
Fortunately, there’s a variety of ways to watch your favorite hockey team, whether it’s over the air, through your cable or satellite TV provider, or through a streaming service.
And, in those cases where a game is blacked out, we have a list of the best VPN services to get around those local restrictions.
Want to know when all of the games are on? Here is the complete NHL 2019-2020 regular season schedule.
For Cable and Satellite Subscribers
NBC: The Peacock Network will broadcast 109 games nationally. Here is a full list of all the games that will be shown on NBC. These will also be available for cord-cutters with HD antennas.
You can also live stream NBC via most major streaming services, including Sling TV, Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV, AT&T TV Now and PlayStation Vue.
NBCSN: Broadcasts a number of local NHL games, depending on the market.
NHL Center Ice: Lets you watch out-of-market hockey games, including Hockey Night in Canada. Depending on your service provider, this subscription also gives you access to NHL.TV, letting you stream games to a mobile device or gaming system. Here are the cable and satellite TV providers that offer NHL Center Ice:
- Adams Cable
- Bright House Networks
- Blue Ridge Communications
- Cablevision
- Charter Communications
- Comcast
- Cox Communications
- DirecTV
- Dish Network
- Frontier Communications
- iN DEMAND
- Midcontinent Communications
- RCN
- Summit Broadband
- Time Warner
- Verizon FiOS
Cable-Free Streaming Subscriptions
NHL.TV: The NHL has its own online streaming service, with three tiers of service. However, all three subscriptions are subject to blackouts, including nationally-televised games. Local blackouts are enforced based on where you’re watching, so if you use a VPN, you could watch your local team.
After 48 hours, full-length game replays are available, regardless of location. However, if you have a single-team package, you will only be able to watch replays for that team.
The app is supported on Android, iOS, Apple TV, Roku, Xbox, Chromecast, PlayStation, and Amazon Fire devices. Here are the pricing options available:
- All Access Pass ($144.99): An unlimited pass for the entire season that lets you watch games from all teams.
- Monthly Pass ($24.99): Unlimited access on a per-month basis.
- Single-Team Pass ($115.99): A season pass for the team of your choice.
ESPN+ ($4.99/month, $49/year): Lets you stream more than 300 hockey games (as well as from other sports). Games are subject to local blackout.
FuboTV ($54.99/month): Lets you stream a variety of cable channels, including NBC, NBCSN, MSG and FOX Sports.
Bypass NHL Blackouts with a VPN
Some online users suggest that if you use a VPN to make it look like you're located in Europe or some other country where there are no local hockey teams, you'll be able to watch any game you want live.
We've evaluated many VPN services, and our top pick is ExpressVPN. It meets the VPN needs of the vast majority of users, offering outstanding compatibility with most devices and impressive connection speeds. It's also affordable at $12.95 per month. (Signing up for longer periods of six months or a year reduces the cost even more.)
