Well, hockey season is here… and I’m already a little sad because I know I won’t be able to watch many Montreal Canadiens games this year. They’ll only be on TV here if they play a local team, or make the playoffs.
I’m trying to figure out my options. I have cable TV, high-speed “Fios” internet, and Tivo-like devices for recording tv. I work the evening shift, so anything that gives me the option to record a game to watch later, or something that stores them online for later viewing, would be much better than, say, a TV station’s website that streams the games live.
What can I do? Are there specialty channels I don’t know about? Websites? I’d like to stay on the legal side of things, if that’s at all possible!
The NHL Centre Ice package shows basically every out-of-market game that’s being broadcast on TV somewhere. Check if your provider offers the package. Last season it was also available online but I don’t know if they’re doing that again.
There’s also some new service they’re calling NHL Gamecentre. I’m unclear on what games they offer.
Hmm. Looks like I need digital cable for those things. Which I don’t have. I’d be able to talk myself into a $150 annual fee for the service, but I don’t think I can afford to upgrade to digital cable on top of that. Dammit.
The Gamecentre service – which I see is the new name of Centre Ice online – is all online. You shouldn’t need digital cable(or any cable, for that matter) to subscribe to the service.
If you still have family in Canada that can set up an account for you, you can always go for a grey market satelite dish. You would have no trouble getting a signal in MD with a standard dish. Here in California I would have to get a large dish to get a strong enough signal.
I miss my Canadian Content.
There are several websites out there that tell you what you need to set up the service in the U.S.
IIRC, HDNet shows a hockey game about once a week, and you can probably find an occasional game on VS in between all the steel cage death match man-fighting shows and rodeos.
Looks like the Gamecenter will allow you to view archived games. Seems pretty decent, you can watch up to 4 games at once as well as special camera angles during some games.