Hockey is the eggnog of sports. Like beaten eggs mixed with cream and spices, hockey is an oddball. There are skates, unusual looking protection gear, and penalties with names like butt-ending. Every game seems to end in a rumpus of sweat, fighting, and missing teeth.
The reality is, hockey is fun to watch. The NHL regular season is now underway and there are some important changes. Most notably, GoPro cameras will make their debut and players are now banned from doing Spin-O-Ramas in shoot outs.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to catch all the action from your favorite team that don’t involve holing up at your neighborhood bar for the next 8 months. We’ve put together this simple viewing guide to help you stream every game of the 2014-15 NHL season online.
NHL GameCenter Live ($160)
Watching every out of market NHL game of the 2014-15 season the way it was intended will cost you $160. GameCenter gives you to option to pay in eight monthly installments ($20). NHL GameCenter Live will allow you to watch live broadcasts in HD quality, in-game highlights, post game replays, and the over 800 “classic” games from the NHL Vault. You’ll be able to choose between “home” and “away” team broadcast. Other handy features include the ability to watch multiple games at once with mosaic viewing. Occasionally, NHL Game Center will offer single game passes that allow you to stream a single game. While you won’t be able to watch nationally broadcast games live on NHL GameCenter, you will be able to stream them two hours after their completion.
NBC Live Sports Extra
There are plenty of games broadcast nationally on NBC sports. Here’s NBC’s broadcast schedule for the whole NHL 2014-15 season. Anyone with an accepted cable subscription can stream these games for free. Simply entering your password credential will grant access to NBC’s HD live stream.
Related: How to stream every NFL Game online
Questionable streaming sites
There are a wide variety of online streaming sites which provide live streaming NHL hockey. These sites provide multiple streams, but most of them come packed with spam, malware, and pop-ups. We don’t recommend these sites.
Sites like First Row Sports or VIPBox Sports are some of the most popular picks when it comes to watching streams of sporting events online. While these might be of use, the hassle of having to avoid spam and deal with low quality streams makes these services more of an inconvenience than a help.
As a rule of thumb, never click on any link which asks you to download any HD Players, update your streaming software, or install any “required” media players. These are often just spam links which could infect your computer with malware.
Additional Resources:
NHL GameCenter App (iOS/Google Play)
There are plenty of Apps available to help you stay up to date. The official NHL app is one of the best. And, fortunately, baseline services are free. It’ll also hook up to your GameCenter subscription, if you have one, and allow users to view games from mobile devices. If you subscribe to the $160 service, you’ll be able to utilize watch NHL games directly from your mobile devices. The app does have a baseline free option that’ll provide live stats, game updates, post-game video highlights, and customized game alerts.
An incredible resource for almost anything, Reddit has tons of relevant (and irrelevant) NHL information. Reddit’s loyal user base generates the site’s wealth of content, which is both a blessing and a curse. You’ll find a plenty of NHL related photos, videos, and even alternative streaming sites.
Sure, Reddit is an excellent resource for anything and everything about Hockey. But if you’re not careful, you can also spend hours looking at wolf photos and finding little known facts about J.R.R. Tolkien. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Related: EA Sports NHL 15 review
[Header Photo: Photo Works / Shutterstock.com]
