Why You Can Trust CNET NHL Hockey: How to Livestream Every Game of the 2023 Season
The battle for the Stanley Cup has begun, and with it the battle for your streaming subscription dollar. Read on for all of the options.
The action is all about to unfold on the ice once more, with the start of the 2023-24 NHL season now upon us. The Vegas Golden Knights come into the new season as defending Stanley Cup champs, having lifted the coveted trophy for the first time in their history, just six years after entering the league as an expansion team.
Among teams favored to steal the crown from the Golden Knights are the Carolina Hurricanes, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the New Jersey Devils and the 2022 champion Colorado Avalanche. All eyes will also be on the Boston Bruins, who'll be looking to recover from flopping in the playoffs after setting a record for being the most successful regular-season team in NHL history.
The Vegas Golden Knights won their first Stanley Cup in franchise history last season. And now they have a dedicated a la carte streaming service called KnightTime Plus.
Meanwhile streaming the 2023-24 NHL games is more complex than ever. Major networks ABC, ESPN and TNT are all set to host nationally broadcast games during the regular season. TNT will broadcast 62 NHL games as well as half of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Disney quad of ESPN, ESPN Plus, ABC and Hulu boasts 100 more exclusive games across the four networks. Meanwhile local games are divided among different regional sports networks, some of which have their own dedicated streaming services, including MSG Plus, NESN360 and -- you guessed it -- KnightTime Plus.
So what does all this mean for hockey fans desperately looking to stream their team's games? The good news is that you don't need cable to watch hockey this year, but it still might be the easiest and cheapest choice depending on where you live.
Read more: NFL 2023: How to watch and stream games and RedZone with or without cable
Live TV streaming services vs. cable
Die-hard sports fans are beholden to regional sports networks, or RSNs, that carry the majority of the games for their local team. These RSNs are usually included in local cable packages, so most cable subscribers never have to worry about gaining access to the broadcasts on these channels: They can simply turn on the TV and watch the game.
Cord-cutting hockey fans have a tougher path. Because of rights agreements, our favorite live TV streaming services like YouTube TV or Hulu with Live TV don't carry many RSNs. DirecTV Stream and Fubo are the exceptions; both offer numerous RSNs, including the Bally Sports channels (formerly Fox Sports), but they're more expensive than other options.
New for 2023, hockey fans in some areas can subscribe to Bally Sports Plus, a service that streams live games on regional sports networks owned by Bally's (formerly Fox RSNs). For example, Blues fans in St. Louis can subscribe and watch every regular season Blues game on Bally Sports Midwest. Bally Sports Plus costs $20 per month.
Another option exists for fans in other areas of the country: Subscribing to yet another streaming service dedicated to those RSNs, like MSG Plus, NESN360 and KnightTime Plus. And the Coyotes and Knights are also available via over-the-air-antenna in their local areas.
Ultimately, depending on location, getting a cable subscription that includes ESPN, TNT and the local RSN might actually be cheaper and easier for you than streaming -- especially if it's bundled with the home internet you'll likely be getting anyway.
Whether or not you have cable, ESPN's stand-alone streaming service is great for casual fans and is a must-have accessory for the zealots. It costs $10 a month or $100 a year and shows all out-of-market games along with numerous exclusive ESPN-produced telecasts per year. The catch is that your local team's games are blacked out when they appear on ESPN Plus.
Disney also shows exclusive games on Hulu, meaning the $13-a-month Disney trio bundle (which includes Hulu, Disney Plus and ESPN Plus) might end up being an even better buy for hockey fans who also love TV and Disney/Marvel/Star Wars.
Those looking to just get ESPN Plus to watch their local team's games will be out of luck, however. Most fans are in-market, meaning they follow the local team, and RSNs have broadcast exclusivity in the region that they cover. That means local NHL games are blacked out on ESPN Plus.
If you're living in Philadelphia for example, you won't be able to watch most Flyers games on ESPN Plus. The same goes for Rangers fans in New York, Bruins fans in Boston and so on. The only way to watch most of those home team games in your home market is to get a service that has the local RSN, respectively NBC Sports Philadelphia, MSG or NESN.
Services like ESPN Plus use IP addresses to block out games in viewers' regions -- you'll just get a black screen if you try to watch those games. That's why ESPN Plus is ideal for casual fans who just love a good game, or superfans who want to follow one or more of the teams based in cities other than their own, aka out-of-market teams, but is less useful for fans of the local team.
DirecTV Stream: Best live TV streaming service overall for hockey fans
If you want a single, cable-TV like service that carries most standard TV channels as well as every game from your local team, DirecTV stream is the answer. In addition to national hockey games on ABC, ESPN and TNT, it offers nearly every RSN, allowing subscribers in most areas of the US to stream local and national NHL games. The downside? It's not cheap.
To get your local hockey RSN you'll need to subscribe to DirecTV Stream's Choice package, which costs $109 per month, although the company is offering a $30 discount over the first three months.
Fubo: Best live TV streaming value for hockey fans
If you want to save some money and still get your RSN as part of a multichannel streaming TV package, the best alternative to DirectTV Stream is Fubo. New for 2023, it has basically as many RSNs as DirecTV Stream and it costs less. The main downside compared to DirecTV stream, however, is that FuBo lacks TNT. That means it won't carry any of the 62 national games or the TNT half of the playoffs. Including the regional sports fee Fubo costs $89 per month, making it significantly less expensive than DirecTV Stream, so losing those TNT games might be worth the tradeoff for you.
And here's one way around the TNT problem: Max (formerly HBO Max) subscribers can add the new Bleacher Report Sports add-on to their subscriptions to get TNT, including hockey games. It's free through February 29, 2024 to Max subscribers, after which it will cost $10 per month. That means you'd need two separate apps and subscriptions -- Fubo in addition to Max -- but between the two you would get pretty much all of the hockey. (Thanks to Cord Cutters News for first reporting this workaround).
The chart below shows which teams and which RSNs are available across four live TV streaming services.
RSNs on Live TV services compared
| Team | Network Name | DirecTV Stream | Fubo | YouTube TV | Hulu Plus Live TV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anaheim Ducks | Bally Sports SoCal | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Arizona Coyotes | Bally Sports Arizona | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Boston Bruins | NESN | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Buffalo Sabres | MSG | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Carolina Hurricanes | Bally Sports South | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Chicago Blackhawks | NBC Sports Chicago | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Colorado Avalanche | Altitude | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | Bally Sports Cincinnati | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Dallas Stars | Bally Sports Southwest | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Detroit Red Wings | Bally Sports Detroit | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Florida Panthers | Bally Sports Florida | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Los Angeles Kings | Bally Sports West | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Minnesota Wild | Bally Sports North | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Nashville Predators | Bally Sports South | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| New Jersey Devils | MSG | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| New York Islanders | MSG | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| New York Rangers | MSG | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Philadelphia Flyers | NBC Sports Philadelphia | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| San Jose Sharks | NBC Sports California | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Seattle Kraken | Root Sports Northwest | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| St. Louis Blues | Bally Sports Midwest | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | Bally Sports Sun | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Vegas Golden Knights | KnightTime Plus | No | No | No | No |
| Washington Capitals | Monumental Sports Network | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
The only RSN that's not available as part of major US-based live TV streaming service is KnightTime Plus. Sorry, Knights fans.
The Canadian hockey teams are missing from the chart above because none of the US-based services carries their RSNs. That means fans of the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, Winnipeg Jets, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks need to use ESPN Plus to watch all the games that are not either on your local RSN or on a US national broadcast.
It's also worth noting that the RSNs above, and the a la carte streaming options below, are only available in local areas where the teams play. If you're an Anaheim Ducks fan living in Miami, for example, you can't subscribe to Bally Sport SoCal to stream the games. You could, however, use a VPN to get around that kind of geo-restriction.
DirecTV Stream is expensive. It's the priciest of the five major live TV streaming services, but it's also one of the only ones with RSNs. Its cheapest, $80-a-month Plus package includes ESPN, ABC, TNT and TBS but you'll need to move up to the $109-a-month Choice plan to get any available RSN. You can use its channel lookup tool to see which local channels and RSNs are available in your area. The NHL Network is available starting at the $120-a-month Ultimate package.
Note that DirecTV Stream is different than getting traditional DirecTV over the internet, which is now an option but requires a two-year contract, includes its own hardware box and can be even more expensive. With DirecTV Stream you can cancel at anytime with no penalty -- similar to other streaming services -- though you will need to use the DirecTV app on your smart TV or streaming box of choice as it doesn't come with its own box.
Fubo costs $75 per month -- plus a $14 RSN fee, bringing the total to $89 per month -- and offers most available RSNs for hockey. It also includes ESPN but not TNT or TBS, which might be a problem for some hockey fans. But you can add the NHL Network for an extra $8 a month with the Fubo Extra Package or the Elite streaming tier ($99 per month) that includes Fubo Extra. Check out which local networks and RSNs Fubo offers here.
Best options for nationally broadcast games
Aside from DirecTV Stream and Fubo, the odds are long that a live TV streaming service carries the RSN for your local team's games, which makes the other three services better bets for watching nationally televised games.
Hulu Plus Live TV costs $77 a month and carries four RSNs for hockey along with ESPN, ABC, TBS and TNT, but not NHL Network. The service now also includes the Disney Bundle, which comes with ESPN Plus (and its wealth of out-of-market hockey games as described above) and Disney Plus. Click the "View all channels in your area" link at the bottom of its welcome page to see which local networks and RSNs are available where you live.
YouTube TV costs $73 a month and offers four RSNs for hockey, along with all of the national broadcasts. However, it lacks the option to get the NHL Network. Plug in your ZIP code on its welcome page to see which local networks and RSNs are available in your area.
Sling Blue currently lacks a single RSN to watch hockey. You can, however, use Sling to watch some national broadcasts. Sling TV's Orange plan includes ESPN and ABC in six cities, and both plans offer TNT. The NHL Network is available as part of the Sports Extra add-on, which costs $11 a month for either the Blue or Orange plan or $15 for the combined Orange-and-Blue plan. The individual plans cost $40 or $45 a month each, and the Orange-and-Blue plan costs $60 a month. You can see which local channels you get here.
Each live TV streaming service offers a free trial, allows you to cancel anytime and requires a solid internet connection. Looking for more information? Check out our live TV streaming services guide.
Bally Sports Plus: Cheapest for fans of most Ballys-area teams at $20
If all you want is your local team's games and you live in the right area, there are a few new a-la-carte choices available this year. For fans who live in one of the places served by a Bally's network, such as Bally Sports SoCal (Anaheim Ducks) or Bally Sports Sun (Tampa Bay Lightning), the least-expensive option is Bally Sports Plus.
Unlike other live TV streaming services, such as Fubo or DirecTV Stream, you won't get any other channels. Subscribers will only get one RSN for their $20 monthly (although that RSN will sometimes carry the local NBA team as well). Note that if you live in an area served by multiple Bally's RSNs, you can bundle those services for an additional fee.
If you live in one of the places served by a Bally's Sports Network (see the chart above), you can subscribe to Bally's Sports Plus and stream your team's local games live for $20 per month. Plug in your ZIP code to see what's available in your area.
MSG Plus, NESN360 and KnightTime Plus: Cheapest for Rangers, Devils, Isles, Sabres, Bruins and Knights fans
Some other teams' games are available to stream on their own dedicated RSN streaming service that, like Bally's, is separate from any other live TV package. Here's the breakdown.
Fans in New York and New Jersey can subscribe to MSG Plus as a standalone service to get games from area hockey teams. It costs $30 per month or $310 per year. You can also purchase individual games for $10 each. Use the ZIP code lookup to see which teams are available in your area, and be aware that it likely won't include all four teams. New York City-based fans, for example, don't have access to Buffalo Sabres games via MSG Plus.
This standalone service shows most Boston Bruins games and costs $30 per month or $330 per year. Use the ZIP code lookup to see if you're in an area served by NESN360.
The newest hockey-centric streaming option, Knight Time Plus has only annual ($70) and per-game ($10 each) pricing options. Its site doesn't have a ZIP code lookup, but the FAQ says "Fans who reside in the Golden Knights' television territory -- which extends through Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and certain counties in California, Arizona and Nebraska -- can access every locally broadcast game on KnightTime Plus."
It also happens to be the only RSN that's only available a la carte -- in other words you can't watch KnightTime Plus on any other live TV streaming service. You can watch Knights games locally via an antenna (KMCC, channel 34.1) or on the Vegas34 channel on cable.
NHL Network: It's still around, but costs extra and you probably don't need it
The NHL Network, run by the league, is still available as a stand-alone station. This season the network will air numerous games that will be considered national for those out-of-market. This means that you will still be able to watch your local team play on your RSN, but viewers elsewhere in the US will need the NHL Network in order to watch the game because it will be blacked out on ESPN Plus.
The NHL Network is not included in many basic streaming services or cable packages and is not available at all on Hulu Plus Live TV and YouTube TV. If you want it, chances are you are going to pay extra for it.
But what if I live in hockey-obsessed Canada?
Oh, Canadians, we know you love hockey and so does the NHL. But that means that you're unable to participate in the league's deal with ESPN Plus. Instead, you'll have to continue to pay more for a subscription to Sportsnet Plus for all of your out-of-market games.
Sportsnet Plus has a nifty tool that will help you figure out exactly what games are available in your region with your subscription.
Cord-cutters in Canada might also need another service to get their local games.