Where To Watch NHL Games
While the NHL playoffs have just wrapped up, a good thing to know for the 2021-22 regular season is where to watch your favourite team’s NHL games. The most popular place to watch games is on CBC every Saturday night, however that’s only one night a week. There are a lot more places you will need to look to watch your team. In this article, we will cover where you can watch all seven Canadian hockey teams as well as some of the American teams.
In Canada, there are four teams that have deals with Bell that allows them to have their games during the week on one of TSN channels. The four teams are the Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Follow the NHL season of the Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Canadiens
The Senators have a deal on TSN5 which covers Eastern Canada and is blacked out in the Western region of Canada. Along with being broadcasted on TSN5, they also have a deal with the french sports network RDS. The deal for Ottawa Senators TV coverage was signed in 2014 and will continue to run until 2026. The deal includes a minimum of 52 games per season on TSN and 40 games on RDS. The rest of the games can be seen on Rogers Sportsnet. If you don’t meet the regional restrictions, you will need to pay for the NHL Centre Ice package to watch most of the Senators games.
The Montreal Canadiens have a deal in place to have their games shown on TSN2 which covers Eastern Canada and is blacked out west of Belleville, Ontario. TSN shows around 60% of all Canadiens games whereas Rogers Sportsnet shows the 40% plus any playoff games. As well as the deal with TSN, the Canadiens have a deal with RDS who show 60 of the Canadiens 82 games during the regular season. Whereas TVA Sports shows the other 22 plus the playoff games.
Watch the Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs NHL games
The Winnipeg Jets have a deal to have their games shown on TSN3 which covers their region. Their region includes Manitoba, Saskatchewan, The Northwest Territories, Nunavut and parts of Northwest Ontario. TSN will only broadcast the weeknight games for the Jets during the regular season. The remaining games will be broadcasted on CBC and or Rogers Sportsnet which include playoffs.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have a smaller TV deal with TSN that allows them to show about one-third of all Leafs games on TSN4 throughout the Ontario region. The remaining games are shown on Sportsnet.
The reason for the split between broadcast networks is that Rogers has primary rights to NHL games in Canada and exclusive rights for the playoffs. However, those four teams all have special deals with Bell Media to get TSN and/ or RDS to show their games.
Watch the Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames or Edmonton Oilers NHL games
The remaining three Canadian teams are exclusively on Rogers Sportsnet and on Saturday night Hockey Night in Canada which also includes CBC and CityTV.
The Vancouver Canucks games can be seen each night on Sportsnet Pacific. The regional coverage can be seen in the BC and Alberta regions.
For the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers, their games will be seen on Sportsnet split between Sportsnet West, Sportsnet 360 and Sportsnet One. Unlike the other five teams these two teams don’t have one exclusive channel on TSN or Sportsnet due to both sharing the same regional guidelines. Their regional coverage can be seen throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan.
As for Canadians in the southern part of the country that get American channels, the NHL TV rights has gone from NBC over to ESPN, thanks to a deal between the NHL and Turner Sports. The TV deal will kick in at the start of the 2021-22 season which will include the yearly outdoor Winter Classic as well as the NHL playoffs. With this new TV deal, it puts an end to the 16-year relationship that the league had with NBC Sports.
Access all NHL games
Unfortunately there are a lot of blackouts throughout Canada for many teams, with that being said your only hope is to subscribe to NHL Centre Ice which gives you access to any NHL game that you want. However it is separate from the traditional TV packages which means there is a premium fee to pay for the NHL Centre Ice package. Depending on your provider it can cost up to $160 for the entire season and playoffs. If you are a Washington Capitals fan in Manitoba, it could be worth it so you can watch all your team’s games throughout the season.
As mentioned earlier, all playoffs will be on Sportsnet in english and TVA Sports in french. The NHL draft will also be held on both those networks.
As you can see there are options for every hockey fan across Canada to watch their favourite team as well as an option to watch all the NHL games for a hardcore hockey fan.
And to help you in your choice, PlanHub is preparing a TV plan comparator, to find out when it will be available visit our TV section and set up an alert. We will send you an email as soon as we launch our new comparator!