Where are my NHL Games?

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djino

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I suppose this should go under the Sports Programming Thread (or someplace else) as I'm not sure if this is BEV's fault but.....

Today. NHL.com tells me there are 3 games on tonight (Toronto @ Boston. Montreal @ Atlanta. And most importantly Carolina @ Ottawa).

I live in the Ottawa area (and I do not subscribe to the NHL Center ICE). But how come I dont see any of the 3 games above showing on any of the basic channels within the standard package group. (This was also the case on Tuesday night. Toronto/Montreal/Ottawa were playing that night. I could not watch any of those games (I figured it had to do with American Idol). Whats the reason tonight?

djino
"Sigh, I dont wanna have to fork out money to buy Center ICE, but please, gimme one Canadian-East team to watch. Rediculous :(".
 
Well because you live in the Ottawa area, there are regional restrictions to NHL games. For instance, the Leafs game tonight would not be available to you without Centre Ice as most Leafs games are broadcasted on Sportsnet or LeafsTV for the Leafs viewing region. You would likely fall in the Senators region. The same applies for Canadiens games. The only exceptions are nationally televised games on TSN or CBC. Tonights Leafs game is on LeafsTV (local restrictions apply), there is no english coverage of the Canadiens, and the Sens game is available on Sportsnet East tonight. Hardly any Canadian NHL teams broadcast games on local tv anymore (CTV, Global, etc.), most of them are on Sportsnet, some on PPV, others on CBC and TSN. The Senators are the only team that still broadcast on local tv (A-Channel).

If you want to see these teams, you will likely have to pay for Centre Ice. I've been a subscriber for the past 3 years, but for me in order to see my favorite team play, I have to pay for it.
 
Ya, but not even A-Channel is carrying tonight's Senators game :(

I understand the blackout restrictions and stuff. But on a regular night, I'm usually able to watch one of these 3 teams play on some channel. But this week, NOPE! I just figured Tuesday had to do with American Idol as it's season premier was that night.

djino
"I guess I could subscribe to the theme that includes RDS and watch my Habs everynight they play. BOOO!! at paying to watch Hockey"
 
If you get the "french package" that includes RDS on Bev you also get RDS in HD.
p.s. GO HABS GO :)
 
Sportsnet-East had the Ottawa/Carolina game last night.

As others have said, the blackouts for other teams are due to the broadcaster only buying local market rights. TSN and CBC almost always have national rights. Sportsnet is almost always local, though once in a while Sportsnet carries a game nationally. I think RDS has national rights for the Habs, so if you subscribe to RDS you should get almost all of the Habs games.
 
You're probably right, but I could have sworn that I watched some games on Sportsnet that would not have typically been available in the Ottawa region. Perhaps it was just a mistake in the blackout.

TSN does a handful of regional games each year; I thought that maybe Sportsnet had similarly bought national rights to a couple of games.
 
It was probably a mistake in a blackout. Sportsnet hasn't had national rights since TSN acquired them a few years ago, and there wouldn't be two national rights holders, even though that would be nice. Sportsnet has only had their contracts to show local games with national coverage for junior hockey, even though I wish Sportsnet would show more localized junior coverage like they had in their first year of existence (Sunday games featuring QMJHL - SNET East, OHL - Sportsnet Ontario, WHL(Sask/AB) - Sportsnet West, WHL(BC) - Sportsnet Pacific). At least that was decent coverage.
 
If you have 5 theme packs, make two of them "Sports 1" and "Le monde en Francais" to get Sens and Habs games on Sportsnet and RDS, and lots of other games on TSN. And just ignore the leafs like everyone should.
 
The Ottawa game was on SNET-HD2.

I had it on SC, but my attention (the little time I had last night) went to RDSHD.

-gmd
 
Thanks for the suggestion.

I ended up swapping out Family 2 for Sports 1 (since all I needed from Family 2 was Much Vibe) and added Much Vibe as a pick 'n play channel. I also added The French theme pack (le monde en francais) as my 6th theme.

djino
"The things I have to do to get hockey :mad:"
 
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