NHL Center ice questions about - Will all my team's games be shown, including Playoffs? (Montreal)

[Rockstead]

I've never subscribed but I'm interested now. I follow the Montreal Canadiens, will all of their regular season and playoff games be televised?

Is there any situation in which they would not be? The season price seems reasonable, but not if I'm going to miss any games.

Also, I was reading you can select the home or away team's announcer, does that work well?

Thanks

 

[mdram]

they should follow normal blackout rules

 

[Rockstead]

they should follow normal blackout rules

I'm so out of it when it comes to blackout rules, what does that mean to me?

 

[mdram]

http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=26371

 

[ejb1980]

I'm so out of it when it comes to blackout rules, what does that mean to me?

You'll get all the regular season games on CI. Many times you'll get both feeds, but you'll always have at least 1. All the playoff games are on the NBC channels, come that time. It can be a little hard to find them, as they are on channels like CNBC and USA just use the Sports Search and NHL and, come playoffs, you'll see them all listed together.

Go Habs! Montreal is less than 70 miles from me yet I can see so few of their games. And there are fewer and fewer games on the major Montreal OTA locals. I am not a big enough fan to get CI but do like to watch when I can. I don't care if the TV broadcast is English or French.I can get all of their games on Radio on 98.5 pretty clearly. But it's French so that does me no good, haha. All I get are names and I can usually figure out the score. The English TSN 690 is very hard to pull in .

 

[Jimbo]

I believe, typically you will get the 1st round Playoffs on the RSN, at least we usually do in the Red Wings market, and then after the 1st round it moves to NBC. (it may be on NBC for the first round as well, but I prefer to listen to the local guys.)

 

[ttomni6]

I'm assuming Direct TV functions the same way for NHL Center Ice as for me on DISH.

You say you follow Montreal but you don't say if you LIVE in the Montreal area. If you live in the Montreal area, you have to watch your games on your RSN - Rogers or whoever is your local regional sports station.

For the sake of argument, let's assume you live in Arizona. In this case, you will receive all Montreal games on NHL Center Ice with the following exceptions:

If a Montreal game is the primary broadcast on NHL Network (and they are not playing the Coyotes), you would watch the game on NHL Network. Likewise, if the game is telecast on NBC Sports Network or NBC Network, you would watch the game there.

Here's where the blackout rules can get a bit tricky.

If (you are in the Phoenix area) and Montreal is playing the Coyotes and the Arizona RSN is broadcasting the game - you would watch it on your Arizona RSN and it doesn't even show up in the on screen guide (with DISH anyway). On the other hand, if NHL Network or NBC Sports Network does not have the EXCLUSIVE rights for that Arizona-Montreal game, the game would be blacked out on NHLN or NBCSN and you WOULD get the game on NHL Center Ice.

NHL Center Ice will give you all regular season games and first round of the playoffs. One we get to round 2 of the playoffs, NBC has the rights for all the games. Since there are so many games in round 2, some will be on CNBC, NBCSN and other NBC affiliates.

As for choosing the Montreal or Arizona feed, DISH will sometimes offer both (this season), most often not. If you DO get both feeds, they should be listed separately in your on screen guide.

Hope this helps clear things up a bit for you.

 

[ejb1980]

I believe, typically you will get the 1st round Playoffs on the RSN, at least we usually do in the Red Wings market, and then after the 1st round it moves to NBC. (it may be on NBC for the first round as well, but I prefer to listen to the local guys.)

Not with the Canadiens - their RSN isn't available in the USA! All the playoff games for all the teams are on the NBC channels, including the first round. As with other sports, I am going to assume that the package itself only includes the regular season as NBC will want to maximize the out-of-market ratings, but I am not 100% sure about that.

As for the post about Dish and Directv CI, I am pretty sure there are differences. All the games show up on our on-screen guide, even if you don't have CI, so there's something. Especially if the game is on your local RSN, how can that not show on the Dish guide, other than them not carrying a number of the RSNs... Directv uses the RSN feeds for the sports packages so you can watch the games in the 700s (where they are all listed) and also on all of the USA RSNs in the 600s where the local folks see them. Same exact coverage. If something is blacked out on one of the NHL CI channels, it will find it for you 99% of the time, just give it a second for the "your game has been found on channel 220, do you want to tune there?" message to popup. Obviously national exclusive broadcasts (NBCSN and NHL Network etc) will not be on CI channels, but you still get the games.

A more specific location than "Earth" might help us give some specifics.

 

[dishcomm]

I've never subscribed but I'm interested now. I follow the Montreal Canadiens, will all of their regular season and playoff games be televised?

Is there any situation in which they would not be? The season price seems reasonable, but not if I'm going to miss any games.

Also, I was reading you can select the home or away team's announcer, does that work well?

Thanks

Black out rules apply. The team in the US that claims your zip code as inside it's territory controls the rule.
Otherwise, all games EXCEPT when NBC has exclusive rights to the game, are on CI.....
One other thing. Center Ice DOES NOT extend into the playoffs. All playoff games are shown on NBCSN, Its cable partners( CNBC, MSNBC, USA,) or NHL Network.

 

[dishcomm]

You'll get all the regular season games on CI. Many times you'll get both feeds, but you'll always have at least 1. All the playoff games are on the NBC channels, come that time. It can be a little hard to find them, as they are on channels like CNBC and USA just use the Sports Search and NHL and, come playoffs, you'll see them all listed together.

Go Habs! Montreal is less than 70 miles from me yet I can see so few of their games. And there are fewer and fewer games on the major Montreal OTA locals. I am not a big enough fan to get CI but do like to watch when I can. I don't care if the TV broadcast is English or French.I can get all of their games on Radio on 98.5 pretty clearly. But it's French so that does me no good, haha. All I get are names and I can usually figure out the score. The English TSN 690 is very hard to pull in .

Are you in the US? Upstate NY or VT?.....You should be able to find TSN 690 AM on the internet. Most radio stations stream their signals.
Just as I thought...AM 690 CKGM is available not only on line but via the I-Heart radio app......http://www.iheartradio.ca/tsn/tsn-montreal
And here is the main link to the station.....http://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690

 

[robjlevin]

You may or may not get the Habs feeds but you will get all of the games one way or another. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that NHL.tv is now included with Center Ice. That will get you the Habs feed in English and French.

If you're concerned about the blackouts, download and install the Opera web browser to access NHL.tv. It has a built in VPN. Good bye blackouts.