How to watch NHL Online Live without Cable

Sports by Admin on October 21, 2019 add comment 4967 Views 13 min read

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Officially, it’s dubbed as NHL – professional ice hockey. The NHL season is underway and this article will answer where you can watch NHL online.

The current season 2018-19 kicked off on October 3^rd. The season will last till April 6^th, 2020. The Stanley Cup will follow afterward with the finals taking place in May and early June. The ice hockey professional league is held in North America, comprising of 31 teams out of which 24 are from the US and 7 from Canada.

Once the winner is crowned, the season concludes. Washington Capitals had won the last time around. However, the team with the most Stanley Cup titles is Montreal Canadiens.

NHL ice hockey is broadcasted throughout Canada. If the channel is in Canada, you bet you can watch hockey online on it. CBC, Sportsnet, TVA Sports, TSN, and RDS have broadcasting rights to NHL across Canada.

In the United States including NBCSN, NBC, CNBC, USA, and NHL Networks share broadcasting rights to NHL.

How to Live stream NHL form anywhere in the world

See if you are located in the US or Canada, you can easily catch the action live as it unfolds. Although, if you are anywhere outside of those regions, there is a problem. The idea here is to watch with the help of a VPN.

A VPN service helps people to bypass geoblocking in place. Geo-restrictions limit viewing of a particular sport, show or content in a certain region. Since ice hockey fanatics and the love for the game is largely present in the North American continent, it is no surprise other regions are not qualified to view the game.

Those using a VPN will simply have to connect to the desired region which in this case is the United States or Canada. And you can watch NHL games online.

Register and download Ivacy on your preferred device
Connect to a server in the US/Canada
Go to NHL website or app
Watch NHL live online from anywhere in the world

Watch NHL online in the United States

To watch NHL games online is not as easy as you would have come to expect. Why? Although the games are aired on NBC, but not every one of the games so in the US, as stated previously, you will be required to use a combination of channels in addition to NBC such as NBCSN, CNBC and USA Network, etc.

For instance, when there is an important NHL game being broadcasted, NBC will start showing some equally important golf game that you aren’t interested in. Meanwhile, others might be. So you switch to another channel in order to catch that particular ice hockey game.

Channels will change depending on which rounds of NHL playoffs you are in. The first-round is usually available on all channels. The second round will most likely be aired on NBC and NBCSN, while round three – which includes the Stanley Cup will be exclusively available on NBC.

Yes, it is a costly affair juggling these many subscriptions. Or you can simply use Ivacy VPN and watch NHL live stream free online. This situation is referred to as blackout. When “blacked-out” only some of the games can be viewed on one channel while for the rest of the games you will have to switch to another while in the US.

With a VPN provider, however, it’s easy.

Register and download Ivacy on your preferred device
Connect to a server in the US/Canada
Go to NHL website or app
Watch NHL live online from anywhere in the world

In the case of a blackout, in step 2 connect to a different server in the US. For instance, if you are in Miami, FL, choose a server in Chicago, IL. This will solve the blackout problem.

For those who can manage these subscriptions or can afford paid mediums, you can choose from the following to get desired channels.

1. Hulu with live TV

Hulu is available at $44.99 per month. You will get NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, and USA Network but not the NHL Network bundled together in the package. Since Hulu is only available in the US, you can learn to unblock Hulu outside of the US.

2. PS VUE

PS VUE starts at $44.99 per month. Here you can grab access to NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, and USA Network but once again NHL Network is not included. You can set up a VPN on your Playstation if you are outside the US and watch NHL online.

3. DirecTV Now

DirecTV Now can be found at $50 a month. The package includes NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, and USA Network. Yet again, NHL Network is missing in the subscription. DirecTV comes with a 7-day trial.

4. Sling TV

Priced at $15 a month, Sling’s Blue Package includes NBC, NBCSN, and USA Network. However, for an additional $10, you get News Extra and Sports Extra packages. This will bring in CNBC and NHL Network to the table. Here’s how you can watch NHL online out of the States.

5. fuboTV

fuboTV is also available at a price of $44.99 for the first month. You will have access to NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, and USA Network. With fuboTV, you can record games and can enjoy 3-day replay for any game whatsoever. A free 7-day trial is included.

6. YouTube TV

Gain access to NBC, NBCSN, CNBC and USA at $49.99/month. YouTube TV comes with a 14-day trial to make it worth your while.

Watch NHL online in Canada

In Canada Stanley Cup payoffs are broadcasted over Sportsnet. Although, if you seek to stream it on your laptop or mobile device, CBCSports is the way to go! The medium has both Android and iOS apps. But don’t count out Sportsnet just yet. It has its own streaming service by the name of SNNow, which will cost you $20 a month (if streaming is your thing).

Watch NHL playoffs online in the UK

The options to catch the NHL ice hockey in the UK are limited. The Stanley Cup playoffs are solely available on Premier Sports. The channel can be subscribed either via Sky or Virgin Media for £9.99 a month. You can avail FIRSTMONTHFREE promo code that allows you to view 15 NHL games for free per week.

Why use a VPN?

VPNs, in general, aim to mask your IP address ensuring that you are safe online. This means in order to watch NHL online outside of the US or Canada, you are going to need a tool that circumvents geo-restrictions. You have to understand, due to exclusive rights to a particular sport or content, other regions are deprived of it.

A VPN helps you by assigning an IP from that region. When a different IP is assigned the streaming service finds it to be originating from the region with broadcasting rights. In this regard, Ivacy VPN happens to be your best bet! Ivacy offers optimized servers so that you get stutter-free streaming.

Moreover, Ivacy comes with Military-Grade Encryption, IPv6 leak protection, a wide array of protocols, and 1000+ servers worldwide. It doesn’t get any better than Ivacy for streaming of sports and especially to stream NHL playoffs.

How to watch NHL on Kodi for FREE

Now that the fair warning is out of the way, it is imperative to learn how fans can watch NHL games online on Kodi. Kodi is a free streaming medium that operates on addons, both official and unofficial. So how can you enjoy NHL live stream free online on Kodi? Read below to find out.

The official list of Kodi addons

1. USTVNow

USTVNow is a popular Kodi addon to watch NHL online. USTVNow offers you 7 free channels which come bundled with NBC. Games for the season can be easily watched through this addon. Of course, other sports are also available.

For those who think that’s not enough, you can sign up for an additional $19.99 a month to get NBC Sports Network. As a result of this, you will be able to capture NHL live stream free online in its entirety. The addon can be found on the official Kodi addon repository.

2. NBC Sports Live Extra

For those who are already subscribed to USTVNow, they are in luck! Simply log in and watch NHL online as the credentials can be used for NBC Sports Live Extra. The addon houses only the highest quality streams. Again, the said addon can be found in the official Kodi addon repository.

Both addons require a VPN service to become accessible if you are located outside the US.

3. NHL GameCenter

All the season games are available via NHL GameCenter Kodi addon. For any issues related to blackout, you can always rely on Ivacy VPN for bypassing the restrictions in play. NHL GameCenter subscription costs $24.99 per month.

4. NHL.tv

Another, yet effective Kodi addon to stream NHL playoffs. NHL GameCenter and NHL.tv addons are quite similar in terms of offerings. Whichever works best, you can choose that. A paid subscription of $24.99 is needed to watch NHL games online via NHL.tv, so it’s up to you to decide.

5. Playstation VUE

PS VUE served as a means to replace the traditional cable TV. You can get it for $39.99 and it will provide you with NBCSN and CNBC. Thus, you are able to catch most of the games via Playstation VUE addon. Although, if you are residing in a metropolitan city, it is possible to even access NBC channel through Playstation VUE. That way every postseason game and game of the week can be viewed in utmost comfort.

6. Sportsnet Now

The addon is a collection of Canadian sports TV channels. You can watch NHL games online with the help of Sportsnet Now Kodi addon. You can catch Sunday-night games exclusively on Sportsnet Now! It costs $24.99 per month. Outside of Canada, you know what to do. Use Ivacy.

7. CBC Sports

One of the most popular names when it comes to broadcasting sports. Well, now you can stream NHL playoffs on Kodi with CBC Sports addon. A number of Stanley Cup playoffs can be viewed on CBC Sports alongside other NHL matches. Again, if you are located outside of Canada, you can use a VPN to unblock geo-restrictions and get your watch NHL online fix.

Follow these steps to get your NHL fix on Kodi. The step to installing each addon is a topic for another day.

Register and download Ivacy on your preferred device
Connect to a server in the US/Canada
Launch Kodi and choose the desired addon for streaming
Watch NHL live online from anywhere in the world

You’re welcome.

List of Unofficial Addons

WE DO NOT CONDONE the use of unofficial addons due to its questionable nature. Since they are developed by independent developers they tend to function outside of the main Kodi framework or set of addons.

Thus, they tend to be taken down or their repositories are shut down. But if you must, use them at your own risk and make sure to employ a decent VPN service. Here goes.

1. SportsDevil

With the help of SportsDevil addon, you can watch both US and Canadian channels. It is a third party addon and is based out of Russia. So expect pirated streams and the quality might be of a low tier. Therefore, don’t go in hoping for HD streaming.

2. SportsAccess

SportsAccess lets you access high-quality streams on Kodi. But since it’s free, it is one of the go-to addons to watch NHL online, so what are you waiting for? For users seeking to stream it for free might be disappointed because SportsAccess charges money from users to allow streaming. So there’s that.

3. cCloud TV

A popular IPTV Kodi addon gathers streams from a variety of different sources on the web. The addon features content from both the US and UK. Thus, if you are an NHL fan, you’d be in luck with cCloud TV.

4. Rising Tides

Rising Tides enables you to watch live streaming like no other. You can watch NHL games online won’t be any different. The addon looks for content from a wide array of websites, especially the US ones.

5. Falcon Sports

Falcon Sports is a sports-only wing of Falcon Kodi addon. The addon uses different mediums to pull stream from. So if you aim to watch NHL playoffs online on Kodi, relying on Falcon Sports is your best bet!

6. Smoothstreams

For the highest quality pirated streams, it doesn’t get any better than Smoothstreams. Although, as a user, you are required to pay $17 per month via PayPal in order to be able to view content on Kodi.

All in all, with either of the addons, to stream NHL playoffs will be a piece of cake!

Official vs. Unofficial Kodi Addons

Official vs. unofficial Kodi addons is a debate that has raged on for years. The issue arises owing to the authenticity and legal status of addons. Official addons are authorized addons and are in complete compliance with Kodi and copyright rules.

Unofficial addons, however, as stated, are developed by third party developers and are NOT approved by Kodi. Moreover, they offer free access to content which violates copyright and fuels piracy. The sad part, the use of these addons has made Kodi as a platform questionable.

Again, not everyone can afford to pay for addons in order to view the desired content including ice hockey sports among other things. Which is why a VPN comes in handy

Enjoy NHL live stream free online

So what are you waiting for? Watch NHL online with Ivacy VPN and open yourself up to a world of endless possibilities. Unblock high-speed internet freedom by bypassing geoblocking and get ready to watch hockey online, NHL Stanley Cup playoffs, among other exclusive content.