NHL Center ICE

[trausch]

Does NHL Center Ice show preseason games?

[Sopranoman]

Its hard to remember - LOL....I think so.

GOWINGS!

[Steveknj]

On another board, there's the same discussion. If you have the sports pack, you'll be able to see the games, but they don't think that CI shows any preseason games

[mattpol]

Steve is correct, as far as I can recall.

[Nightfall]

On another board, there's the same discussion. If you have the sports pack, you'll be able to see the games, but they don't think that CI shows any preseason games
I have had Center Ice for 3 years now and they have never shown preseason games. Too bad actually. :(

[Sopranoman]

I have had Center Ice for 3 years now and they have never shown preseason games. Too bad actually. :(

If I remember correctly they do NOT cover the pre-season games. However if you have the CI and sports pack you can watch PSG's out of market.

GOWINGS!

[jalpert]

What is CI? Available on comcast?

[Sopranoman]

What is CI? Available on comcast?

Center Ice. Not sure if available on Comcast.

[jalpert]

wow, that wasn't obvious :-)

[lander215]

Instead of starting a new thread I figured I'd just tag onto this one.

Several times this year I've tuned in to watch a game that is in the Center Ice package only to get the message that this game isn't available in my area. :confused:

The latest was last night, I wanted to watch the Maples Leafs at Avalanche..tuned in about 10:30 or so and got the "not available' message on my Center Ice channel.

Ended up watching the Lightning v Kings game instead.

Anybody else had this happen and/or know why I'd get that message? I'm not in either teams blackout area (South Carolina is a loooong way from either team).

[forecheck]

Was the game over? I haven't had any blackout problems all season. The only time I see a message on the CI channels is either before or after the game, when they use a feed from an RSN. The feed comes on 30 minutes before the game and stays active for a random amount of time after the game, and if you don't have sports pack, you will get a message telling you about either ordering information or that it is blacked out, depending on what that particular RSN is showing at the time.

[Steveknj]

If I remember correctly they do NOT cover the pre-season games. However if you have the CI and sports pack you can watch PSG's out of market.

GOWINGS!

When you consider everything else you DO get with CI, not having Pre-season is minor. Consider you do get:

Pretty much all regular season games, including Canadian feeds (HNIC)
Hockey DAY in Canada
Some games from the World Junior Championship
I believe a couple of years ago there was some games from the World Championships


The only thing missing IMO is NHL Network.

[lander215]

Was the game over? I haven't had any blackout problems all season. The only time I see a message on the CI channels is either before or after the game, when they use a feed from an RSN. The feed comes on 30 minutes before the game and stays active for a random amount of time after the game, and if you don't have sports pack, you will get a message telling you about either ordering information or that it is blacked out, depending on what that particular RSN is showing at the time.

Not unless through some miracle of clock manipulation they finished the game in less than 90 minutes! I tuned in about 10:30-11ish and this was a 9:00 game (EST) according to my schedule.

Edit to add: when this happened before, I switched to a different game and watched it for a bit, then tried again and the game I wanted to see was then available and in progress...didn't happen this time though.

[buffan]

Spoiler from last night's game Avs-Leafs game just in case somebody still plans to watch it:



Too bad you missed it. The first period was great hockey to watch. Second period, probably only fun if you're an Avs fan. It was amusing listening to the Avs fans chanting Belfour's name when he got pounded for four goals in the 2nd period. Apparently the fans still like to give him a hard time for his days with the Stars.

[Steveknj]

Spoiler from last night's game Avs-Leafs game just in case somebody still plans to watch it:



Too bad you missed it. The first period was great hockey to watch. Second period, probably only fun if you're an Avs fan. It was amusing listening to the Avs fans chanting Belfour's name when he got pounded for four goals in the 2nd period. Apparently the fans still like to give him a hard time for his days with the Stars.



Not wanting to hijack the thread, and noticing you were from Texas, I was curious. How popular is hockey in Dallas? I know the Stars have been a good team for quite awhile so Dallas fans had a winner right away, but, is it a sport that is talked about? Are there lots of rabid fans? I know the Cowboys are team #1 in the area, but where would you rate the Stars? Are they more or less popular than the Rangers and Mavs?

I'm just trying to get a feel on how hockey is doing in some of these non traditional hockey areas.

[jurysch]

Steve,

I've been a Stars fan since I was in 5th grade (1993) when they moved to Dallas.

I would say to anybody from the north or more traditional hockey areas, you'd be surprised at how popular the team is around Dallas. The problem with this area is that Dallasites (and many Texans, given that Houston is that terrible) are diehard Cowboys fans, given their success in both the 70's and 90's. For a long time the Mavericks were embarrassingly terrible and thus the Stars were a breath of fresh air when they had moderate success in the mid-90's.

I think by the late 90's when we became a serious juggernaut in the league (and had back-to-back Finals appearances) we had peaked in favoritism around Dallas. As we moved into the American Airlines Center things were still riding high all the way until the lockout.

Present day, attendance figures aren't as spectacular as they once were a couple years ago, but the team is off to a terrific start and it seems buzz is building up around here agin. The Cowboys have moderately improved, so they're getting some of their bandwagon fans back again, and the Mavs are almost as much of a force in the NBA as the Stars are in the NHL. The Rangers are kind of mediocre and don't seem to evoke much emotion out of the fans, so they probably place 4th among local teams.

So for a quick summary, the way it seems to me is --

1. Cowboys
2. Mavericks
3. Stars
4. Rangers

With the Mavs doing well and Cuban maintaining a fantastic job at filling seats and building interest, the Stars kind of automatically have to take a bit of a back-seat to them post-lockout.

Pardon the length. :D

[forecheck]

Not unless through some miracle of clock manipulation they finished the game in less than 90 minutes! I tuned in about 10:30-11ish and this was a 9:00 game (EST) according to my schedule.

Edit to add: when this happened before, I switched to a different game and watched it for a bit, then tried again and the game I wanted to see was then available and in progress...didn't happen this time though.

That is strange, I don't know why that would happen, I haven't had any problems. I assume you are trying to watch the games in the 700 range of channels, and not the 600's?

[djithm]

Another non-attempt at a threadjack.....

For those that have the HD package: How many NHL games do they offer in High Def? Is there a specific schedule for games on HD so you'll know when your favorite team plays? And how many times does YOUR favorite team plays?

[forecheck]

There isn't much of a schedule, just have to keep checking the program guide as they add games to the schedule. Right now, we pretty much get whatever games OLN does in HD, plus some (guessing 50 to 75%?) of the games listed here:

http://msn.foxsports.com/name/HD

[Steveknj]

Steve,

I've been a Stars fan since I was in 5th grade (1993) when they moved to Dallas.

I would say to anybody from the north or more traditional hockey areas, you'd be surprised at how popular the team is around Dallas. The problem with this area is that Dallasites (and many Texans, given that Houston is that terrible) are diehard Cowboys fans, given their success in both the 70's and 90's. For a long time the Mavericks were embarrassingly terrible and thus the Stars were a breath of fresh air when they had moderate success in the mid-90's.

I think by the late 90's when we became a serious juggernaut in the league (and had back-to-back Finals appearances) we had peaked in favoritism around Dallas. As we moved into the American Airlines Center things were still riding high all the way until the lockout.

Present day, attendance figures aren't as spectacular as they once were a couple years ago, but the team is off to a terrific start and it seems buzz is building up around here agin. The Cowboys have moderately improved, so they're getting some of their bandwagon fans back again, and the Mavs are almost as much of a force in the NBA as the Stars are in the NHL. The Rangers are kind of mediocre and don't seem to evoke much emotion out of the fans, so they probably place 4th among local teams.

So for a quick summary, the way it seems to me is --

1. Cowboys
2. Mavericks
3. Stars
4. Rangers

With the Mavs doing well and Cuban maintaining a fantastic job at filling seats and building interest, the Stars kind of automatically have to take a bit of a back-seat to them post-lockout.

Pardon the length. :D

Hey thanks for the insight. I do recall, before the lockout that the Stars would regularly fill their arena, and any dropoff is probably attributed to the lockout. I really want hockey to succeed in non traditional areas as it is good for the game, but, I just have my doubts that it will really happen in many. Even in the hockey hotbeds, hockey is more of a niche sport with a core of diehard fans and not much else. It's been said in NY, that the Rangers seem to draw the same 18,000 fans night after night and that there is very little casual interest, which does occur with the Yankees or Mets, or even the football teams. I just wonder if that is the way it's going to be non traditional areas, a few die hards, but not much interest otherwise.

[lander215]

That is strange, I don't know why that would happen, I haven't had any problems. I assume you are trying to watch the games in the 700 range of channels, and not the 600's?

Yeah...it was the 700 channels. The more I think about it the more I'm thinking perhaps it was later and the game was over....cause the game I ended up watching was a 10:30 start and when I tuned in the 2nd period was just starting...that puts the time closer to 11:15...but even so most games run about 2:30...

[Timbeau]

Instead of starting a new thread I figured I'd just tag onto this one.

Several times this year I've tuned in to watch a game that is in the Center Ice package only to get the message that this game isn't available in my area. :confused:

The latest was last night, I wanted to watch the Maples Leafs at Avalanche..tuned in about 10:30 or so and got the "not available' message on my Center Ice channel.

Ended up watching the Lightning v Kings game instead.

Anybody else had this happen and/or know why I'd get that message? I'm not in either teams blackout area (South Carolina is a loooong way from either team).


I've gotten this message before. I think it happens when a station that has rights to my area is showing the game but I'm trying to watch it on a different channel.

For instance if I lived in NYC and the Rangers (boooo) were playing Tampa Bay (yeah!!!) and both the NY and Florida stations were broadcasting the game and NHLCI was showing the Florida station's broadcast I would get the message.

I usually look around and am able to find another station that is showing the game.

I can't imagine South Carolina would be in either the Maple Leafs or Avs area though.

When ESPN was broadcasting you could only watch at least some games on that station, ESPN2 didn't have that restriction. I don't know if OLN has that restriction.

[HiddenSky]

When ESPN was broadcasting you could only watch at least some games on that station, ESPN2 didn't have that restriction. I don't know if OLN has that restriction.

IIRC, OLN has exclusive U.S. rights, so if they're televising a game between two U.S. opponents, neither team will be doing a local telecast unlike the ESPN contract where they had X number of games each season they could designate as exclusive national telecasts. The rest of the ESPN games were national outside of the territories of the teams involved and you'd either see a blackout in those territories or occasionally an alternate game.

I'm not sure if Canadian feeds of games appearing on OLN would be blacked out on CI or not, but my guess would be yes.