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How to watch the Kings on TV this season

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DryIslandBartender said:
What’s a good quality VPN app for mobile? I have the espn+ bundle.
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I've read almost universally positive stories on the 'Web about folks using ExpressVPN to defeat ESPN+'s local blackouts. We have AT&T (DirecTV) Steam right now - so we get Bally's anyway - but in the very near future, we're dropping AT&T for Hulu Live+++ (or whatever they're calling it; it's the one with the Disney bundle + Hulu's smattering of cable channels) and adding ExpressVPN. I'll post in this thread how it turns out...
 
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Atlanta is tonight's VPN city winner. I will stop posting this but it's just really an example of what you have to deal with when you use VPN. I'm watching every single game but which city works for you is a crap shoot.
 
cyclones22 said:
Atlanta is tonight's VPN city winner. I will stop posting this but it's just really an example of what you have to deal with when you use VPN. I'm watching every single game but which city works for you is a crap shoot.
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Sorry if this is a dumb question, but is this so you are able to see it through the Bally’s app?
 
If you have zero interest in watching other NHL games (or anything on ESPN+), then I can get with that. It can be a hassle from time to time, depending on what your tolerance and definition of hassle is! But I subscribe to a VPN anyway and subscribe to ESPN+ for more than just NHL games. Combined it's cheaper than what Bally's charges monthly, and you get way more out of it. To each his own though. To be clear to those who don't know, games are viewed on my home theater connected to a Google Chromecast. I have given fair warnings in this thread that it's not for everyone. Just that it's a viable alternative.
 
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If I could pay $10 a month and get just the Kings, I'd be totally fine with that, but I don't care about anything else on Bally's since I only watch hockey. I just looked at their packages and their $20 West package looks like you get all the Kings and Ducks games until you look at the fine print. Only select Ducks games will be on there, which is lame (not a Ducks fan, but I watch the games when I can). If I want "all" the games, I'll be paying $30. On top of that, I'm not a huge fan of the app. It's fine when you're watching live, though, and don't have to interact with the interface.

Conversely, an ESPN+ subscription with a VPN is cheaper and you get access to most NHL games. I agree that it can be a pain to have to do the location dance to watch a game, so I understand people who just want to pay for Bally's (or cable) and not have to worry about it.
 
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shuchukfan said:
If I could pay $10 a month and get just the Kings, I'd be totally fine with that, but I don't care about anything else on Bally's since I only watch hockey. I just looked at their packages and their $20 West package looks like you get all the Kings and Ducks games until you look at the fine print. Only select Ducks games will be on there, which is lame (not a Ducks fan, but I watch the games when I can). If I want "all" the games, I'll be paying $30. On top of that, I'm not a huge fan of the app. It's fine when you're watching live, though, and don't have to interact with the interface.

Conversely, an ESPN+ subscription with a VPN is cheaper and you get access to most NHL games. I agree that it can be a pain to have to do the location dance to watch a game, so I understand people who just want to pay for Bally's (or cable) and not have to worry about it.
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Haha well the good thing is that once you find a VPN server location on game day that works for the Kings, it'll work for the Ducks too. Couple that with you can watch the most recent games on demand for a while after airing and it's a great deal if it works for you. Also, pre-game and post-game shows are typically included in the stream.
 
The unbearable new standalone NHL.tv app now does show intermission and postgame content, but zero pregame coverage. Gnashing my teeth here.

Also, unlike in previous seasons, it's impossible to start watching the game from the start if you join the stream already in progress. (Except for, potentially, via some laborious and spoiler-prone workarounds on the desktop.)

(And nope, Jesse @All The Kings Men, the LA Kings Insider podcast still can nowhere be found in Pocket Casts or Spotify.) :huh:
 
Faterson said:
The unbearable new standalone NHL.tv app now does show intermission and postgame content, but zero pregame coverage. Gnashing my teeth here.

Also, unlike in previous seasons, it's impossible to start watching the game from the start if you join the stream already in progress. (Except for, potentially, via some laborious and spoiler-prone workarounds on the desktop.)

(And nope, Jesse @All The Kings Men, the LA Kings Insider podcast still can nowhere be found in Pocket Casts or Spotify.) :huh:
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I take it that ESPN plus does not exist in Europe? It's too bad because it's a pretty good app. You have the ability when selecting a stream that's already started to join the stream in progress or to join a stream from the beginning. For both teams feeds.
 
cyclones22 said:
I take it that ESPN plus does not exist in Europe? It's too bad because it's a pretty good app. You have the ability when selecting a stream that's already started to join the stream in progress or to join a stream from the beginning. For both teams feeds.
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Yeah, that's how the previous NHL app used to work. No more! Hopefully, it's only temporary.

For tonight's game, there was intermission content in the NHL.tv app, thank heavens, but zero pregame and postgame stuff. :help:

Here in Europe, we used to have something called ESPN Player years ago, prior to the NHL's own app, but it was atrocious, so I shudder whenever I see the ESPN moniker.

(ESPN is really a non-entity here in Europe, just like baseball or American football – most folks have never heard of it, and it's generally not available in Europe. Eurosport is the big sports channel here, along with local sports channels.)
 
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Faterson said:
The unbearable new standalone NHL.tv app now does show intermission and postgame content, but zero pregame coverage. Gnashing my teeth here.

Also, unlike in previous seasons, it's impossible to start watching the game from the start if you join the stream already in progress. (Except for, potentially, via some laborious and spoiler-prone workarounds on the desktop.)

(And nope, Jesse @All The Kings Men, the LA Kings Insider podcast still can nowhere be found in Pocket Casts or Spotify.) :huh:
Click to expand...
pca.st

LA Kings Insider Audio | LA Kings

Hear audio from inside the LA Kings hallways, locker rooms and media availabilities.
pca.st pca.st

Does that not work?
 
cyclones22 said:
If you have zero interest in watching other NHL games (or anything on ESPN+), then I can get with that. It can be a hassle from time to time, depending on what your tolerance and definition of hassle is! But I subscribe to a VPN anyway and subscribe to ESPN+ for more than just NHL games. Combined it's cheaper than what Bally's charges monthly, and you get way more out of it. To each his own though. To be clear to those who don't know, games are viewed on my home theater connected to a Google Chromecast. I have given fair warnings in this thread that it's not for everyone. Just that it's a viable alternative.
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I used ESPN+ last year and it was a PITA. I remember it was like Russian Roulette trying to find the server location that would allow me in w/ Nord. I got tired of it.
 
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bmr said:
I used ESPN+ last year and it was a PITA. I remember it was like Russian Roulette trying to find the server location that would allow me in w/ Nord. I got tired of it.
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Oh for sure it can be quite the chore. But I think they're always adding more servers as time goes on and it becomes more difficult for ESPN to block it. I have watched every game and pre and post-game shows this season on ESPN+ save for the national games.

This is my routine, and it typically starts an hour before puck drop. Fire up my Google Chromecast connected to my home theater AVR. I set up NordVPN to automatically connect on power up to Salt Lake City. I have good luck w/that server for whatever reason. Then I'll fire up ESPN and try and watch the last Kings or Ducks broadcast on demand. If I don't get a blackout message and it plays, that's typically a good sign, but not always. Anyway, once the pregame show starts 30 minutes before puck drop, I try and fire up the stream. If it says blackout, I flip over to the NordVPN and start cycling through different locations until I find the right one. If it says video cannot play error, that location may actually work, but the stream just needs to be attempted to started again. I don't clear ESPN app cache or data unless I'm desperate.

Anyway, it's not an easy button process and not for everyone. But it is for me. It's a much more cost-effective way for me to watch games while utilizing services I already subscribe to. I would not recommend trying this process on a phone or PC because there are so much location services data on those devices that would need to be cleared out before trying to watch. A streaming device is way easier to control that data on.
 
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Here's another trick. When selecting an out-of-market location, if it has an NHL team and you attempt to watch that stream and it says it is blacked out, then it is going to work for the Kings.

For example today I selected New York. So today's Rangers game showed as blacked out to me. I move over to the Kings and Stars streams and can watch either.
 
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All The Kings Men said:
pca.st

LA Kings Insider Audio | LA Kings

Hear audio from inside the LA Kings hallways, locker rooms and media availabilities.
pca.st pca.st

Does that not work?
Click to expand...

Thank you for your efforts, Jesse!

That link does work in terms of opening it in Pocket Casts, and it allows you to subscribe to the podcast, but it contains a single (!) episode from way back in May 2021. That episode can also be downloaded and listened to normally, but there's simply nothing else in there – from 2022 or 2021 or any other year.

And the podcast still does not come up in search results.

It almost seems like there may be two separate accounts for LA Kings Insider Audio, but the old account is perhaps blocking the new one from showing up properly? :huh:

I remember that even Anderson Cooper's CNN podcast used to struggle with this sort of thing: for a stretch of time, there were a couple of them, named identically, and (of course!) new episodes failed to appear in one of the channels, creating the impression that the podcast channel was dead and no longer updated. Seems similar to what's happening with the LA Kings Insider Audio channel right now.
 
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