News from Around the AHL/NHL/KHL 2023-24

[Big L]

Wow. No ability to hide score or start game from beginning and they’re gonna jack the price up. ESPN+ is garbage. I wish they kept NHL.tv

I wish the Isles could break free of MSG network too

 

[MJF]

Wow. No ability to hide score or start game from beginning and they’re gonna jack the price up. ESPN+ is garbage. I wish they kept NHL.tv

Fortunately we weren’t on ESPN+ too many times last year. I expect probably less times this year so.

BTW, in trying to cancel my subscription this morning I found that for the last hour the “manage subscriptions” link keeps coming up as a blank page.

 

[Big L]

Fortunately we weren’t on ESPN+ too many times last year. I expect probably less times this year so.

BTW, in trying to cancel my subscription this morning I found that for the last hour the “manage subscriptions” link keeps coming up as a blank page.

Should be in Settings on your phone, no link.

 

[Mike C]

Got a notice that my ESPN+ subscription will auto renew at a 43% increase.

No thanks.

I’ll watch the handful of isles games, if they’re still doing them on ESPN+ this year, by other means.

i had the center ice package on Dish TV last season. it was only 60 bucks, hoping they have it again. missed the games that were on hulu and espn plus, and i think all the carolina games were blacked out.

when my 80s VCR finally crapped out, i got the hopper and was able to DVR and watch from the beginning, sans commercials and between period jive on karate nights

 

[Big L]

i had the center ice package on Dish TV last season. it was only 60 bucks, hoping they have it again. missed the games that were on hulu and espn plus, and i think all the carolina games were blacked out.

when my 80s VCR finally crapped out, i got the hopper and was able to DVR and watch from the beginning, sans commercials and between period jive on karate nights

I got CenterIce and I believe it is only $69 for me for this season. Used to be a lot more if I remember correctly

 

[Mike C]

I got CenterIce and I believe it is only $69 for me for this season. Used to be a lot more if I remember correctly

We can watch games together again like we did the playoffs. That was kinda fun!

 

[PK Cronin]

I got CenterIce and I believe it is only $69 for me for this season. Used to be a lot more if I remember correctly

You're correct, it used to be significantly more for any of the out of market services.

 

[Big L]

You're correct, it used to be significantly more for any of the out of market services.

Do you know why the price has gone down?

 

[PK Cronin]

Do you know why the price has gone down?

I think because ESPN+ is cheaper it needs to adjust in order to compete.

 

[MJF]

Should be in Settings on your phone, no link.

You cannot cancel on the app. Only on the ESPN website.

 

[Big L]

You cannot cancel on the app. Only on the ESPN website.

Dunno. I hit cancel subscription in my app settings, and it said ok, no prob, when current subs runs out it will not auto renew.

 

[Mike C]

You're correct, it used to be significantly more for any of the out of market services.

Last year was the first year I had it. How much did it used to be?

 

[islesfan186]

Fortunately we weren’t on ESPN+ too many times last year. I expect probably less times this year so.

BTW, in trying to cancel my subscription this morning I found that for the last hour the “manage subscriptions” link keeps coming up as a blank page.

I live out of state now, so I unfortunately have to rely on ESPN+ to be able to watch games, which I was able to do little of because of the aforementioned lack of features on the app.

 

[PK Cronin]

Last year was the first year I had it. How much did it used to be?

I always had NHL.tv or Gamecenter before that and it was similarly priced, I want to say around $140 for the season. There was a time I recall telling someone it comes out to like $2 per game (if you only watch one team) so it was in that ballpark for sure.

As those services improved they did start to offer a single team option that had a slightly reduced price but I never bothered since I like watching other games all year.

 

[Glory Days]

I always had NHL.tv or Gamecenter before that and it was similarly priced, I want to say around $140 for the season. There was a time I recall telling someone it comes out to like $2 per game (if you only watch one team) so it was in that ballpark for sure.

As those services improved they did start to offer a single team option that had a slightly reduced price but I never bothered since I like watching other games all year.

I’m moving out of New York area soon. Is ESPN+ or CenterIce my 2 options for watching Isles games?

 

[PK Cronin]

I’m moving out of New York area soon. Is ESPN+ or CenterIce my 2 options for watching Isles games?

Yes, those are the only legal ways to watch.

ESPN+ has two drawbacks for me. The first is you can't start a game from the beginning if it's currently live (they're in the second period but you're just tuning in, you'll start live and have to rewind back to the beginning hoping to avoid spoilers). Second is that the app itself sucks because there is no dedicated app. You use the regular ESPN app, which could contain spoilers, to then access ESPN+. I guess there's a third issue they had most of the year and that is that the audio wasn't synched properly at times. Different people had different levels of frustration with this, but I don't recall it being too bad for me.

 

[Mike C]

I’m moving out of New York area soon. Is ESPN+ or CenterIce my 2 options for watching Isles games?

I always had NHL.tv or Gamecenter before that and it was similarly priced, I want to say around $140 for the season. There was a time I recall telling someone it comes out to like $2 per game (if you only watch one team) so it was in that ballpark for sure.

As those services improved they did start to offer a single team option that had a slightly reduced price but I never bothered since I like watching other games all year.

i don't remember if center ice had the "watch one team" option. i too watched many games, especially the west coast. once i got out of the 80s and got the hopper, me and my son pretty much DVRd the whole playoffs and watched almost every minute of every post season game much to the chagrin of my wife ("when are the playoffs over anyway?", she would ask)

i like the feature of skipping past all the commercials and between period stuff plus the rewind to watch critical plays again.

 

[19 in a row]

I know they did this before but can someone explain how the Lightning are going to get under the cap? They are 7.2M over with 21 players signed. Cirelli and his 4.8M might miss the first month or two. Is there another injury in there that I am missing for LTIR? I thought Point will be ready. Bogosian is peanuts.

Maybe I am missing an obvious move or injury but curious how they do this without manipulating again.

 

[Glory Days]

Yes, those are the only legal ways to watch.

ESPN+ has two drawbacks for me. The first is you can't start a game from the beginning if it's currently live (they're in the second period but you're just tuning in, you'll start live and have to rewind back to the beginning hoping to avoid spoilers). Second is that the app itself sucks because there is no dedicated app. You use the regular ESPN app, which could contain spoilers, to then access ESPN+. I guess there's a third issue they had most of the year and that is that the audio wasn't synched properly at times. Different people had different levels of frustration with this, but I don't recall it being too bad for me.

Thank you, that was helpful.

 

[beach]

I played fantasy baseball before there was fantasy baseball. It was called Strat-O-Matic

Rick Monday always struck out.

 

[Mike C]

Rick Monday always struck out.

i was an expos fan back when he smugly rounded the bases after hitting that HR off Steve Rogers. As great as Rogers was that season i've never been a fan of bringing a starter into a game like that where it's an unfamiliar role for him. Hershiser was the expection and i'm sure there have been others but more times than not, it backfires

 

[Mr Misunderstood]

Yes, those are the only legal ways to watch.

ESPN+ has two drawbacks for me. The first is you can't start a game from the beginning if it's currently live (they're in the second period but you're just tuning in, you'll start live and have to rewind back to the beginning hoping to avoid spoilers). Second is that the app itself sucks because there is no dedicated app. You use the regular ESPN app, which could contain spoilers, to then access ESPN+. I guess there's a third issue they had most of the year and that is that the audio wasn't synched properly at times. Different people had different levels of frustration with this, but I don't recall it being too bad for me.

Living out of state I had to do the ESPN+ thing as well. But I can't attest to the true cost because I went with the Hulu - Disney+ - ESPN+ annual bundle.

iPhone & Xbox app = worked pretty well but sound was really off

Samsung TV app = AWFUL, poor quality when it actually was buffered, took forever to buffer. It was better if I streamed the iPhone app through Chromecast than using the app on the TV.

And I tried EVERYTHING to fix it - Wifi connections, TV picture versions, re-downloading the app and none of it worked. Plus, it was the only app that had those types of issues - Spectrum, Netflix, HBO Max, Disney +, Hulu are all fine...

I hope they fix it for this season

 

[saintunspecified]

I know they did this before but can someone explain how the Lightning are going to get under the cap? They are 7.2M over with 21 players signed. Cirelli and his 4.8M might miss the first month or two. Is there another injury in there that I am missing for LTIR? I thought Point will be ready. Bogosian is peanuts.

Maybe I am missing an obvious move or injury but curious how they do this without manipulating again.

They can be 8 million over the cap going into camp so long as their roster is under the cap going in to the regular season. Should this be a surprise to anyone? Pretty sure there was a whole offseason when NYI were above the cap prior to Boychuk's retirement. TB has Seabrook, who is LTIR'd in that number. That puts them basically at the cap. I think that + Cirelli + probably a plan of Point and Kucherov each taking some LTIR time off gets them through.

I think there's very little incentive for the owners to do anything about it given that they've got their cost certainty, and a good half of them are quite willing to make use of similar manipulations. I think if it were the Rangers or Maple Leafs *only* doing this sort of thing, maybe something would happen, but it's not the case.

 

[Kevin27NYI]

Another Ranger can't miss prospect Nils Lunqvist requests a trade. Right with Kratsov (back on the team) and Lia Andersson.

We have 16 guys out of the 23 man roster drafted. They have 8. Very interesting.

 

[danteipp]

Another Ranger can't miss prospect Nils Lunqvist requests a trade. Right with Kratsov (back on the team) and Lia Andersson.

We have 16 guys out of the 23 man roster drafted. They have 8. Very interesting.

Lol, they are a mess. Just shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.

I have said it before, they got relatively lucky in their rebuild with "free" talent in players like Panarin, Fox, Trouba, etc. and also got two gifts in the lottery wins.

If not for those relatively fluke occurrences, primarily due to their market advantage, they would still be in the early stages of the rebuild and a bad team.

The problem?

Gorton and Gordie Clark (both are bad, but Gordie is downright terrible) wasted so much draft capital, player value already in the system (McDonaugh, Buchnevich, Hayes, JT Miller, etc.), making mostly the wrong choices and failing to improve the team even more.

They could have had either Miller or Hayes at 2C for years, instead of Strome and now paying for Trotchek. Heck, they probably should have had Miller at 2C and Hayes at 3C, if they could have developed Miller better and extended Hayes on a fair deal vs trading him.

Signing Panarin and opting to extend Kreider scewed their cap and blocked or stunted the organic development of high picks invested in players like Lias, Laf, Kraptsov, Buchnevich, etc. causing their development to sputter and stall.

Buch was then traded for pennies on the dollar. Same with Lias.

They added Fox (no brainer) and Trouba (decent trade, but bad value on the contract extension), which has made prospects like Lundqvist and Zac Jones redundant.

And these young players have been utter failures, in terms of actual development with the Rags. Kakko is one of their more noticeable failures. They have done almost zero to support him, by bringing in a vet like Uncle Leo, in order to help ease his transition to a foreign country at 18-years of age.

Now so many of these picks just keep getting shopped at a discount and presumably another desperate trade to try and reallocate assets after the fact.

A drunk chimp could have thrown darts at a board and probably gotten more right and been better and deeper than what the prior regime accomplished.

And so far Drury's little bump has arguably been just because of better coaching, combined with a fluke run by a top-heavy team that got career years from players like Kreider, while being bailed out by She's Twerkin's first season of actually staying healthy and being a true No. 1 goalie.

But can a player who has never been The Guy and has had fluke injuries, continue at that level or, more likely, vary in terms of performance year to year?

Because remove say 30 goals by Kreider, normalize the numbers in goal, and you have a team ripe for regression.