Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. Guides

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Are NHL games on Sling TV?

By
NHL on Sling TV.
Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

Sling TV isn’t necessarily synonymous with sports, but that’s not to say you can’t watch sports on Sling TV. And to narrow things down even further, yes, you can watch NHL games on Sling TV.

Whether you can watch all the NHL games on Sling TV — that’s another question.

Recommended Videos

Let’s start with the basics, though. Sling TV comes with two tracks of channels. There’s Sling Orange and Sling Blue. You can buy one, but Sling’s really going to push you to get both, and the tracks are priced to make that easier on your wallet. But if you’re only going to get one of the tracks, you’ll want it to be Sling Orange because that’s the one with ESPN, TBS, and TNT. And that’s where you’ll find the national NHL games.

In addition, you’ll want to take a look at the Sling TV Extras, which are optional bundles of channels that will help fill out the two main anemic tracks. The channels can differ a little if you only have one of the two tracks. The good news, though, is that NHL Network is included in either one of the $11-a-month Sports Extra add-ons. So that’s handled.

If you’re an NHL die-hard, though, you’ll quickly notice that Sling TV only goes so far when it comes to the NHL. That’s not necessarily Sling’s fault — it’s just how the TV rights ended up, and games are only available on so many channels. So get NHL Network if you want, but you’ll also want to check out ESPN+ if you’re trying to watch an out-of-market game. For everything else, you’ll have to roll the dice with a regional sports network, which has a tendency to change fairly often.

And some NHL games are available on the ABC broadcast channel, which is where things start to get a little messy. ABC is available to stream on Sling TV, but only in a handful of markets. If you live outside those markets, you’ll either need to use a different streaming service (like YouTube TV or Hulu With Live TV) or hook up an over-the-air antenna. Sling TV has its own option for that, called . But once it’s set up and you’ve scanned for channels, everything will appear in the Sling app itself, right alongside all the streaming channels. So while it’s a little extra work upfront, the end result is pretty slick.

And that’s the short answer. Yes, you can watch some NHL games on Sling TV — the ones that are broadcast nationally, anyway. For the others, you’ll need to have a secondary source, which any true hockey fan will be sure to have, right?

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Phil Nickinson
Phil Nickinson
Section Editor, Audio/Video
Phil spent the 2000s making newspapers with the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, the 2010s with Android Central and then the…
Sling TV slips below 2 million subscribers, and it seems OK with that
Sling TV logo on Apple TV.

There’s a fallacy in the term “Streaming Wars” — a phrase I’ve never liked — in that it’s all about growth at all costs. That the only way to “win” said “war” is to be the biggest streaming service. That’s the game we’ve been taught by the likes of the Googles and Facebooks of the world, and it’s undoubtedly a big part of why Google’s YouTube TV sits atop the heap of live-streaming services with more than 8 million subscribers.

Then there’s Sling TV. The legacy service has been slowly, but consistently losing subscribers over the years, while always hovering at just above 2 million. That’s changed, though, according to its first-quarter 2024 earnings, which were announced by new parent company EchoStar. Sling TV finished with 1.92 million subs, down from 2.06 million at the end of 2023, and down about 8.5% from the first quarter of 2023. It hasn't been below 2 million since I started tracking it in 2018.

Read more
You can finally order Walmart’s $50 Chromecast with Google TV killer
Onn 4K Pro Streaming Device box.

The Onn 4K Pro Streaming Device has an unassuming name and very tempting price. Walmart

Google I/O is just around the corner. But for all the new Googley goodness we expect -- and a ton of that's going to include the letters A and I -- one thing we're not planning on seeing is a successor to the venerable-but-aging Chromecast with Google TV. That's why this $50 box from Walmart's in-house Onn brand has had folks excited. Because in addition to just being ... not new -- the current Chromecast basically is four years old -- it's always been pretty underpowered for what it does.

Read more
What Fubo and others get wrong in their fight against new sports streamer
Fubo splash screen on a TV.

Representatives from a number of media companies — led by Fubo, Dish Network, DirecTV, and others — have sent a “final coalition letter” to congressional committees that calls for hearings to be held over the upcoming sports-focused streaming service that combines the rights held by Disney (which includes ABC and ESPN), Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), and Fox. The letter cites issues that “raise serious competition concerns that call for Congress’ immediate oversight.”

The letter was sent to Sens. Maria Cantwell and Ted Cruz of the Senate Commerce Committee, Sens. Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Frank Pallone of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Jim Jordan and Jerry Nadler of the House Judiciary Committee. It was signed by FuboTV Inc., DirecTV, Dish Network, Newsmax, Inc., American Economic Liberties Project, Open Markets Institute, Sports Fan Coalition, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Read more