The Bruins are winning games at a rate we've never seen in an NHL regular season. Oilers star Connor McDavid is putting up points at a rate we haven't seen since Mario Lemieux in the mid-90s.
On Thursday night, the two face off at TD Garden in one of the marquee games of the season. And it can only be seen on streaming services in the United States.
Thursday's game is one of three Bruins games this season that is an ESPN+/Hulu streaming exclusive, meaning you will need a subscription to one of those services to watch it.
It won't be on NESN. It won't be on ESPN, ESPN2 or any other channel in the ESPN family of networks. No simulcast on your local ABC affiliate either.
Streaming exclusives aren't new at this point. ESPN had them last year as well. They paid a record amount of money for NHL rights, and part of their goal in doing so was to grow their ESPN+ platform and make it a must-have service for hockey fans.
Having multiple exclusive games there every week helps them do it, as does the fact that the platform hosts every out-of-market game that isn't on national TV. As a die-hard hockey fan, I will say that my own opinion is that it is well worth $9.99 a month to have so many games available to watch every night.
The problem, of course, is that someone who only really cares about the Bruins and not the rest of the league may not feel that price is worth it, especially if they don't have another reason to subscribe or aren't bundling it with Hulu or Disney+.
ESPN+ is not offering free trials currently, either, so if you're not paying or seeking out, ahem, less legal means of watching the game, you're out of luck.
There's no easy solution here, as tempting as it is to scream, "Just put it on TV!" Again, ESPN is paying $400 million a year for NHL rights. They built these streaming exclusives into that. They must feel it's worth it, or they wouldn't still be locking high-profile games behind a paywall.
Even if they wanted to move Thursday's game to cable, it wouldn't be easy. They have the ACC Tournament on ESPN and the Big 12 Tournament on ESPN2. Deals for those conference tournaments are worked out years in advance, so they're not going anywhere. ABC is airing new episodes of Station 19 and Grey's Anatomy and would be unlikely to bump those for hockey, even just at a local level.
Nonetheless, it is unfortunate. This is one of those games you would expect to bring in a few more casual viewers than usual. Bruins fans only get to see McDavid twice a year, and just this once in Boston on Eastern time. Record-setting team vs. record-setting player is an easy sell to a national audience, too.
The die-hards will find a way to watch. Some of those casuals may not feel it's worth the effort or the money, though.
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