I would definitely pay $5/month or so if it meant I could reliably and legally access good quality streams. The pricing is ridiculous, especially when I get the majority of games on TV as it is — but that’s just me. I guarantee that a lot more people would subscribe — and while we’re talking about the exposure of hockey, how many more fans would the NHL have if you could watch any game for $5 a month?

Even if there was a cheaper option to purchase the games of only one team, I would do that. I don’t have the time to watch games from every team in the league, but I’d certainly pay to see every ’Hawks game.

Until then, however, I’ll keep posting links to feeds in game threads (so long as I don’t get Matt and Sam in trouble for it). After all, I’m not the one that’s streaming them, I’m just posting the links. The way I see it, the feeds allow more people to become fans of the team. I know of more than a few people on this site alone that use the video feeds I post to watch games, and these people likely wouldn’t have access (without paying for an overpriced product) to broadcasts. (On a side note: Does the NHL have blackout rules like MLB? I subscribed to mlb.tv last season, but it was bullshit because blackout rules applied to the broadcasts on there, too. If I can’t even watch a game on mlb.tv, what the fuck am I paying for?)

The NHL (or any professional sports league), no matter how hard they try, will not stop people from steaming live video broadcasts of games. It’s the same argument with downloading music — the content will reach more people. Illegal feeds or not, I’m not going to buy the nhl.com product — so what harm am I doing by watching an illegal feed? If anything, it allows more people to be fans of the league.