ESPN and Turner have announced the broadcast schedule for the 2022-23 NHL season, and New York is in the spotlight once again.
Walt Disney Co. will televise 103 NHL games across ESPN, ESPN+, HULU, and ABC, and more than 1,050 out-of-market NHL games available on ESPN+.
The New York Rangers will kick off ESPN’s 2022-23 coverage when they open up their season against the Tampa Bay Lightning on October 11th. The Rangers contest will kick off a season-opening double-header for the sports television network with the Vegas Golden Knights and the Los Angeles Kings locked in a matchup that night.
In total, the Rangers will have eight games on the ESPN network, with seven appearances on TNT. The 15 appearances will be one of the most an NHL team will have and be pushed to the national spotlight.
Part of these matchups includes a rematch with Pittsburgh from last year’s Stanley Cup Playoff, an original six contest against Boston, and home-away matches against Washington.
The Rangers do not play the Carolina Hurricanes on national television this season. The top two teams in the Metro division last season play a total of four times after the new year.
The Islanders, on the other hand, will have two games as exclusive ESPN broadcasts, six as exclusive ESPN+/Hulu broadcasts, and three games exclusively on TNT. Lane Lambert’s new squad will have their second nationally televised game on New Year’s Day when they face the Seattle Kraken.
The first game between the Rangers and Islanders will mark the first time the Isles will be on live television on October 26th on TNT.
The two New York teams in the NHL have had much different offseasons compared to one another.
Fresh off an Eastern Conference Finals run, the Rangers added Vincent Trochek in free agency and are heading into 2022 with heightened expectations. The Islanders fired NHL coaching legend, Barry Trotz as head coach and made no major free agent signings in free agency after it was reported the team missed out on high-price free agents in Johnny Gaudreau, and Nazem Kadri.
ESPN and Turner are in the second year of a rights deal with the NHL that has the networks streaming a certain number of games, while the networks split the Stanley Cup Final every other season.
