How to Watch Blackout NHL Games on ESPN+ & NHL.TV

PIA runs 18,651 servers in 91 countries, including IP addresses from all 50 US states.

The service’s excellent US coverage is particularly relevant for NHL streaming, since it allowed us to easily connect to a nearby state and watch blacked out games at high speed.

PIA VPN’s US servers in the Android app.

The only frustrations we had with these US servers was on PIA’s Firestick app, where a large percentage of them didn’t work.

If you’re looking to use NHL.TV instead of ESPN+, PIA also has servers in the Netherlands, UK, and Ukraine. They all worked with DAZN, and allowed us to access games not shown on ESPN+.

PIA’s servers are some of the fastest in the industry, delivering a seamless streaming experience even during live events.

In our hands-on tests, the VPN was always quick enough to load live blackout NHL games in full resolution — even when connecting from the US to a European server.

Within the US, we observed a barely noticeable speed loss of 4% connecting to neighboring states.

Connecting from the East coast to the West, our internet speed dipped by only 10%.

And connecting to PIA’s VPN servers in Germany to access NHL.TV, we measured an impact of 16% on speed.

Overall, the internet speeds we experienced through PIA were more than enough for streaming games in HD, without any buffering or lag.

Not only is PIA an excellent VPN for watching the NHL, but it also comes at a very competitive price.

The service costs only $1.75/mo over 26 months or $11.99 month-to-month.

At these prices, it’s one of the cheapest VPNs you can get.

The service also offers a 7-day free trial, and a 30-day refund guarantee if you aren’t happy with your purchase.

The ESPN+ mobile app uses your device’s GPS location data to enforce geo-blocking for live broadcasts.

However, we successfully jumped over this hurdle by using Surfshark’s ‘Override GPS’ setting, aligning our device’s GPS coordinates with our VPN server’s IP address.

This allowed us to trick ESPN+ and we managed to stream blacked-out games on our Samsung smartphone.

Setting up Surfshark’s Override GPS Location.

While Surfshark covers fewer cities than PIA (24 versus 50), its coverage is still wide enough to ensure high-speed access to geo-restricted live streams.

Surfshark’s key advantage over PIA is its superior access to NHL.TV on DAZN. While PIA only works in a handful of regions, Surfshark unblocks a larger number of international markets.

Surfshark is priced similarly to PIA and available for as little as $1.78/mo over 27 months.

You can also take advantage of a 7-day free trial available via desktop and mobile, plus a 30-day refund guarantee.

Despite the obvious upsides of using Surfshark, we did encounter a couple of UX issues we feel compelled to mention.

Firstly, we’re not fans of the oversized look and feel of the Windows and macOS apps. The abundance of additional settings offered by Surfshark makes both clients feel somewhat cluttered.

Surfshark’s VPN app for macOS.

The second issue was noticeably slower connection times on some servers compared to PIA. For example, connecting to German servers on mobile consistently took over five seconds.

With CyberGhost’s 24-hour, 3-day, and 7-day free trials — along with its 45-day money back guarantee — you can try out the VPN for several weeks before committing to a long-term subscription.

Therefore, you can watch just one or two blackout NHL games using CyberGhost completely free. Simply sign up to one of its free trials, or claim your money back within 45 days.

In the table below, you can compare CyberGhost’s free trial against popular free VPNs:

When signing up for the free trial on iOS or Android, you’ll need to enter your payment details, so make sure to cancel before the trial ends to avoid being charged.

While CyberGhost is generally slower than both PIA and Surfshark, its speed loss connecting to nearby servers was just 5%, which allowed us to stream games without buffering or lag.

Speed performance worsened over greater distances, like connecting to Germany or Ukraine, where the slowdown increased to 19%. Our connection was also inconsistent, leading to noticeable picture degradation at times.

Moreover, CyberGhost only serves 11 US locations. This is considerably fewer than its rivals, and we believe it contributes to slower speeds even when connecting within the United States.