The 2022 NHL All-Star Weekend will take place on February 4 and 5, with coverage starting at 19:30 EST (16:30 PST / 00:30 GMT) on Friday and 15:00 EST on Saturday. The first evening is dedicated to various skills-based competitions, but the real highlight is the All-Star game, where teams comprising of the best hockey players in the world face off in an all-or-nothing competition. Below, we’ll let you know how to catch all of the action without ever leaving the house.
It’s important to note that we’ll only be recommending official streams. Although unlicensed streams are almost inevitable for major sporting events, they’re often laggy, low-resolution, and unreliable. Further, copyright holders actively monitor social media and forums for links to unofficial streams during the event, meaning there’s a good chance they’ll be taken offline before the end of the game. You can watch the NHL All-Star Weekend for free anyway, so there’s no reason to resort to unlicensed streams in the first place.
The vast majority of major streaming platforms use geo-blocking to prevent their content from being watched from abroad. To access your home services while traveling abroad, you’ll need a VPN.
How to watch the NHL All-Star Games free online
It’s actually fairly simple to access geo-blocked platforms from abroad with a VPN. Simply follow the steps below.
Here’s how to watch the NHL All Star Game 2022 online abroad for free:
- First of all, you’ll have to sign up to a suitable VPN service. We recommend NordVPN but Surfshark and ExpressVPN are both high-quality alternatives.
- Next, download and install the VPN software, taking care to get the appropriate version for your device.
- Connect to a server in the country your desired service is based in. For instance, an American server could unblock NBC, but you’d need a Canadian one for TVA.
- Try accessing your chosen site. Content should load almost immediately, but if it doesn’t, clear your browser’s cache and cookies, then refresh the page.
Since these matches will be broadcast live, any complications with your VPN could lead to you missing part of the game. As such, we strongly recommend testing the software out with the steps above well in advance. This approach ensures you’ll still have time to contact customer support for advice if anything doesn’t work as expected.
There are no hidden terms—just contact support within 30 days if you decide NordVPN isn’t right for you and you’ll get a full refund. Start your NordVPN trial here.
How to watch the All-Star Game for free on US TV
In America, the NHL All-Star Game will be shown on ABC and ESPN+. The skills competitions, however, will only be on ESPN. There are a few ways you can stream these events for free in the US. Notably, Hulu with Live TV includes all of the channels above, but it doesn’t come with a free trial.
Instead, you’d be better off signing up for a YouTube TV or fuboTV account. Both of these let you stream ABC and ESPN online. Further, they each have a free trial of at least one week.
You should note that the above services are all geo-blocked, so you’ll have to either be in in the US or connected to an American VPN server in order to watch. We recommend NordVPN. This service includes a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can receive a full refund after the NHL All-Star Game if you don’t want to keep it.
Where else can I watch the NHL All-Star Games live online?
Hockey is popular the world over, not just in the US. As you might expect, this means that the NHL All-Star Weekend will be broadcast in several different countries:
Canada
You can stream the weekend’s events on Sportsnet (English commentary) and TVA Sports (in French). These services cost $14.99 and $19.99 CAD per month, respectively, and neither comes with a free trial.
Both of the above services are region-locked, so if you’d like to use them abroad, you’ll need a VPN.
Australia
ESPN is airing the NHL All-Star Weekend across Australia. If you’re a Foxtel customer, you can watch online using Foxtel Go at no added cost. Don’t have cable TV? That’s not a problem — you can just sign up for Kayo or Foxtel Now instead.
Usually, the required subscriptions would cost $40 AUD per month, but Foxtel Now comes with a ten-day free trial that gives you access to every channel. This means that if you sign up, watch the NHL events, and cancel within ten days, you won’t be charged. Kayo, meanwhile, charges $25 per month and has a two-week free trial.
The skills event begins at 11:30 AEDT and will be repeated at 21:00, with the game itself beginning at 07:00 the following day. Foxtel services are region-locked, so remember that you’ll have to use a VPN if you’re outside of Australia.
Other locations
The NHL actually has a publicly available list of international broadcast partners. However, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be showing the All-Star Game. Additionally, some of these partners appear to have sub-licensed their coverage rights to other companies (for instance, Fox owns the rights in Australia, but the event is shown on ESPN), so you may have to do some research of your own to find out if your country has a free stream or not.
Who is playing in this year’s All-Star matches?
This year, 45 of the NHL’s best players are sorted into four different teams. The rules are fairly straightforward: fans vote for the captains and the last man in each squad, and NHL Hockey Operations staff pick the rest, making sure that there’s at least one player from each team in the league. This year, the divisions are as follows: