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Frozen Grounds: Where to Get Your NHL News

While the bulk of the teams in the NHL resides on American soil, ESPN's SportsCenter is not a good show to turn to for NHL news. Here are some alternatives.

By Cassie McClellan
Mar 14, 2012; Winnipeg, MB, CAN; Winnipeg Jets forward Tanner Glass (15) does an interview with TSN media Sara Orlesky after a win against the Dallas Stars at the MTS Centre. Winnipeg wins 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Fedyck-US PRESSWIRE
Mar 14, 2012; Winnipeg, MB, CAN; Winnipeg Jets forward Tanner Glass (15) does an interview with TSN media Sara Orlesky after a win against the Dallas Stars at the MTS Centre. Winnipeg wins 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Fedyck-US PRESSWIRE

The NHL draft has passed, and free agency has begun. If you're not sure of where to go or who to follow online in regards to stories and information about the NHL, then here's a list of some of the significant sites and/or people. You might want to keep this handy as we get closer to the start of the season. Players report for training camps in September.

Let's start with TV. ESPN has no love for the NHL. So you might as well get used to either being frustrated that SportsCenter shows almost nothing hockey related, or just not watch SportsCenter at all for hockey. This has been a major complaint among hockey fans for years now, and most have just moved on to other sources of news and information.

There's the NHL Network, but not all cable and satellite companies carry it. If you get it, then enjoy it, because not everyone does. After that, the NHL has an agreement with NBC and its collection of channels to broadcast some games during the seson, but you're probably better off buying the NHL Center Ice package (if you can get it), or going online for GameCenter though NHL.com. NBC Sports on TV isn't necessarily a go-to spot for league news, however.

The majority of hockey fans in the United States tend to get their hockey news fix via the internet. A problem with that, however, is that much of the hockey news comes out of Canada. Which means, if you're not a fan of a Canadian-based NHL team, you may not find a lot of news that you're interested in. Or, if you happen to become a fan of the Montreal Canadiens, it may not be in English.

The best sites to visit for general NHL news are TSN, ESPN (they're pretty decent about online content), The Hockey News, Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, and naturally, NHL.com. After that, it really comes down to the team you're following. If you like an American-based team, then seek out the newspapers from that city, as well as search online for blogs.

If you're on Twitter, here are some people/sites to start following. There are many, many more people to follow than this, of course, and these are just the people that I personally trust the most. But this will get you started, at least.

NHL

NHL.com

Miscellaneous

TV Media

Print Media

Online Media

  • Scott Burnside, NHL Columnist - ESPN.com - @ESPN_Burnside
  • Pierre LeBrun, NHL Columnist - ESPN.com - @Real_ESPNLebrun
  • Craig Custance, NHL Writer - ESPN.com - @CraigCustance
  • Joe Yerdon, Managing Editor ProHockeyTalk - NBCSports.com - @JoeYerdonPHT
  • Nick Cotsonika, Yahoo! Sports - @cotsonika
  • Greg Wyshynski, Puck Daddy Managing Editor - Yahoo! Sports - @wyshynski
  • Justin Bourne, Backhand Shelf Managing Editor - The Score - @jtbourne

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