Getty Winnipeg Jets forward Blake Wheeler.
The Anaheim Ducks will host the Winnipeg Jets at the Honda Center on Wednesday for each team’s NHL regular season opener.
The game (10 p.m. ET start time) will be televised on Bally Sports SoCal for those who live in the Ducks market, and it will stream live on ESPN+ for everyone else in the United States.
Here’s a full rundown of how you can watch a live stream of the Jets vs Ducks in the US, which your options depending on where you live:
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If You’re in the Ducks Market
DirecTV Stream
This is the only streaming service that has Bally Sports SoCal
DirecTV Stream (formerly AT&T TV) has four different channel packages: “Entertainment,” “Choice,” “Ultimate” and “Premier.” Bally Sports SoCal (live in local markets) is in “Choice” and up.
You can sign up right here:
Once signed up for DirecTV Stream, you can watch the Jets vs Ducks live on the DirecTV Stream app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Fire Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Samsung TV, any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via the DirecTV Stream website.
If you can’t watch live, DirecTV Stream also comes with 20 hours of Cloud DVR storage (with the ability to upgrade to 500 hours).
If You’re Outside the Ducks Market
ESPN+
Viewers in the United States can watch every out-of-market, non-nationally televised NHL game (over 1,000 games total) on ESPN+, which replaces NHL.tv this season and is a must-have for any NHL fan:
ESPN+, which also includes about 75 exclusive national NHL games, plus dozens of other live sports, every 30-for-30 documentary in existence and additional original content (both video and written), costs $6.99 for a month or $69.99 for a year (or about seven cents per NHL game if you want to look at it that way).
If you also want Disney+ and Hulu, you can get all three for $13.99 per month. Separately, the three streaming services would cost a total $20.97 per month, so you’re saving about 33 percent:
Get the ESPN+, Disney+ and Hulu Bundle
Once signed up for ESPN+, you can watch the Jets vs Ducks (either team’s broadcast) live on the ESPN app on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4 or 5, Xbox One or Series X/S, any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), Samsung Smart TV, Oculus Go, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet.
You can also watch on your computer via ESPN.com.
Jets vs Ducks Preview
The Jets went 30-23-3 a season ago before taking part in a pair of playoff sweeps: a triumph over the Edmonton Oilers that required five overtime periods, and a defeat in which the Montreal Canadiens outscored them 14-6.
They bolstered their corps of defensemen over the offseason, trading for Brenden Dillon and Nate Schmidt from the Washington Capitals and the Vancouver Canucks, respectively.
“They’ve kind of just fit right in,” forward Adam Lowry said in September, according to Sportsnet. “Different players and different styles, but both pieces that, in years past, we’ve been missing.”
The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Dillon dished 17 assists and played to a +15 across 56 contests last year, logging the second-most minutes among Capitals defensemen.
“You’ve seen what he’s done in his career,” Lowry said, per Sportsnet. “He’s a great defender. He moves the puck well, he’s big and he’s hard to play against. He makes going to the net really miserable.
“And (Schmidt), he’s loud, he’s fun to be around. He moves the puck well, he’s a great skater. I think they both come in and fit in and, hopefully, that continues and we see the positive impacts they have on their team.”
Schmidt netted 5 goals and accrued 10 assists a season ago. His most productive season came in 2017-18, when he racked up 31 assists and added 5 goals in the Las Vegas Golden Knights’ inaugural season, which ended on the wrong side of the fifth game of the Stanley Cup Finals.
The Ducks endured a woeful 2020-21 campaign, ranking last in scoring and finishing 17-30-9. They then selected center Mason McTavish with the third overall pick of the 2021 draft.
Now 18, he appeared in 13 games for EHC Olten of the second-tier Swiss league last year, scoring 9 goals. The season before that, he scored 29 times in 57 games for the Ontario Hockey League’s Peterborough Petes.
Though he suffered an ankle sprain in September, McTavish made Anaheim’s opening-day roster, the announced Tuesday.
“He’s taken in a lot of information, but he’s processing it very quickly,” Ducks head coach Dallas Eakins said over the weekend, according to the Orange County Register. “The things we give him, he employs them right away or he never makes that mistake again.
“We say hard players play hard and soft players play soft, and he plays hard. You see him go to the net. He’s not afraid to go to the net. He’s not afraid to go there and fight for position. He makes good plays on the wall. He’s got a lot of different clubs in his bag. So far, so good.”