Leafs fans rave over Amazon Prime’s ‘unbelievable broadcast’ as NHL’s streaming era takes hold: ‘Making Sportsnet and TSN look like moldy bread’

A new era of NHL live-game production is upon us, and it’s glorious. Amazon Prime is two weeks into it’s landmark foray into NHL broadcasting, and to say its been a success so far would be a massive understatement.

Last week marked Prime’s inaugural “Monday Night Hockey” broadcast when the Montreal Canadiens hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins. On Monday, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning did battle as the only NHL game on the schedule and, with all eyes on the streaming platform, Amazon’s prowess was on full display with everything from its beautiful graphics and visuals to a refreshing and sharp group of panelists, commentators and analysts, along with crisp, clean in-game production.

Maple Leafs fans rarely agree on anything, but all seemed to be on the same page in praising the streaming Goliath’s broadcast quality during and after Toronto’s win over the Lightning. Many also took the time to call out the difference in quality compared to TSN and national-broadcaster Sportsnet.

It was the first of six Maple Leafs broadcasts that Prime will air this season, and plenty of fans are hoping there will be many more to come in the years ahead as streaming giants like Apple, Netflix and Amazon look poised to take control of the live sports landscape in the not-too-distant future as traditional cable subscriptions continue to drop.

Of course, it helped that Toronto fans — who often lament the “anti-Leaf bias” every time a broadcast says something negative about the team — felt their squad was getting a fair shake from Amazon’s commentators and studio analysts.

Say some nice things about the franchise with the biggest fanbase in the league, receive mass praise for your broadcast from said fanbase. Simple yet effective.

It wasn’t all roses for fans, however, as some lamented the confusion of the game being exclusively broadcast on Prime — a platform that many older fans aren’t subscribed to.

Some had complaints about the production quality, too, but they seemed to be in the minority.

Change isn’t for everyone.

Daily Hive’s Adam Laskaris provided a good explanation as to why the audio, specifically, may have sounded a bit off to people tuning into an Amazon NHL broadcast for the first time.

Whether fans like it or not, it appears the NHL-Amazon streaming era is here to stay, at least in Canada. During this past offseason, the league and Prime announced a two-year partnership that will see Amazon stream “all national regular season Monday night NHL games in English for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 NHL seasons in Canada at no extra cost to Prime Members.”

The streaming giant also announced a new live “whiparound studio show,” which is airing all season long on Thursday nights in Canada. The weekly broadcast, which premiered last week, feature live look-ins, highlights and expert analysis of every NHL game that night — similar to a hockey version of the mega-popular NFL RedZone production that hooks millions of viewers every Sunday.

Aside from its production quality, Prime’s Monday Night Hockey also curated a top-notch group of announcers and commentators, including veteran play-by-play man John Forslund, former NHLers-turned-analysts Jody Shelley, Thomas Hickey and Shane Hnidy, veteran Canadian sportscasters Adnan Virk, Andi Petrillo, and former women’s hockey star Blake Bolden. Hockey Hall of Famer Mark Messier will also be featured on some broadcasts throughout the season, along with “a mix of local guests.”

Amazons has also yielded rave reviews for its hit, six-part, behind the scenes docuseries titled FACEOFF: Inside the NHL, which has been a favourite for hockey fans on both sides of the border and has already produced several viral moments that hockey fans have not been privy to in the past.

Hockey is just Amazon’s latest live-sports venture, as the streaming platform has bought the rights to show certain games of other major sports leagues over the past couple years, including the NFL, NBA, MLB and more.

Netflix, meanwhile, will mark a significant move into live sports broadcasting when it airs two NFL Games this upcoming Christmas Day, while also recently striking a massive deal to stream WWE’s flagship program, Raw, every Monday night along with some of the wrestling entities major events like SummerSlam and WrestleMania. Apple TV has also dipped their toes into the live sports market, securing major broadcast deals with, among others, Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball.

As far as hockey in Canada goes, Sportsnet has held the national NHL broadcast rights in Canada since 2013 when the Rogers-owned conglomerate inked a 12-year deal worth $5.2 billion CAD. There’s expected to be plenty of competition when SN’s rights expire after the 2025-26 NHL season, and the streaming giants listed above are expected by many to be right in the mix.

If this new avenue of consuming live sports through streaming platforms is a sign of things to come for the hockey broadcast landscape — which all signs point to that being the case — the game appears to be in very good hands.