Becky and I have spent the last 20 minutes calling pretty much every sports bar in South Bend and the surrounding Michiana area, trying to find a place where we can watch Game 3 of the Sabres-Flyers series on TV tonight. The only game that local cable subscribers can watch is Rangers-Devils on OLN, but you’d think that some sports bar in town would have all the games, wouldn’t you? But noooo… “we don’t have the hockey package” is the response I keep getting. Even BW-3, which claims it is “famous for Buffalo Wings,” doesn’t have the Buffalo game! It’s a travesty! :)
I realize South Bend is a football town, not a hockey town, but still, you’d think there’d be some bar filling this niche. It’s not like Chicago (home of the Blackhawks) and Detroit (home of the Red Wings) are that far away… and Notre Dame students come from all over the country, including hockey towns… surely we’re not the only people who have ever wanted to watch a not-otherwise-televised playoff hockey game at a sports bar in Michiana!
Anyway, if anybody knows of a sports bar in the area that gets the “hockey package,” please leave a comment…
UPDATE: Philly wins, 4-2. (It was 3-2 until the Flyers scored an empty-net goal with 15 seconds left.) So now it’s a 2-1 series. Hopefully Buffalo takes Game 4 and then wraps it up at home in Game 5.
UPDATE 2: BFLOBLOG has an excellent game summary.
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Categories: NHL Hockey, South Bend, Michiana & Indiana
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April 26th, 2006 at 7:14:34 pm
Between The Buns?
April 26th, 2006 at 7:16:29 pm
Why don’t you just order the hockey package? It can’t be that much this late in the season/playoffs.
April 26th, 2006 at 7:18:00 pm
did you try the ice box..
April 26th, 2006 at 7:18:21 pm
For real, try the Between The Buns in Osceola. That’s a hardcore sports bar.
April 26th, 2006 at 7:19:41 pm
Damon’s?
April 26th, 2006 at 7:20:48 pm
Hooters?
April 26th, 2006 at 7:24:54 pm
This town sucks. Really it does. I have tried to find a single bar that carries the regional Fox Sports stations and none do. It is mind boggling. Even my parents have the regoinal Fox stations.
April 26th, 2006 at 7:36:29 pm
Hmm, we tried Between the Buns in South Bend (which is right down the street from us), and they don’t have it… nor does Damon’s… but I didn’t know about the one in Osceola… will try that. We also didn’t try the Ice Box or Hooters… thanks for the suggestions…
April 26th, 2006 at 7:44:06 pm
Hooters is a no. So is Between the Buns in both Osceola and Mishawaka. :(
What is the Ice Box? Are you talking about this? Do they have a bar and TVs and stuff? They just look like a skating/hockey club, with like, y’know, a rink and stuff…
April 26th, 2006 at 7:46:09 pm
As for Phead’s suggestion… who would we order the “hockey package” from? Cox? We don’t have satellite or anything…
April 26th, 2006 at 7:49:57 pm
(And when I say “Cox,” I mean “Comcast.”)
April 26th, 2006 at 7:51:51 pm
I didn’t know that you had Cox. That must be unique to Clover Ridge. The rest of SB has Comcast. But yeah, give Cox a call. I bet it’s only 20-30 bucks now. Hell, that’s the price of appetizers and beer if you went to the bar!
April 26th, 2006 at 7:58:41 pm
Michigan. Go 30 miles north and I imagine every place will have it. Did you call places in St. Joesph, or Kalamazoo?
April 26th, 2006 at 7:59:23 pm
Dude, go to the Comcast webpage. They’re showing it there!
April 26th, 2006 at 8:00:17 pm
Kalamazoo is a good bet. No way on St. Joe. That’s just a South Bend suburb.
April 26th, 2006 at 8:04:10 pm
surely we’re not the only people who have ever wanted to watch a not-otherwise-televised playoff hockey game at a sports bar in Michiana!
No, you’re probably #2 and 3 though! ;-)
April 26th, 2006 at 8:10:55 pm
Dude, go to the Comcast webpage. They’re showing it there!
“At this time, Comcast Hockey Live will not work for Macintosh users. However, we expect Comcast Hockey Live to be Mac compatible in the near future.”
ARRRGHH!!!!
April 26th, 2006 at 8:28:18 pm
Comcast–view source–find the MMS file that they use. Open that URL directly in Windows Media.
April 26th, 2006 at 8:29:47 pm
I tried to view source, couldn’t find anything that looks promising, but I’ll try again and look specifically for MMS.
As for signing up for the hockey package, I just called and asked — it’s only for digital cable, and we are regular basic cable subscribers. It’s not worth the upgrade to digital cable just to watch a few hockey games. :)
April 26th, 2006 at 8:33:33 pm
I got it….look for the .asx or just check your ND email
April 26th, 2006 at 8:37:18 pm
I got it too… Safari wasn’t displaying it in the source file for some reason, but Firefox did… am trying to load it in Windows Media now.
April 26th, 2006 at 8:38:07 pm
Woohoo!
Thanks!
Unfortunately, our “high-speed internet” isn’t really that speedy, so the image is rather jumpy… argh… would work much better if I was at school.
April 26th, 2006 at 8:38:57 pm
(Actually, it’s not “jumpy” per se — it’s smooth when it works — but it only seems to work for about five seconds, and then it has to spend 30 seconds rebuffering…)
April 26th, 2006 at 8:41:08 pm
Wow, your connection must blow. Mine is clear and smooth. I have it on full screen. A bit of pixelization, but not much. Something like 1217 kbps or something.
Maybe a smaller window? Update WMP? Or shut down some other applications.
April 26th, 2006 at 8:46:38 pm
They are streaming a 16×9 image so they must have it off an HD camera or something. It looks pretty good here, kind of like the same quality as an over the air antenna. If I make it really small window, it’s very very tight. It’s smooth even at big sizes, but there are some pixelization at that size.
I have the uber-Comcastic package, in an area where most people are just downloading porn not watching hockey so there is probably less competition for the pipes in my area to get the feed (i.e. why yours is choppy).
You can try resarting your feed to see if that clears things up.
April 26th, 2006 at 8:58:11 pm
Mine is clear and smooth and looks great, when it works. But it has to rebuffer constantly, and the rebuffering takes 15-30 seconds each time. All other applications are closed. Restarted the feed multiple times. No change.
I just did a DSL Speed Test:
When it’s trying to play the streaming video, it’s even worse: it only downloads at around 20 KB/sec. (I have MenuMeters, so I always see monitor the speed of my connection in real time, in my menu bar.)
I hooked my computer directly into the wall to be sure the problem isn’t my wireless router. Nope. No difference.
I hate you, ApartmentHost.com!
April 26th, 2006 at 9:46:55 pm
My download speed is about 8 times faster, but only 2x your upload.
The video probably has it set to buffer a pretty large amount (like .5mb) and you are getting drops because it is buffering upto that amount. I’m not sure if that is user configurable through the preferences in WMP or not. It might be set in the ASX file you downloaded.
Your download speed : 2488 kbps or 311 KB/sec.
Your upload speed : 690 kbps or 86.2 KB/sec.
April 26th, 2006 at 9:50:08 pm
Ah well, game over now… and if I’m not mistaken, Game 4 will be on OLN and Game 5 will be on NBC. Hopefully Buffalo wins in 5 and hopefully the semifinals are televised in full. :) Thanks for your help, anyway (and that goes for everyone who made suggestions).
LET’S! GO! BUFF-A-LO!
April 27th, 2006 at 1:22:57 pm
I listened to the game via the WGR website. Jeanneret is way too excitable and drives the poor dog nuts. We need to either get some games on TV or the dog is going to need tranquilizers.
April 27th, 2006 at 4:55:06 pm
Brendan:
You are correct about Sunday’s game on NBC at 2:00. Enjoy.
And the writers of BfloBlog are officially tailgating in the parking lot before the game starting at noon!