A new National Hockey League (NHL) season begins on Thursday 1st October live at midnight on ESPN America and for the first time in the UK in high definition on new channel ESPN HD when the Montreal Canadiens visit the Toronto Maple Leafs.

This is the first of over 300 live and as-live NHL games to feature on ESPN’s UK television channels during the 2009/10 season, including the four-game CompuWare NHL Premiere games in Stockholm and Helsinki. ESPN America, ESPN and ESPN HD will show the best of the regular season, play-offs and Stanley Cup Final games, as part of their most comprehensive coverage of the world’s premier ice hockey league in the UK ever. In addition, over 1,000 games a season – around 40 games a week – will be available to watch online via subscription at ESPN360.com, either live or on-demand.

This season’s CompuWare NHL Premiere games in Europe come from Stockholm with Detroit Red Wings facing St Louis Blues and Helsinki with Chicago Blackhawks against Florida Panthers. ESPN America will broadcast live double headers on both Friday 2nd October and Saturday 3rd October from 5pm. After the games end in Europe, the NHL heads back to North America where every team will aim to make it to the play-offs and a chance of winning the championship.

Earlier this year, the Pittsburgh Penguins lifted the Stanley Cup for the third time in their history after a tense series that ended 4-3 against the Detroit Red Wings and both those teams are expected to be there or thereabouts come the end of the season. With at least seven games a week shown on ESPN America, ESPN, ESPN HD and ESPN360.com throughout the season, there will be more than enough NHL to satisfy even the most hungry hockey fans. The live action will be accompanied by nightly coverage with NHL On The Fly on ESPN America, the NHL Network’s signature show bringing fans NHL highlights from all the games that night insuring viewers will always be up-to-date on all the latest action from around the league.

Jeroen Oerlemans, ESPN, Vice President, TV Channels Europe, Middle East and Africa commented: “We are very proud to broadcast the NHL Premiere games live from the Globe Arena in Sweden and Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, the home country of several high profile NHL players. With a big expat community in the UK, we know that fans will also appreciate our authentic coverage for the 300 other games which come directly from the arenas in the US and Canada. We also hope that once sports fans see the quality of our programming from the NHL and other North-American leagues, they will regularly tune into ESPN America, ESPN (HD) and ESPN360.com.”

Select Read More to see ESPN's NHL schedule in the US and International channels such as Sky and Virgin Media

ESPN is available on Sky, Virgin Media, BT Vision, Top Up TV, Tiscali and UPC (in Ireland) on the following channel numbers:

Sky: ESPN (channel 417), ESPN HD (channel 442)

Virgin Media: ESPN (channel 529), ESPN HD (channel 530)

BT Vision: ESPN (channel 34)

Top UP TV: ESPN (channel 34)

Tiscali: ESPN (channel 555)

UPC (in Ireland) ESPN (channel 407)

ESPN America is available on Sky and Virgin Media on the following channel numbers:

Sky: ESPN America (channel 430)

Virgin Media: ESPN America (channel 531)

Source: ESPN

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Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (select his name in the dropdown provided).

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