Frikin NHL gamecenter upped their price to $150 this year, was $50 last year. That price is tough to justify.
People have been able to get GC for $100 by using a VPN or other service to get a non North American IP address when subscribing. After subscribing, it sounds like you can go back to your normal IP without any issues, but getting around blackouts requires further trickery.
Edit: There are lots of tips in the linked thread for how to watch most games for free. I haven't tried it yet, but the technique in this post seems very user friendly.