NHL Travel and the Flames

[curves2000]

Hi all,

I came across this feature today on Sportsnet's website related to NHL travel in the western conference. Interesting note given the Flames wacky schedule this week by playing in Chicago a week ago, playing this week back in Chicago and then going all the way to the west coast. Strange.

The Flames are estimated to fly the 3rd longest distance in the NHL this year at 78 034 km's. It truly is a crazy travel schedule. In Sportsnet clip we see Engy giving Johnny the gears about him being scared to fly, interesting.

For those who are interested here are a few links I came across

Sportsnet feature: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/w...es-nhl-travel/

Air Canada Behind the Scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5En_-fLU_NM

Air Canada Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8lPuVEK_ng

The Air Canada clips show what life is like on board the Flames charter flights and how the boys travel. Looks impressive and a far cry from back in the day when the Flames traveled commercial, flying into the city on game day with rookies sandwiched in the middle seat.

For those fans who might like to throw a little sprinkle on the games to spice them up a bit, you can track the Flames charter plane as they travel around. It allows you a little extra info about when the team arrived in the new city so you can bet with the most up to date info. You can go to www.flightaware.com and then search the Flames plane. The airline is Air Canada and the flight number is usually 7035 or 7036.

Looking at the schedule and there are a lot of crazy games coming up with some bad back to back travel. All the best for the team!

[nik-]

The travel thing is overblown imo (and I know that's not what you're saying in this thread, but I'm just tossing it out there anyway since fans complain about this). They don't travel like us shlubs. Chartered plane, first class seating all the way, a fraction of the security hassle.

The western teams probably spend a couple extra hours on a plane in a week.

[Resolute 14]

The travel thing really is not overblown. Travel is exhausting, and changing time zones constantly can muck you up. These guys are used to that though.

What hurts is all the lost practise time because of the travel.

[Northendzone]

it would be interesting to know for guys considering free agent offers from different teams in the east vs the west if travel is a consideration at all.

I have also wondered how many hours teams spend travelling as in the east, the flights maybe shorter, but the traffic in large cities like new York would be presumably be slower.

to me it would just suck to have to spend so much time wearing a suit. it would be ncie to sit on the plane is shorts or something.

[bc-chris]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

The travel thing really is not overblown. Travel is exhausting, and changing time zones constantly can muck you up. These guys are used to that though.

What hurts is all the lost practise time because of the travel.

one of the guys on my mens team played pro in europe and we were chatting about the effects of travel. i was giving him a hard time about it and he said that you'd be surprised how much it does wear on you... and you never get used to it. even though they traveled all the time it still left them extremely drained.

[kyuss275]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

it would be interesting to know for guys considering free agent offers from different teams in the east vs the west if travel is a consideration at all.

I have also wondered how many hours teams spend travelling as in the east, the flights maybe shorter, but the traffic in large cities like new York would be presumably be slower.

to me it would just suck to have to spend so much time wearing a suit. it would be ncie to sit on the plane is shorts or something.

Not as long as waiting for flights to take off. Also some east teams get to sleep in their own bed on "away" games because the proximity is so close.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

The travel thing really is not overblown. Travel is exhausting, and changing time zones constantly can muck you up. These guys are used to that though.

What hurts is all the lost practise time because of the travel.

Mike Gillis actually put a lot of resources into researching sleep patterns to help the Canucks overcome fatigue given they typically have amongst the worst NHL travel schedules. The Canucks were a pretty good road team when he was managing them being the best road team in the league for a season or two.

Eastern teams have a major advantage and it does play a role in the decisions of some free agents.

[Aleks]

As someone who works in a plane, day in and day out it is honestly exhausting and fatiguing. Granted mine are 30-60 min flights with decent mental stress added in, but regardless air travel is definitely hard on the body and mind

[calgarygeologist]

I have no idea what the cost structure is like but I would assume that a sports franchise that has a heavy travel schedule like the Flames would prefer to own a jet vs chartering flights. The jet could probably do double duty flying the Stampeders around during the football season and maybe even fly the Hitmen when the Flames are at home.

[curves2000]

The changing time zones, the sleep interruptions, the long flights and the issues dealing with in the NHL are a big factor.

If you compare the NBA and NHL who play similar a 82 games, the difference with the NHL is how spread apart it is. Vancouver to South Florida for the NHL and that includes LOTS of boarder crossings to play US/Canadian teams. Weather is also a significant factor for the NHL when players travel. The NBA only crosses the boarder when playing Toronto.

I have always been amazed at some of the stupid decisions NHL teams make when taking into consideration travel. If we look at the Chicago/ San Jose trip for the Flames.

Leave Chicago 11:55 pm and arrive at 2:04 am to Oakland International since San Jose airport has a curfew on late arriving flights. By the time the Flames got to their hotel somewhere around the SAP Center, checked in and got to their room, it might have been 3:30 am. A lot of players sleep on the plane or watch a movie or something on their tablets which can cause sleep delay, this non stop changing schedule is a reason why some players get addicted to sleeping pills and then to "uppers" in order to wake up for some dam "team meeting" the next morning.

The CBA mandates that players can't have a meeting until 8 hours after arrival at the hotel, previously some coaches would have meetings only a handful of hours after arriving and then it would throw off the players. I recall Darryl Sutter being a horrible offender back in the day with this stuff. Players sleeping a few hours, some BS 10 minute PP meeting in the morning and then off to morning skate for a 3 in 4 night scenario. Players wear down quickly with this stuff and it leads to injury too.

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

I have no idea what the cost structure is like but I would assume that a sports franchise that has a heavy travel schedule like the Flames would prefer to own a jet vs chartering flights. The jet could probably do double duty flying the Stampeders around during the football season and maybe even fly the Hitmen when the Flames are at home.

Hitmen can't use the airplane IIRC. The WHL only allows teams to use air travel during the WHL finals to help keep costs down for smaller market teams and prevent the richer teams from gaining a great advantage.

If it made financial sense for the Flames to own a jet, they would.

IIRC all the Canadian NHL teams use Air Canada for chartered flights.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

I have no idea what the cost structure is like but I would assume that a sports franchise that has a heavy travel schedule like the Flames would prefer to own a jet vs chartering flights. The jet could probably do double duty flying the Stampeders around during the football season and maybe even fly the Hitmen when the Flames are at home.

It would need to be a pretty big jet though to carry at least 23 players, staff, media and gear. Maintenance on a jet is probably not cheap. I assume chartering is significantly cheaper.

I agree with most posters who think the travel burden to players is overblown. I travel a lot for work and although it can be tiring, I find the most energy is spent planning the trip, finding a good price on car rental, hotel, making sure you're at the airport on time, planning for meals, meetings etc. Once I'm in the plane, it's easy. Just throw on a movie or play a game.

These players have handlers. All their details are taken care of for them from top to bottom. They just show up for games, and then go where they are told afterwards. No thought process involved.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by curves2000

The changing time zones, the sleep interruptions, the long flights and the issues dealing with in the NHL are a big factor.

If you compare the NBA and NHL who play similar a 82 games, the difference with the NHL is how spread apart it is. Vancouver to South Florida for the NHL and that includes LOTS of boarder crossings to play US/Canadian teams. Weather is also a significant factor for the NHL when players travel. The NBA only crosses the boarder when playing Toronto.

I have always been amazed at some of the stupid decisions NHL teams make when taking into consideration travel. If we look at the Chicago/ San Jose trip for the Flames.

Leave Chicago 11:55 pm and arrive at 2:04 am to Oakland International since San Jose airport has a curfew on late arriving flights. By the time the Flames got to their hotel somewhere around the SAP Center, checked in and got to their room, it might have been 3:30 am. A lot of players sleep on the plane or watch a movie or something on their tablets which can cause sleep delay, this non stop changing schedule is a reason why some players get addicted to sleeping pills and then to "uppers" in order to wake up for some dam "team meeting" the next morning.

The CBA mandates that players can't have a meeting until 8 hours after arrival at the hotel, previously some coaches would have meetings only a handful of hours after arriving and then it would throw off the players. I recall Darryl Sutter being a horrible offender back in the day with this stuff. Players sleeping a few hours, some BS 10 minute PP meeting in the morning and then off to morning skate for a 3 in 4 night scenario. Players wear down quickly with this stuff and it leads to injury too.

Yesterday was a CBA mandated day off for the flames. From what I heard on 960.

They couldn't have it if they waited and traveled yesterday to San Jose.

[renny]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

It would need to be a pretty big jet though to carry at least 23 players, staff, media and gear. Maintenance on a jet is probably not cheap. I assume chartering is significantly cheaper.

I agree with most posters who think the travel burden to players is overblown. I travel a lot for work and although it can be tiring, I find the most energy is spent planning the trip, finding a good price on car rental, hotel, making sure you're at the airport on time, planning for meals, meetings etc. Once I'm in the plane, it's easy. Just throw on a movie or play a game.

These players have handlers. All their details are taken care of for them from top to bottom. They just show up for games, and then go where they are told afterwards. No thought process involved.

I don't think that it's overblown. I travel a ton for work, have to traverse many time zones, I don't have to book my own flights or anything but I'm still exhausted as heck because my sleep isn't good. Things aren't where you expect them to be (e.g. little things inside your home), you're not in your own bed, etc., all these things are factors.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by renny

I don't think that it's overblown. I travel a ton for work, have to traverse many time zones, I don't have to book my own flights or anything but I'm still exhausted as heck because my sleep isn't good. Things aren't where you expect them to be (e.g. little things inside your home), you're not in your own bed, etc., all these things are factors.

I've never found traveling or staying in hotels to be too difficult or draining but the exercise of commercial travel is brutal. Airport security, check in, wait times, connections and baggage claim are all aspects that I hate dealing with. Something as simple as check-in for a flight can easily ruin my whole day when traveling if something gets screwed up.

[corporatejay]

Not to mention that routine is so important, especially for a high performance athlete like these guys. Eating at different times, waking up at different times etc... reeks havoc.

I'd also mention that the food on the planes is total garbage.

I remember Jared Dudley talking about Steve Nash's diet and how insane it was. He mentioned that Nash pre-packs meals for road trips because after a game you're hungry you get on a plane and they fries and chicken fingers and other terrible food and Nash would have them warm up his pre-made stuff.

If you aren't that disciplined you ending up eating pretty poorly. I'm really surprised teams don't employ several chefs to make quality food for them.

[squiggs96]

I read a few years ago the canucks hired a sleep expert, and a big thing for him was instead of flying right after the game, the players would spend the night in that city and fly back the next game. Obviously this doesn't work for back to back road games, but if they are playing in Chicago, and the next game is at home, they stay in Chicago that night. I would be totally in favour of that, but I wonder how much sleep they actually get. I'm guessing many of the players would go out on the town, especially since it's a town they might not get to often.

[Nage Waza]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

The travel thing really is not overblown. Travel is exhausting, and changing time zones constantly can muck you up. These guys are used to that though.

What hurts is all the lost practise time because of the travel.

I used to travel extensively for work, often taking off a dozen or so times per week at a minimum.

What I found to be the most problematic was the time wasted getting to and from the airport (two to four hours per day), time going through customs/immigration/security/ 2 plus hours per day. My productive time was really cut down for travel.

Waiting at the airport, being on the plane, sleeping in the hotel was actually very relaxing to be honest, as I could read, play vids, do whatever I wanted. Jet lag was not an issue as most places I flew to were the same time zone, or an hour off. I would imagine this is less of an issue for a hockey player, as they wouldn't have to hit an 8am meeting which is 5 am local time, as the team understands their sleep requirements.

I always assumed the average pro athlete would enjoy being out of town and away from everyone but the team.

[flamesforcup]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

I have no idea what the cost structure is like but I would assume that a sports franchise that has a heavy travel schedule like the Flames would prefer to own a jet vs chartering flights. The jet could probably do double duty flying the Stampeders around during the football season and maybe even fly the Hitmen when the Flames are at home.

A jet like the one the flames use is about 100 million$-200mill im guessing. Doesnt make sense to buy it outright and pay for ur own staff when u can just rent it out and air canada arranged everything.

[I_H8_Crawford]

Originally Posted by nik-

The travel thing is overblown imo (and I know that's not what you're saying in this thread, but I'm just tossing it out there anyway since fans complain about this). They don't travel like us shlubs. Chartered plane, first class seating all the way, a fraction of the security hassle.

The western teams probably spend a couple extra hours on a plane in a week.

I actually happened to be flying out to the US back in Jan at the same time as the Flames were coming through for their trip to NYC - funny enough I made it through "Schlub" security quicker than they did through the "express" one - that was due to the fact that there's like 50 of them so they clog up their line.

Customs they were in the same line as the rest of us - surprisingly none of them had/used Nexus - only thing I noticed was the customs officials joked with them and didn't ask them the "usual" questions.