25,000 miles of travel difference between first and last team in the NHL next season

[StreetHawk]

If anything I'm surprised the disparity in travel isn't even bigger, considering how concentrated NHL franchises are in the northeast:

That's simply where most people live in the US and Canada, and also where hockey is the most traditionally popular. The entire western half of America (and Canada) is very sparsely populated compared to the east, other than some higher population right on the Pacific coast - population heatmap below:

In an ideal world, you'd like to see the 2-3 clubs that are close to each other work together on setting their home schedules so that teams when traveling can hit both (Edm/Cal, Sea/Van, Utah/Col, Fla/TB, California, etc.) all on 1 trip when the head out.

But, not always going to be the case.

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDo]

If I'm Anaheim management, I'm immediately bitching to the league about the 7,000 mile difference between their travel schedule and LA's.

Their arenas are 30 miles apart...

I noticed the Calgary and Edmonton with the 5600 difference, but that’s crazy.

 

[njdevils1982]

If anything I'm surprised the disparity in travel isn't even bigger, considering how concentrated NHL franchises are in the northeast:

That's simply where most people live in the US and Canada, and also where hockey is the most traditionally popular. The entire western half of America (and Canada) is very sparsely populated compared to the east, other than some higher population right on the Pacific coast - population heatmap below:

The teams are where the people are, more or less, other than a bit of under-representation in the US south (which makes sense given the lack of popularity of hockey in the south).

great second map

 

[Dessert Nights]

But which one is actually worse, more travelled miles or longer road trips (and less travel)?

 

[SheldonJPlankton]

But then the Stanley Cup would never get awarded because every team would choke in the first round.

Award the Stanley Cup to the team that garners the most respect in the handshake line.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

Award the Stanley Cup to the team that garners the most respect in the handshake line.

Definitely not PIT in '09.

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

Sadly, NHL scheduling still lives in the stone age. It's not even all that difficult to optimize the schedule with AI so that each team's travel is minimized. Wouldn't be a very complex script, though might require a decent amount of computing power to run.

Ez Pz Lemon Squeezy

Clearly an unfair advantage for some of the east coast teams. The league should mandate every team flies the same amount of miles with the same number of out of town hotel stays.

For example, instead of the Rangers taking a bus ride to play the islanders, they should instead take a flight to Kansas City, stay there overnight, then fly back to NY the next day for the Isles game.

I know you're being flip, but miles traveled isn't a big concern compared to games with a Rest Delta.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I have at times wondered whether baseball-style series in one city could make sense for hockey. It would have been easier to pull off when you played your division opponents a lot more (up to eight times per season) in the early 2000s. It would certainly cut down on travel and raise the intensity/temperature as each series evolved.

They did this during the COVID seasons and I loved it. Each trip had the tone of a mini-playoff series. And it made the opponent seem like less of a blur of random nobodies… like a playoff series, it was worth memorizing the lineups and watching the chess match play out.

And yes, it really cut down on travel and probably led to healthier players. I would support going back to that.

 

[StreetHawk]

I have at times wondered whether baseball-style series in one city could make sense for hockey. It would have been easier to pull off when you played your division opponents a lot more (up to eight times per season) in the early 2000s. It would certainly cut down on travel and raise the intensity/temperature as each series evolved.

The schedule matrix calls for 1 game at the other Conference. That is 16 games. 25 remaining.

The other Division in your Conf. you play 3 games, thus 4 of them to visit twice for 12 games total. 13 games remaining.

Of the 7 other teams in your division, you play 6 of them twice on the road, with 1 club you get only 1 time.

So, you get 10 teams that you would play twice on the road.

If you are Van, you can probably not play SEA, CAL, EDM all at once, but given the longer flights to Calif/LV, might want to do both road games on 1 trip or at the very least play those 4 Central clubs twice on 1 trip.

 

[Praetorian Caps]

After seeing what's in a penguins beak I don't blame him.

 

[Three On Zero]

After seeing what's in a penguins beak I don't blame him.

seeing the inside of a penguins mouth was not on my bingo card for today.

 

[Ugene Magic]

I love the fact the entire Metro division is under 40,000.

Is hilarious.

 

[wraithsonwings]

After seeing what's in a penguins beak I don't blame him.

You need good grip when you catch fish.

 

[Bleedred]

Saw this earlier and thought it was crazy the difference in miles travelled next season.

View attachment 896280

Thanks for posting this. I love looking at stuff like this and used to go through it every year, but for some reason I haven't been able to find a chart for miles traveled by team the last couple of seasons like I used to. At least I know I can find this thread if I wanna look at it again. Maybe I can even save this as a picture or screen shot it to my phone.

I find it interesting that even despite going all the way to Czech for the season opener, the Devils still have the 12th fewest miles traveled and the Sabres are just barely in the top half in miles traveled with their trip to open the season.

Other than that, I'm surprised Dallas in most miles traveled. Usually they're in the upper half, but I don't think I've ever seen them quite that high up. Dallas is kind of in a location all by itself, much like Florida, which is why those two teams typically have the most travel in the Eastern Conference. Although Tampa doesn't this year.

Still, I'm pretty surprised San Jose is only 12th and not higher. Same with Calgary and LA. I think those three teams are usually higher on the list. And the Canucks at 14th is also a shocker. That's way the hell out there, as far west as you can go. It's funny how Florida has that many more miles traveled than Tampa and Anaheim has that many more miles traveled than LA and San Jose and even Vancouver and Calgary.

Like I said, I always find these interesting. I like maps and travel (not the actual traveling part though haha) and all that.

 

[sxvnert]

Saw this earlier and thought it was crazy the difference in miles travelled next season.

View attachment 896280

Easily solved if the west/league played a baseball style schedule.

 

[JPT]

Easily solved if the west/league played a baseball style schedule.

I'm not sure that's possible with how busy arena schedules can be all year.

 

[Talonted]

35000 is a big number but do some math and it doesn’t seem too bad: 35000 miles / 570mph average 747 cruising speed = 61 extra hours in the air.

 

[GindyDraws]

Yeah, having Winnipeg and Minnesota as division rivals will do that.

 

[GindyDraws]

I'm not sure that's possible with how busy arena schedules can be all year.

Also, the NHL tried that and people botched a lot.

 

[kcunac]

Teams fly first class and not charter?

Also, glad to see the Canucks in the midfield for once.

 

[StreetHawk]

Teams fly first class and not charter?

Also, glad to see the Canucks in the midfield for once.

Not sure how our closest opponent in SEA ended up with 5,700 more miles when they are not going to Europe or Australia.

 

[Three On Zero]

Some folks wanted to see this

 

[JianYang]

Montreal's air miles are surprising. They are an eastern team and they didn't even fly to Europe.

They are in the air more than the Canucks? That's mind boggling.

 

[Riggins]

Vancouver being mid is a shocker, we are very isolated here. They must have been fighting hard with the schedule makers to improve their road trips to get a bunch of games done at a time.

 

[JianYang]

Vancouver being mid is a shocker, we are very isolated here. They must have been fighting hard with the schedule makers to improve their road trips to get a bunch of games done at a time.

Especially when you look at Seattle who are close to the top.

The cities are so close but the air miles are not.