How to further reduce NHL travel burdens

[Lord Byron]

Some good food for thought from Joseph Cadabes, who examines a way for teams to square away their road games against long-distance opponents that'd cut down on expenses and road fatigue. Could it work?

How to further reduce NHL travel burdens

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[Buck Aki Berg]

I recall the league having done this in years past, particularly in the old Northwest division, when they Canucks would play, say, Minnesota two nights straight. There had to have been a reason why the league axed it...

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

Doug Wilson requested to have the teams East coast trips packed into long road trips to cut cost and travel.

Pretty sure the Sharks still do like 4 times as many miles as some East coast teams.

 

[The Grocery Stick]

It seems to me the concern over travel in the NHL is higher than other major sporting leagues. Is this a wrong perception on my behalf or do the other sports sweat this as much as the NHL?

 

[FissionFire]

It seems to me the concern over travel in the NHL is higher than other major sporting leagues. Is this a wrong perception on my behalf or do the other sports sweat this as much as the NHL?

NFL plays once a week so travel really isn't a factor.

MLB equally mixes east and west coast teams in each league so every team travels all over regularly.

NBA has a much more even geographic mix of east and west so you don't have most teams crossing 3 time zones and others never leaving their time zone to play inside the conference. I think only the Timberwolves in the NBA are in the Central time zone while in the Western conference. Aside from them the NBA is basically an Eastern+Central time zones is Eastern conference and Mountain+Pacific time zones is Western Conference.

Only the NHL has one league compressed into a single time zone and the other spanning the other 3/4 of the continent. That's why the travel disparity in the NHL is such an issue.

 

[TheAngryHank]

There should make it so every team plays / hosts 10 games in a neutral site while also hosting said games.
Example , While ST louis is hosting a Colorado V Boston game . Sharks could host a Kings v St louis game , cutting travel time and fans can watch out of market teams. How would Philly fans like to see a Habs V Boston game while their team was on the road?
Owner keep the same home game revenue just not their team playing.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

NFL plays once a week so travel really isn't a factor.

MLB equally mixes east and west coast teams in each league so every team travels all over regularly.

NBA has a much more even geographic mix of east and west so you don't have most teams crossing 3 time zones and others never leaving their time zone to play inside the conference. I think only the Timberwolves in the NBA are in the Central time zone while in the Western conference. Aside from them the NBA is basically an Eastern+Central time zones is Eastern conference and Mountain+Pacific time zones is Western Conference.

Only the NHL has one league compressed into a single time zone and the other spanning the other 3/4 of the continent. That's why the travel disparity in the NHL is such an issue.

Baseball is also in a single city for 2-4 days, so there isn't as much flights after games.

Also, Memphis, Okc, Houston, San Antonio, Chicago and Dallas are all in the central for basketball.

 

[Buck Aki Berg]

MLB equally mixes east and west coast teams in each league so every team travels all over regularly.

Not as much as you think - looking at this year's Jays schedule, they only have two trips to the Pacific time zone: once to play Oakland and Seattle, and once to play California Los Angeles Anaheim Los Angeles. Likewise, it looks like they only visit each AL Central team once.

 

[Mike Martin]

Stupid idea, it turns the NHL into major league baseball where you are playing the same team 3 or 4 games in a row during the regular season.

 

[TheAngryHank]

There should make it so every team plays / hosts 10 games in a neutral site while also hosting said games.
Example , While ST louis is hosting a Colorado V Boston game . Sharks could host a Kings v St louis game , cutting travel time and fans can watch out of market teams. How would Philly fans like to see a Habs V Boston game while their team was on the road?
Owner keep the same home game revenue just not their team playing.

That might be difficult to understand , 82 games , 41 at home. Make it 36 at home while hosting 5 neutral games. It can be done cutting travle while hosting nice rivalry games. Boston fans could watch a Pitt v Philly game while Boston is playing the Kings in ST.Louis the next night. Boston and LA cutting travel if the schedual has them playing near St Louis next games.

 

[Dave is a killer]

Wasn't this the idea of making 4 Divisions ? ... Geographic Divisions

All West Coast teams in the same Division (Sharks, Kings, Ducks, Phoenix, Canucks, Vancouver & Calgary) - looking more and more like Las Vegas is joining the party soon.

 

[Mike Martin]

There should make it so every team plays / hosts 10 games in a neutral site while also hosting said games.
Example , While ST louis is hosting a Colorado V Boston game . Sharks could host a Kings v St louis game , cutting travel time and fans can watch out of market teams. How would Philly fans like to see a Habs V Boston game while their team was on the road?
Owner keep the same home game revenue just not their team playing.

That's ridiculous!!! Cities who have their own NHL teams don't give a crap about the rest of the league so they wouldn't pay top dollar to watch those teams play in their home arena.

 

[TheAngryHank]

That's ridiculous!!! Cities who have their own NHL teams don't give a crap about the rest of the league so they wouldn't pay top dollar to watch those teams play in their home arena.

If I lived in Carolina had had a choice to watch Caines v Phx OR Rangers v LA / Bruins v Montrial / and good rival I would choose the latter. 5 times a season to see other teams go at it would be fun.

 

[TheStroker]

Why would I feel sorry for anyone who gets to fly chartered flights in 1st class conditions? The focus should be on improving travel conditions for the general public.

 

[coolboarder]

Just take a look at Calgary Flames schedule, their road schedule is only about 38,000 miles. I did the research on the Canucks, they can get the 38,000 miles on their schedule if the NHL does the scheduling the right way. If you want to know more, I can share that information.

 

[cajmonkey]

No other major pro sport has as much gear to transport either. Especially with such frequency.

 

[jasonleaffan]

No other major pro sport has as much gear to transport either. Especially with such frequency.

Why does that even matter? These guys get paid millions of dollars to play a game. I'll take millions to travel cross country in a heart beat.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Doug Wilson requested to have the teams East coast trips packed into long road trips to cut cost and travel.

Pretty sure the Sharks still do like 4 times as many miles as some East coast teams.

All west coast teams do 4 times amount of travel then the East coast teams. usually Vancouver tops the league in total miles travel followed by Edmonton, Calgary and then the California team and I imagine Peg is up there as well now

 

[Jester9881]

One thing it would do is create more opportunities to go on the road to watch your team play. Fly out to spend a week in LA and watch your team play 2 two game sets? Fly to NY for a week and watch two game sets against the Rangers/Islanders/Devils.

Having games back to back with the same teams also gives it a little more juice, like a playoff game.

 

[RyanOhReally]

One thing it would do is create more opportunities to go on the road to watch your team play. Fly out to spend a week in LA and watch your team play 2 two game sets? Fly to NY for a week and watch two game sets against the Rangers/Islanders/Devils.

Having games back to back with the same teams also gives it a little more juice, like a playoff game.

It would make it fun to vacation as a Leaf fan. Less expensive games in smaller, warmer cities where they'd consecutively.

I also enjoy how baseball doe their games. Allows you to see how your team truly compares versus other teams. Makes coaching decisions even more difficult. It may take away from playoffs though, having miniseries' against every team during the season

 

[Voight]

The schedule makers confuse me sometimes. They'll have Toronto for example play Detroit on a Tuesday.. then Arizona on a Thursday. They should make it so they play a bunch of far games together to make the trade costs lest.

 

[Finnish your Czech]

If I lived in Carolina had had a choice to watch Caines v Phx OR Rangers v LA / Bruins v Montrial / and good rival I would choose the latter. 5 times a season to see other teams go at it would be fun.

Sure, but people in their own city would want to watch them even more than people in other (random) cities.

 

[McShogun99]

Shorten season to 60 games and only play teams in your conference OR just keep things the way they are and have the schedule makers create a travel efficient schedule.

 

[NYR89]

NFL plays once a week so travel really isn't a factor.

MLB equally mixes east and west coast teams in each league so every team travels all over regularly.

NBA has a much more even geographic mix of east and west so you don't have most teams crossing 3 time zones and others never leaving their time zone to play inside the conference. I think only the Timberwolves in the NBA are in the Central time zone while in the Western conference. Aside from them the NBA is basically an Eastern+Central time zones is Eastern conference and Mountain+Pacific time zones is Western Conference.

Only the NHL has one league compressed into a single time zone and the other spanning the other 3/4 of the continent. That's why the travel disparity in the NHL is such an issue.

Have you seen the Mariners travel distance relative to everyone else in MLB?

They have both Texas and Houston in their division. They made 6 separate trips to Texas because they didn't play both teams in any one road trip. Figure that out