I'm guessing sometime this week
Last games in nhl this week are saturday night, this means sunday morning in sochi, you need time to take the plane from the game home, then from home to russia, somehow you have to pick the family,realistic seems to be monday
The NHL has 4 charters for all players heading to Sochi...
So who is picking up the tab on these four chartered planes? Is it the NHL, the IOC or the USOC/USA Hockey??
The NHL has 4 charters for all players heading to Sochi on Feb. 9. Arriving in Sochi on Monday the 10th. There are 2 on the east coast and 2 on the west coast, so depending on where your team is playing you have to get to one of those destination points. So, no, you don't necessarily have to get back to your NHL city in order to begin the trek to Sochi.
http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/9894341/nhl-100-things-need-know-heading-sochi-olympics77. NHL players taking part in the Olympics will take one of four charters that will depart Feb. 9, three from Newark and one from Chicago.
I would love to be on one of those planes to witness the interaction between the players on the long flight to Russia.
I wonder where the departure points are. The most likely to me are New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, and Vancouver.
And for completeness' sake, here's the last game for each team before the break:
Anaheim: 2/8 @ Nashville
Boston: 2/8 vs. Ottawa
Buffalo: 2/6 @ Ottawa
Calgary: 2/8 @ Philadelphia
Carolina: 2/8 vs. Montreal
Chicago: 2/7 @ Phoenix
Colorado: 2/8 @ NY Islanders
Columbus: 2/7 @ San Jose
Dallas: 2/8 vs. Phoenix
Detroit: 2/8 @ Tampa Bay
Edmonton: 2/7 @ New Jersey
Florida: 2/7 @ Carolina
Los Angeles: 2/6 vs. Columbus
Minnesota: 2/6 vs. Nashville
Montreal: 2/8 @ Carolina
Nashville: 2/8 vs. Anaheim
New Jersey: 2/8 @ Washington
NY Islanders: 2/8 vs. Colorado
NY Rangers: 2/7 @ Pittsburgh
Ottawa: 2/8 @ Boston
Philadelphia: 2/8 vs. Calgary
Phoenix: 2/8 @ Dallas
Pittsburgh: 2/7 vs. NY Rangers
San Jose: 2/7 vs. Columbus
St. Louis: 2/8 vs. Winnipeg
Tampa Bay: 2/8 vs. Detroit
Toronto: 2/8 vs. Vancouver
Vancouver: 2/8 vs. Toronto
Washington: 2/8 vs. New Jersey
Winnipeg: 2/8 @ St. Louis
I would assume the players on each team going to Sochi would go to the departure airport closest to where they are Saturday night.
EDIT: Might have found my answer. ESPN says 3 of the charters will depart from Newark, and the fourth from Chicago:
http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/9894341/nhl-100-things-need-know-heading-sochi-olympics
I'm having flashbacks from the movie Alive.
what are various teams doing with their players that aren't going during the break?
I haven't seen much on that....?
Do players fly with their team there or do they all just meet up in Sochi? If the former, do they charter a plane?
I would love to be on one of those planes to witness the interaction between the players on the long flight to Russia.
I do believe I've found 2 of the 3 charters from Newark:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/OAE351/history/20140209/1830Z/KEWR/URSS
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/GTI8644/history/20140209/2030Z/KEWR/URSS
Mandatory ten day break I believe from the 9th to the 19th. Then I know the Leafs are having a mini training camp before the season resumes. Not sure about other teams.