The Unfortunate Realities Of Canucks Travelling and Conditioning

[ErrantShepherd]

I don't by the whole travel issue thing.
There are other teams in the west who have to go thru the same thing...all the canuck flight videos I've.seen they are either resting or playing poker and they seem relaxed.. I don't by it..Conditioning and injures,,maybe we should not be signing guys who are injury riddled or holding onto them.

The number of players we have gotten with very little if any injury history prior to joining the organization, who then just get injury after injury seems rather high. At least anecdotally, curious if the numbers hold that up?

 

[PG Canuck]

Some of it might be the travel but Green has absolutely ridden Pettersson/Boeser/Horvat into the ground to try and squeeze every last point out of this team.

Horvat is probably going to sleep for half the summer because of how overworked and tired he is.

Yet he is in some peoples trade proposals to try and get Jack Hughes. Good luck replacing what Horvat does.

 

[Hit the post]

Ah my mistake, thanks for clarifying that.

So, about 50 minute flight for San Jose to California vs 1hr 20 to 1hr 30min for Vancouver to Alberta?

Think about the days when there was no team in San Jose (1991) or Anaheim (1993). Two less teams in our time zone meant longer road trips (when we didn’t play any Albertan teams).

 

[Cancuks]

I've heard players complain that the Canucks practice more than any other team in the league. Add that to the travel and the fact we have several of the most injury prone players in the league. Still an excuse though. I think in reality it has more to do with the fact that players aren't motivated to play through pain when the team is a bottom 5 contender every year.

 

[elitepete]

We need to advocate for an easier travel schedule.

Plus, I think we need to fire our entire medical and training staff and hire better people.

This would help the issue but we will probably always have more injuries than most other teams.

Would having a 70 game schedule help?

 

[Wilch]

This is a problem that should be looked at after the team gets rid of the morons running the show and hires competent management.

 

[timbermen]

I don't by the whole travel issue thing.
There are other teams in the west who have to go thru the same thing...all the canuck flight videos I've.seen they are either resting or playing poker and they seem relaxed.. I don't by it..Conditioning and injures,,maybe we should not be signing guys who are injury riddled or holding onto them.

Nobodys trying to sell it to you, it's an irrefutable fact. When the Canucks complained about it the league doubled down and made the schedule even worse. They always double down if the Canucks complain, the same thing happened with Edward R. Murrows and the french referee revolution. (i know it was Burrows, Edward R. Murrows was a journalist that had his career destroyed when he was wrongfully accused of being a Communist in the 50's.) Oh you didn't like those 40 pp's to 5 in the playoffs against SJ, here's some more. Irrefutable to anyone who has followed the team for at least 10 years.

 

[rypper]

There was a spot that Jeff Paterson did a few weeks ago on 1040 where he mentioned that the Canucks had done 3+ 6 game road swings whereas Calgary was just doing their first long road trip of 4 games.

Clearly we need to be putting down a harder stance with the scheduling department.

(I might be off on some of the numbers my memory is hazy.)

 

[unknown]

i had a buddy years ago who was convinced that athletes who travel on the road from east-west had an advantage over athletes travelling west-east due to easier time zone adjustment. he wanted the canucks to start all their road trips on the east coast, rest a full day before the first game, then work their way west no more than one time zone at a time.

It has been studied with a 40,000 game (20 year) sample size.

How jet lag impairs Major League Baseball performance

 

[mathonwy]

Nobodys trying to sell it to you, it's an irrefutable fact. When the Canucks complained about it the league doubled down and made the schedule even worse. They always double down if the Canucks complain, the same thing happened with Edward R. Murrows and the french referee revolution. (i know it was Burrows, Edward R. Murrows was a journalist that had his career destroyed when he was wrongfully accused of being a Communist in the 50's.) Oh you didn't like those 40 pp's to 5 in the playoffs against SJ, here's some more. Irrefutable to anyone who has followed the team for at least 10 years.

Was there such a sentiment before 2008?

 

[StreetHawk]

There was a spot that Jeff Paterson did a few weeks ago on 1040 where he mentioned that the Canucks had done 3+ 6 game road swings whereas Calgary was just doing their first long road trip of 4 games.

Clearly we need to be putting down a harder stance with the scheduling department.

(I might be off on some of the numbers my memory is hazy.)

Each team submits their list of available home dates. 41 games, so they have to submit a list of say 55 available dates.

So, ideally, you're not giving the league an open space in your home available dates of 14 days. If you keep it to 11 or 12, then you can limit the length of each road trip.

This year due to the WJHC, the Canucks had Xmas time where they didn't have access to Rogers, so they had to have a long trip then. Boston has a circus or something and Chicago has something as well where they need to do a long trip for example.

With 16 teams in the east, you're looking at 3-4 trips out there a year. Once you get out east, those cities are not that far apart as compared to the west city to city. It's just that those games end up compacted together and you get 4 in 6 nights, which is the major problem.

Look at the Leafs and their western Canada trip. They had a home game against Buffalo on Sat. So, they fly out Sunday to Calgary. Play Calgary on Monday. Given the distance and time zone savings, they should have flown out after the game. Leave Saddledome at 10:30 local and land in Vancouver at between midnight to 12:30 PST. Get to their hotel by 1am.

Rest Tuesday, play Vancouver on Wednesday. Stay overnight, Fly out on Thursday. Play Edmonton on Saturday. The Edm game is surprise surprise a 7 EST start. So, they could opt to fly home after the game. Canucks don't get that kind of treatment when they play Ott/Mon/Tor whom they played in 4 days this past season.

 

[timbermen]

Was there such a sentiment before 2008?

Yes, going all the way back to the 1982 final against the Islanders. The league wanted a Chicago / New York final and were so peeved the Canucks knocked out the Blackhawks, they started the series two days after the Conference finals . Of course the Islanders knocked out their opponent early and had over a week rest. Canucks finished had one day off after a very hard fought series against Chicago and they still managed to take the Islanders to overtime in that first game.

 

[me2]

Green also has the team play a committed game, just to be competitive at the start of the season they have to redline the effort levele. Without depth of talent depth or talent they burnout.

 

[StreetHawk]

Green also has the team play a committed game, just to be competitive at the start of the season they have to redline the effort levele. Without depth of talent depth or talent they burnout.

Canucks have been dropping every season since their last playoff appearance after the ASG. Complete burnout in the final 25 games.

 

[Carl Carlson]

The travel this team does certainly doesn't help them. It's really too bad there isn't another couple of teams closer to the PNW. Seattle will help a little bit but we'll always be behind the 8 ball when it comes to travel miles.

 

[StreetHawk]

The travel this team does certainly doesn't help them. It's really too bad there isn't another couple of teams closer to the PNW. Seattle will help a little bit but we'll always be behind the 8 ball when it comes to travel miles.

Travel ultimately comes down to how efficient it is. So long as you're not going going east/west/east then heading back west, you're going to be fine. Like Toronto, they played Cal/Van/Edm in that order. Not ideal as you'd like to stay in AB and not deal with a time zone change. But, in terms of milage they still had to come to Vancouver and head back east, only they do a stop in AB first before heading home. That is acceptable.

But you don't want to do Chicago/Boston/Detroit/Philly/NYR/NYI trip because you're flying back west when you're on the east coast only to go back to the east coast. Better logistically to play Detroit as the final game when you're heading back west or after the Chicago game for example. Of course, there's a bunch of factors in play here, but that is the ideal situation.

 

[Carl Carlson]

Travel ultimately comes down to how efficient it is. So long as you're not going going east/west/east then heading back west, you're going to be fine. Like Toronto, they played Cal/Van/Edm in that order. Not ideal as you'd like to stay in AB and not deal with a time zone change. But, in terms of milage they still had to come to Vancouver and head back east, only they do a stop in AB first before heading home. That is acceptable.

But you don't want to do Chicago/Boston/Detroit/Philly/NYR/NYI trip because you're flying back west when you're on the east coast only to go back to the east coast. Better logistically to play Detroit as the final game when you're heading back west or after the Chicago game for example. Of course, there's a bunch of factors in play here, but that is the ideal situation.

Certainly agree the logistics could be a lot better. If we could get the league to give us some help with the travel schedule it would certainly play a role in managing it better but as it sits we don't appear to be helping ourselves much.

 

[SillyRabbit]

Inside the Mind of Vancouver Canucks GM Mike Gillis - Vancouver Magazine

His longer-term goal was to turn Vancouver into a destination for NHL players—not easy for a team with an onerous travel schedule and a spotty playoff history. As an agent, though, he understood exactly what players wanted and valued. Sleep experts from the U.S. Air Force were consulted on ways to minimize the effects of the taxing travel demands. Chefs and nutritionists were engaged to prepare optimal diets for players whose default choice was McDonald’s. Psychologists were made available to deal with personal and professional stresses. The dressing room was reconfigured into a circle. The idea, says Gillis, was “to make Vancouver a place where players tell their agent they want to play.”

Imagine still facing a problem that Mike Gillis already fixed.

Eight. Fuc*king. Years. Ago.

Because when you’re a bad GM, you don’t just make bad decisions.

You actively reverse any good decisions made by the man before you.

Those experts are all long gone, because Benning didn’t see the value in them. Whereas Gillis would probably have us training in hyperbolic time chambers by now if given eight years to continuously innovate.

 

[Rpenny]

I will be an eternal die hard Mike Gillis fan because he was the first and really only person to even acknowledge let alone address these things. Yet here we are again with yet another Canucks fade.
.

You are slightly rewriting history there. Going as far back a Pat Quinn and Burke era the Canucks did stuff to help their players. They had sleep chambers and other stuff out at UBC and in the old PNE to try to help players adapt and stay healthy due to the travel schedule

 

[pgj98m3]

Horvat is probably going to sleep for half the summer because of how overworked and tired he is.

Yet he is in some peoples trade proposals to try and get Jack Hughes. Good luck replacing what Horvat does.

Which is a sad commentary on our vaunted prospect pool.

 

[Balls Mahoney]

I realize last night was a string of injuries from dirty play on behalf of the New York Rangers but it was like watching a series of American Presidents drive through Dealey Plaza. The general consensus last night in the GDT is that Petterson should be shut down for the rest of the season.

Watching these guys fade down the stretch while racking up throngs of injuries yet again. After going through all of the old Gillis philosophy, it's just painful watching this yet again because I think most of us understand what this is and why it's happening. I think so many of this team's problems are rooting in the travelling and conditioning and since Benning has taken this team back to "Durrrr Old Time Hockey" by building one of the softest and smallest teams in the league while getting rid of Gillis' progressive ideas for thwarting the challenges of this market. The result of this is a team that seems greatly slowed down both speed and reaction time which enables them to get clobbered in the last half of the season.

This is getting to the point of madness watching this fade happen year after year. It's like putting bleach or vinegar on plants and then wondering why this season's crop died while talking about how next season will be better because the bleach and vinegar will be stronger.

Meanwhile, these kids are getting killed in an incredibly frustrating environment. Not to mention these kids are literal multi-million dollar assets of a billion dollar corporation.