Time Difference favors West Coast team

[Not The One]

Come on...

• Four games in six nights
• On the road
• Two to three hours later than usual
• With our backup goalies
• Against three of the best teams in the league
• As of today these four teams have a combined 86-30-24 record at home

Our own record of 1-2-1 is probably what we should have expected.

These roadtrips are crazy. There is no way teams can be competitive in those situations.

 

[Fish on The Sand]

*ahem*

No Excuse.

If we want to win the cup, we'll have to go against Western Teams, and we'll have to beat them.

Not at 10:30 PM though.

 

[MTL-rules]

Maybe western-eastern matchups favor the West, but it's not unfair for the habs. (btw, the argument isn't that eastern teams have an overall scheduling disadvantage compared to western teams).

The km numbers favors eastern teams, but it would only be a disadvantage if westerm teams had to win a playoffs spot against teams from the East. Since western teams have to face the majority of the time teams that face the same disadvantages, the distance traveled is a moot point.

As for east and west matchup, the km numbers isn't really important, since eastern teams need to travel as far to play western teams... what seems to be problematic is the time zone difference as shown in the NFL study.

But, all in all, the habs aren't really disadvantaged compared to their divisional rivals since they have also a similar schedule... the hypothesis here should be that maybe the West isn't as dominant as we think.

 

[Kimota]

Come on...

• Four games in six nights
• On the road
• Two to three hours later than usual
• With our backup goalies
• Against three of the best teams in the league
• As of today these four teams have a combined 86-30-24 record at home

Our own record of 1-2-1 is probably what we should have expected.

These roadtrips are crazy. There is no way teams can be competitive in those situations.

And all these talks about commentators saying "there's no excuses for the Habs cause the Western teams travel a lot more". Well why are they calling these trips "Death Valley" for the Eastern teams? That's cause they can't win there. Whether it's the time zones, the fatigue or whatever, all Eastern teams get eaten alive.

 

[PricePkPatch*]

Come on...

• Four games in six nights
• On the road
• Two to three hours later than usual
• With our backup goalies
• Against three of the best teams in the league
• As of today these four teams have a combined 86-30-24 record at home

Our own record of 1-2-1 is probably what we should have expected.

These roadtrips are crazy. There is no way teams can be competitive in those situations.

1-2-1? More like 1-3-0. We lost in regs against Kings, Coyotes and Sharks.

 

[Le Tricolore]

Feel free to hang around the 25,000 other threads about where does Vanek fit in the lineup buddy.

What?

Also, six of the Stanley Cup champions since 2000 are in the Eastern Conference. (well, 8... but Detroit weren't in the East when they won). That's close enough to 50% to show that it means nothing.

 

[Teufelsdreck]

Saw this study a few months back and thought it would be good to share it after this terrible road trip from our Habs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/02/circadian-timing-nfl-games-west-coast_n_4350794.html

This study has been done in the NFL but I do not think it is far fetched to apply it to the NHL. I think such a study would really be interesting for NHL games since the sample would be much larger (more games, and more importantly, evening games).

I've been watching hockey since 1992 and as far as I remember, the Canadians have always struggled during their West Coast trips. This partially explains it I think.

This also could explain why it seems the West has dominated the East for what seems like forever. (Edit: I checked, it's 12 consecutive years)

It makes sense when you think about it. Western teams are faced with these two scenarios from a biological clock standpoint:

- Play at 16h30, a team whose biological clock is at 19h30
- Play at 19h30, a team whose biological clock is at 22h30

With the kind of parity we're seeing in the league these days, these small disadvantages can play a huge role. Unfortunately, there are no easy solution for this.

(Edit: We're seeing the same phenomena in the NBA this year, where most games are evening games)

IMO your circadian hypothesis is absurd. In fact, the Western teams are more at a disadvantage. The Habs (and some other teams) play afternoon games at home. When Western teams visit Montréal and play at 1:00 in the afternoon it's 10:00 a.m. at home and for a 7:30 game it's 4:30 at home. I know from personal experience that trips from the West Coast after a game (even on charter flights) arrive long past midnight EST. I was always much less fatigued flying to San Francisco or LA or Vancouver than I was on the return trip.

 

[Not The One]

1-2-1? More like 1-3-0. We lost in regs against Kings, Coyotes and Sharks.

Yeah my bad, I was thinking of the Detroit game.

 

[Corky]

IMO your circadian hypothesis is absurd. In fact, the Western teams are more at a disadvantage. The Habs (and some other teams) play afternoon games at home. When Western teams visit Montréal and play at 1:00 in the afternoon it's 10:00 a.m. at home and for a 7:30 game it's 4:30 at home. I know from personal experience that trips from the West Coast after a game (even on charter flights) arrive long past midnight EST. I was always much less fatigued flying to San Francisco or LA or Vancouver than I was on the return trip.

Not my theory, it's a study that was made by professors from Harvard, Stanford and the University of California. I just implied the same could apply to the NHL...

What's absurd is you using the 1pm game example. How many of those we have per year exactly? How many of those were on the Habs last road trip?

Basically, what this comes down to is: How else do you explain the West dominance in 3 leagues (NFL, NHL, NBA) all at the same time, and in the case of the NHL and NFL, for an extended period of time?

(The same could be said about the NBA, I'm just too lazy to look it up)

 

[Corky]

What?

Also, six of the Stanley Cup champions since 2000 are in the Eastern Conference. (well, 8... but Detroit weren't in the East when they won). That's close enough to 50% to show that it means nothing.

You were saying that the thread is silly, I pointed you towards other threads.

As for your stanley cup comment, you're using a sample of 7 games tops every year (Stanley cup final) to invalidate a trend that is showing over more than 300 games every year. From a statistical standpoint, you have no case.

Anyway, the example you use also shows a Western dominance. Detroit was West, doesn't matter what it is today, so it's 8 against 4.

 

[Saintpatrick*]

West coast teams have a harder travel schedule and when those teams come to Montreal I'm sure they have jet lag as well. This is just an excuse for a middle of the pack team with a **** coach.

 

[Agnostic]

OP is not making excuses, just sharing data. Yeah I'd much rather read this than the numerous Vanek threads or whatever thread is started by rockjngo's alleged thoughts.

This is an interesting finding, it forms part of the picture. Unfortunately the NHL is too busy struggling with 20th century issues like icing and concussions to be concerned about biorhythms. When you see a team idle for 4 days but then see the same team playing 4 games in 6 nights after a 3 time zone shift you know there's little attention paid to the matter.

I guess the only solution is acclimatizing after big time zone changes and more time off between games. Costly measures I am sure for a league that isn't that advanced in its thinking.

 

[Hoople]

OP is not making excuses, just sharing data. Yeah I'd much rather read this than the numerous Vanek threads or whatever thread is started by rockjngo's alleged thoughts.

This is an interesting finding, it forms part of the picture. Unfortunately the NHL is too busy struggling with 20th century issues like icing and concussions to be concerned about biorhythms. When you see a team idle for 4 days but then see the same team playing 4 games in 6 nights after a 3 time zone shift you know there's little attention paid to the matter.

I guess the only solution is acclimatizing after big time zone changes and more time off between games. Costly measures I am sure for a league that isn't that advanced in its thinking.

There is a solution for schedules like the ones the Habs faced.

Eliminate NHL players participating in the Olympics. Losing those two weeks compresses the schedule, much like what we saw last season with the Lockout.

 

[Runner77]

Come on...

• Four games in six nights
• On the road
• Two to three hours later than usual
• With our backup goalies
• Against three of the best teams in the league
• As of today these four teams have a combined 86-30-24 record at home

Our own record of 1-2-1 is probably what we should have expected.

These roadtrips are crazy. There is no way teams can be competitive in those situations.

As if other teams don't face their share of shortcomings at any given time. These "woe is us" scenarios are just crybaby stuff.

 

[Le Tricolore]

You were saying that the thread is silly, I pointed you towards other threads.

As for your stanley cup comment, you're using a sample of 7 games tops every year (Stanley cup final) to invalidate a trend that is showing over more than 300 games every year. From a statistical standpoint, you have no case.

Anyway, the example you use also shows a Western dominance. Detroit was West, doesn't matter what it is today, so it's 8 against 4.

No, there's six in the east not counting Detroit.

I also believe this theory is full of crap, so I don't care if I have a case or not.

 

[Fish on The Sand]

West coast teams have a harder travel schedule and when those teams come to Montreal I'm sure they have jet lag as well. This is just an excuse for a middle of the pack team with a **** coach.

I'm pretty sure NHLers don't get jet lag for a couple of reasons

1) they aren't crossing enough time zones
2) they are way too conditioned to the travel

 

[DAChampion]

This theory is obviously true. It is obvious that a lot of you don't travel often.