The Puck Stops Here

The NHL schedule was released this week along with the usual grumping about how the schedule is hard on favorite teams. In order to get a better look at things, I decided to look at the schedule myself. A good starting point is the super schedule made by the forechecker.

I think the most meaningful check of the schedule is the number of times a given team is tired fro excess travel when compared to the number of times their opponent is. I define travel tired as any of the following:

1. A team is forced to travel one time zone in one day

2. A team is forced to travel two time zones in three days or less

3. A team is forced to travel three or more time zones in five days or less

This definition may not be perfect as it does not track within time zone travel, but it captures most of a team's travel.

Naturally, there is a big difference between East and West Conference teams as the East Conference is contained in part of the eastern time zone and the West Conference has teams in four different time zones. Here are the results:

West Conference Travel Tired Teams

Team	# of Travel Tired Games	Opponent Travel Tired Games	+/-
Anaheim Ducks	23	19	-4
Calgary Flames	10	21	+11
Chicago Blackhawks	9	17	+8
Colorado Avalanche	16	20	+4
Columbus Blue Jackets	28	18	-10
Dallas Stars	16	17	+1
Detroit Red Wings	19	23	+4
Edmonton Oilers	18	15	-3
Los Angeles Kings	25	20	-5
Minnesota Wild	13	22	+9
Nashville Predators	9	14	+5
Phoenix Coyotes	19	20	+1
St Louis Blues	15	14	-1
San Jose Sharks	29	13	-16
Vancouver Canucks	26	23	-3

East Conference Travel Tired Teams

Team	# of Travel Tired Games	Opponent Travel Tired Games	+/-
Atlanta Thrashers	7	5	-2
Boston Bruins	8	5	-3
Buffalo Sabres	4	4	0
Carolina Hurricanes	4	5	+1
Florida Panthers	6	2	-4
Montreal Canadiens	5	7	+2
New Jersey Devils	5	2	-3
New York Islanders	3	5	+2
New York Rangers	4	3	-1
Ottawa Senators	5	9	+4
Philadelphia Flyers	7	4	-3
Pittsburgh Penguins	2	9	+7
Tampa Bay Lightning	8	3	-5
Toronto Maple Leafs	7	6	-1
Washington Capitals	4	9	+5

Clearly, the West Conference teams have a much larger travel issue with travel. Most teams are roughly equal in terms of tired games played and those played by their opponents. The Calgary Flames have the best differential of tired teams facing them 11 more times than they are a tired team. The Chicago Blackhawks are next with 8 more tired teams facing them than they are tired. These are the teams that I argue receive the biggest benefit from the schedule. The teams that have are travel tired more often than their opponents are the San Jose Sharks who are in that situation 16 more times than their opponent and the Columbus Blue Jackets who are in that situation ten times. These are the teams that have the toughest year due to their schedule.

The East Conference teams do not have as big an issue with travel. The team with the biggest difference between tired games played and those of their opponents is the Pittsburgh Penguins. They have seven more games where their opponents are tired than they are. This should benefit from this, but travel is not as big an issue in the East Conference.

Clearly, the West Conference has a much bigger issue with travel than the East Conference. This allows for West Conference teams to have the biggest differential in tired games vs. tired games of their opponents. Although, they might want to trade that for the easier travel of the East Conference, it allows them to have the biggest advantage or disadvantage from travel. This advantage or disadvantage is likely seen in the regular season results. However, the significantly reduced travel of the East Conference might be the best situation of all for a team.