Detroit's Travel vs. Buffalo's Travel

[WhiteLightning91 105]

I heard this on WXYT today and it almost made me sick.

The Red Wings had to travel into a different time zone over 50 times this year. Buffalo had to a do it 4 times the whole year, and their first time wasn't until January. We did it as many times on one West Coast road trip as they did their whole season.

In the playoffs, Buffalo hasnt even left their own ******* state yet. They have played NYI and NYR. Here's my favorite. Ottawa happens to be closer to Buffalo than both Manhattan or Long Island.

The closest game for the Red Wings was in Calgary, a 31 hour drive.

Anyone else think this is just wayyybeyond unfair? We just get completely raped when it comes to the schedule and travel. The Illitch's should be compensated somehow by the league since they travel the most of any team.

If we face Buffalo in the Finals, I could definitely see this coming into effect. Sadly, I think because we will be just completely worn down, the series would automatically be shifted into Buffalo's favor.

f*** the Western Conference. I would be just completely irate if I was Mike Illitch. Unfortunately, he can't really do anything about it.

[ADF 0]

I heard this on WXYT today and it almost made me sick.

The Red Wings had to travel into a different time zone over 50 times this year. Buffalo had to a do it 4 times the whole year, and their first time wasn't until January. We did it as many times on one West Coast road trip as they did their whole season.

In the playoffs, Buffalo hasnt even left their own ******* state yet. They have played NYI and NYR. Here's my favorite. Ottawa happens to be closer to Buffalo than both Manhattan or Long Island.

The closest game for the Red Wings was in Calgary, a 31 hour drive.

Anyone else think this is just wayyybeyond unfair? We just get completely raped when it comes to the schedule and travel. The Illitch's should be compensated somehow by the league since they travel the most of any team.

If we face Buffalo in the Finals, I could definitely see this coming into effect. Sadly, I think because we will be just completely worn down, the series would automatically be shifted into Buffalo's favor.

f*** the Western Conference. I would be just completely irate if I was Mike Illitch. Unfortunately, he can't really do anything about it.

I think the west coast teams (ANA, LA, SJ, VAN) log even more miles.

[YoungGuns1340 1]

Yeah Drew Sharp just did an article about the travel in the newspaper. But to be honest, I could care less about the regular season - its the playoffs that get me. Detroit has had to do the most travel so far out of the 4 remaining teams and of the other 12 as well. The distance between Detroit and Calgary, San Jose, and Anaheim tops Anaheims treks to Minny, Vancouver, and now Detroit by far. This will be the farthest trip for Anaheim, and simply old hat for Detroit. The sickest part of it all is that the Eastern conference gets just as much time to rest as the West does.

It makes me sick too. Drew Sharp suggested that the NHL should mandate 2 days in between games for the Western conference, and I really wouldnt mind that. Yeah, it would suck for the Eastern conference to have to wait around for the West to catch up, but thats a lot easier than having to play 3 games in 75 hours like the Wings had to do in Round 1.

[ProfessorLidstrom5 0]

My 2 cents

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

Several points/comments...

It's a pain in the rear, even on us fans who have to stay up late when they go play in Moutain/Pacific times, but what can ya do? The Wings have been in the Western Conference since the early 90s, so this is nothing new to them.

Columbus has the same issues during the regular season, and I can guarantee they'd have as hectic/long a travel schedule in all likelihood if they made the playoffs.

Detroit isn't the only team with this issue.

Minnesota's closest rivals are either Colorado (Denver) or Calgary. Dallas' closet rival is Phoenix, and I think it's a safe bet that St. Louis and Nashville is a shorter trip from Dallas being in the same time zone. So, with overall travel throughout the year, Dallas and Minnesota probably have it worse than the Wings. Dallas had lengthy travel to Vancouver in the 1st round. If they went deep in the playoffs, they would have just a hectic travel schedule as Detroit is currently having.

Nobody from the Eastern Conference has traveled out of their time zone for the playoffs. The majority of teams in the NHL reside in the Eastern Time Zone (17 of 30), so nobody from there is ever going to have to leave their time zone in the playoffs until the SCF, unless those teams happen to be either Detroit or Columbus, assuming teams and alignment stay the same for the future.