NHL Travel Miles: The 2015-2016 Super Schedule Released
The 2015-16 Super Schedule is here.
In what's become an annual tradition at OTF, former Czar Dirk Hoag has compiled a list of total travel miles and back-to-backs for each NHL team, as well as their comparison from last year. Each column is sortable by clicking on the heading.
| Team | 2015-16 Miles | 2015-16 B-to-B | 2014-15 Miles | 2014-15 B-to-B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose Sharks | 50,362 | 14 | 45,318 | 11 |
| Edmonton Oilers | 49,401 | 9 | 45,597 | 11 |
| Dallas Stars | 48,419 | 12 | 48,216 | 12 |
| Calgary Flames | 48,341 | 12 | 38,874 | 10 |
| Vancouver Canucks | 45,711 | 13 | 45,173 | 12 |
| Anaheim Ducks | 44,653 | 11 | 46,967 | 13 |
| Los Angeles Kings | 43,750 | 13 | 44,100 | 9 |
| Colorado Avalanche | 42,901 | 10 | 44,167 | 12 |
| Winnipeg Jets | 42,380 | 12 | 42,027 | 9 |
| Florida Panthers | 41,891 | 14 | 42,786 | 12 |
| Carolina Hurricanes | 41,558 | 16 | 40,800 | 16 |
| Minnesota Wild | 40,976 | 15 | 41,178 | 13 |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | 40,974 | 13 | 37,221 | 12 |
| St. Louis Blues | 40,649 | 12 | 38,965 | 14 |
| Arizona Coyotes | 40,504 | 15 | 49,818 | 13 |
| Montreal Canadiens | 39,947 | 16 | 37,135 | 16 |
| Chicago Blackhawks | 39,332 | 13 | 40,074 | 15 |
| Ottawa Senators | 38,796 | 14 | 33,421 | 13 |
| Boston Bruins | 38,236 | 11 | 38,938 | 16 |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | 37,602 | 18 | 35,139 | 19 |
| Nashville Predators | 36,971 | 12 | 42,096 | 11 |
| New Jersey Devils | 36,271 | 12 | 33,597 | 18 |
| New York Rangers | 36,089 | 17 | 36,113 | 13 |
| Washington Capitals | 35,487 | 13 | 36,487 | 16 |
| New York Islanders | 35,015 | 15 | 33,214 | 16 |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 34,811 | 15 | 31,272 | 14 |
| Buffalo Sabres | 34,201 | 15 | 37,022 | 19 |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 33,880 | 16 | 34,020 | 18 |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | 33,660 | 17 | 32,444 | 17 |
| Detroit Red Wings | 33,487 | 17 | 34,179 | 12 |
As always, Dirk has gone above and beyond and also included an even more detailed Google Spreadsheet. It includes each team's schedule, the number of miles from one destination to the next, number of days in between games and more. Feel free to reference it for your own analysis of your team's schedule.
A few observations:
- After traveling the 10th most miles last year, Nashville is the only Western Conference squad of the 10 least traveling teams. They cut their 82-game journey down by almost 5,000 miles. They'll also play one more back-to-back than they did last year.
- Arizona (the most mobile team last year) and Calgary see the most significant change. The Coyotes cut their travel down by almost 10,000 miles, while the Flames see an increase by about that much. Mark Giordano will probably skate about half of those.
- Sorry, Columbus. You have the most back-to-back games again this year. Consolation? It's still one less than last year.
- Detroit and Pittsburgh travel the fewest miles, but both are tied for the second-most in B2B's (along with the Rangers) at 17. So I guess it evens out?
- Speaking of New York, they actual cut their travel by 24 miles. We still eagerly await the day when a team somehow travels exactly the same as they did the year before.
- Washington will be hanging a banner for "Round Number Champions." They decrease exactly 1,000 miles from last year.
- And the San Jose Sharks are the
suckerswinners of this year's Super Schedule! What the heck, you can hang a banner too.
Huge thanks to Dirk for putting this together again! He still occasionally writes words on his website.