This system comes in handy upon\u00a0conclusion\u00a0of any road trip.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Kraken can play a night game in Winnipeg, then arrive back in Seattle, clear customs and be home in bed by 1:30 a.m. That allows them to wake up at a\u00a0relatively normal\u00a0time and be at the Kraken Community\u00a0Iceplex\u00a0for a noon or afternoon practice if needed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Teams often try not to schedule practices right after completing a road\u00a0trip\u00a0but skipping too many can\u00a0impact\u00a0performance. Eventually, even with first class travel and five-star\u00a0accomodations, the road schedule wears players down\u00a0mentally and physically since they are also grinding through games and practices while adjusting to time zone changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me personally, I do a lot of stretching postgame,\u201d Kraken winger Jared McCann, 30, said. \u201cI feel like as\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0gotten older, I need to stretch out a lot more, ride the bike to flush out the lactic acid.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the short games, where\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0only a 45-minute flight or an hour, I feel like it\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0affect me too\u00a0bad.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0the long flights that get me, where\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0in the air for hours.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
McCann will try to walk around on the plane during those longer flights. He also wears compression socks and pants to help lessen the inflammation on his legs, which have given him a variety of physical problems over the years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0used to extensive travel, having done it with the Vancouver Canucks when he first broke into the league a decade ago. He also had a heavy travel load with the Soo Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League in his pre-NHL junior playing days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMentally, I\u2019m kind of used to it,\u201d McCann said. \u201cI mean, we play cards together on the plane.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0always thinking and doing things, so that makes the flight go by a little quicker. But physically, once you get past the midway point of the season, it starts to catch up to you a little bit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, any bit of team help is appreciated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Getting external help\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In cities where the Kraken\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0stay close to an arena, team services director Baxandall will often flip open his contact list of state troopers or county sheriff\u2019s department officers and request a police escort. Those have come in handy getting to games in rush hour traffic in places such as Long Island, New York, New Jersey,\u00a0Florida\u00a0and Anaheim.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the\u00a0inaugural\u00a0Kraken season, their bus from Manhattan to Long Island took two hours and saw players arrive at the arena barely\u00a090 minutes\u00a0before game time. It was a learning experience they\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0repeated.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Baxandall also keeps a detailed notebook of all hotel experiences good and\u00a0bad\u00a0so he knows what\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0dealing with when it comes to booking an ensuing season\u2019s travel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve tried new hotels that are home\u00a0runs\u00a0and we go there every time,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0tried hotels in a pinch where\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0like, \u2018OK, we got through that but we\u2019re not going back.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Often, the ability of a\u00a0hotel\u2019s\u00a0staff to handle a professional team will come into play. Some are better suited than others, but the team\u2019s needs \u2013 and ability to win the next game \u2013 must be a priority for the hotel\u00a0in order for\u00a0them to\u00a0keep getting\u00a0repeat Kraken business.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
And it is often a good deal for the hotel, filling multiple floors of rooms during quieter winter periods while also having the prestige that hosting an NHL team such as the Kraken can bring their marketing department.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0easy. The Kraken\u00a0require\u00a0private rooms for meetings, team\u00a0meals, player medical\u00a0treatments\u00a0and fitness training. They often need 24-hour room service if arriving in the middle of the night and a strong concierge staff to direct players around\u00a0town\u00a0so precious down time\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0squandered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This system comes in handy upon\u00a0conclusion\u00a0of any road trip.\u00a0\u00a0 The Kraken can play a night game in Winnipeg,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-834085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}