{"id":819361,"date":"2026-07-22T20:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/819361\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T20:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:42:08","slug":"former-canucks-sleep-doctor-pat-byrne-on-vancouvers-2026-27-schedule-one-of-the-biggest-messes-ive-ever-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/819361\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Canucks sleep doctor Pat Byrne on Vancouver\u2019s 2026-27 schedule: \u2018One of the biggest messes I\u2019ve ever seen\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Canucks sleep doctor Pat Byrne on Vancouver\u2019s 2026-27 schedule: \u2018One of the biggest messes I\u2019ve ever seen\u2019<\/p>\n

Byrne said some of the criticism directed toward younger players doesn\u2019t account for how their bodies naturally function.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween early teens and early 20\u2019s, players have what\u2019s called an adolescent circadian rhythm,\u201d Byrne said. \u201cThey naturally stay up late and naturally sleep in, which doesn\u2019t change until you\u2019re about 22 or 23 years old. We criticize guys for gaming late into the night, but what else are they going to do?<\/p>\n

\u201cVideo games really aren\u2019t that bad, as long as they\u2019re not doing anything that stimulates the brain. The brain stimulation is what keeps you awake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing this for about 20 years now, and this is one of the biggest messes I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Byrne said. \u201cIt\u2019s very tricky. A lot of it has to do with the compressed schedule and time change in British Columbia. We\u2019re going to permanent daylight savings time, so a third of the games they\u2019ll play are on the schedule they\u2019ve always been used<\/a> to but two thirds of the season will be on the new schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really messes up road trips and the circadian rhythms of the players. The NHL gives and takes away, so the time change for two thirds of the season is actually better because there will only be a two-hour difference with the teams out East, but then there\u2019s nine home games that start at 8 p.m.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byrne also reflected on one of the changes he helped implement during his time with the Canucks: keeping the team overnight in road cities after back-to-back games instead of immediately flying home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is, many NHL teams do it now,\u201d Byrne said. \u201cA lot of the things we did were adopted, as was staying overnight after back-to-back games. The real issue is the Canucks frankly got screwed when we did that because the NHL adopted the \u2018day off\u2019 system where players get a few days off per month now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat didn\u2019t exist when we were with the Canucks. We essentially gave them a day off by staying over and their day off was flying back. Now, they have to give them a day off where they don\u2019t travel, so we invented a monster,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

While Byrne believes the NHL has made improvements to its scheduling over the years, he said there is still room for improvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NHL has almost figured that out but they\u2019re still a bit slow moving back into some time zones,\u201d Byrne said. \u201cIt obviously has a lot to do with availability of arenas so it\u2019s difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing the Canucks did when Gillis was there, they actually opened up Rogers Arena to the entire NHL. Any day, any time you want to go there they\u2019d open it up. At most other arenas where teams played, the owner of the arena would just give certain time slots for the games to be played.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked whether total travel distance is as significant as many fans believe, Byrne said the distance itself isn\u2019t the biggest issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe total amount of kilometres doesn\u2019t really matter,\u201d Byrne said. \u201cIt has to do with your direction of travel. Carolina for example, when they travel from the East to West, it\u2019s a circadian advantage for them and it\u2019s a disadvantage for Western teams going to the East. That shows up in every sports league in North America.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the time zone crossings that matter the most and the timing of the games. If Vancouver goes to New York and plays a 10 a.m. game, it really screws up their system. On a 10-day road trip, you\u2019re not feeling normal until maybe day four of that trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Canucks\u2019 2026-27 schedule<\/a> presents some unique challenges, Byrne points to managing travel, recovery and sleep habits as the catalyst for keeping the players performing at the top of their game.<\/p>\n

Watch the full interview with Byrne below!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

PRESENTED BY VIVID SEATS\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Canucks sleep doctor Pat Byrne on Vancouver\u2019s 2026-27 schedule: \u2018One of the biggest messes I\u2019ve ever seen\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-819361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}