Latest episode<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThe league had obviously begun the scheduling process when that happened,\u201d said Oilers assistant general manager Bill Scott. \u201cand at the end of the day, TV ends up dictating our game times anyhow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it’s Toronto or Montreal that they want on in prime time, we’re going to be (scheduled) in different slots. Then, it\u2019s how many Canadian teams are playing that night? Where are they geographically?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe give TV our requests on when we would like to have our start times, but television ends up dictating it.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, what are going to notice the most when the time change doesn\u2019t happen on Nov. 1?<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Oilers have two 9 p.m. starts at home, both Saturdays \u2014 Nov. 7 v. Vancouver, and March 6 v. Chicago \u2014 but five road games where fans will have to wait until at least 9:08 Edmonton time for puck drop.<\/p>\n
\u2022 There are 11 games \u2014 five at home, six on the road \u2014 with start times of 8 or 8:30 p.m. MT<\/p>\n
\u2022 Here\u2019s a switch: Four Saturday games at Rogers Place, two at 2 p.m. and two at 2:30 p.m., start times that are unheard of for the Oilers on a Saturday.<\/p>\n
Just so you know, players, the training staff, sports writers\u2026 We all love day games.<\/p>\n
No morning skate, one trip to the rink, and home for dinner with the family.<\/p>\n
But a team\u2019s financial department hates day games, especially on a Saturday.<\/p>\n
Why? Because people don\u2019t eat and drink nearly as much for a day game as they would on a Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Sure, more kids can come to a Saturday afternoon game. But kids don\u2019t have money, and kids don\u2019t buy $20 beers.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the 9 p.m. starts that have the Oilers organization maneuvering to make sure they get their sleep cycles in order. Because hockey people are creatures of habit, and this is something altogether new.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s different,\u201d mused Oilers centre Jason Dickinson. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to adjust your preparation, change your nap time… Everything gets pushed back a little bit, and the day just feels soooo long. At the end of the day, the preparation is still the same. It\u2019s just the time on the clock that\u2019s different.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to move everything back a little bit,\u201d said Trent Frederic. \u201cMaybe go to bed a little bit later the night before, take your nap a little bit later. I haven’t done a 9 o\u2019clock start before, so maybe it will be a little trial and error on the first one. But I think I’m just going to move the clocks back and get my head thinking that when I wake up from my nap I\u2019ll do the same routine, so the time doesn’t even matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
The macro issue of the changing time zone affects the Oilers\u2019 travel \u2014 especially the decision on whether to fly home from a road trip immediately after the final game. You don\u2019t want to arrive home at 3 a.m. MT, have your players get to bed at 4 a.m. MT, and then get woken up by the kids at 8 a.m. MT.<\/p>\n
The Oilers are looking at their schedule and asking themselves: Maybe we should just stay over, get a proper sleep, and fly home the next day?<\/p>\n
\u201cWith California, we never flew home after a game, anyways. We lose the hour, and then it’s a three- to three-and-a-half-hour flight. You were getting in too late,\u201d explains Scott. \u201cThe trips where it plays a factor now are, you’re in St. Louis: It’s supposed to be a one-hour time difference. You’re supposed to gain an hour (coming home). Now, you don’t gain an hour, but it’s a four-hour flight back.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore, we\u2019d fly home and get in at two o’clock, 2:30 M.T. in the morning. Now you’re getting at three, 3:30 M.T. in the morning. That’s not great,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if it’s Philly (ET), now you’re only grabbing back one hour instead of two. You come home from Colorado, it used to be the same time. Now you lose an hour. (East of Edmonton) is where it’s had more of an influence, I would say.\u201d<\/p>\n
More of the day games that players love, but a few later nights \u2014 and an extra few days on the road that you didn\u2019t have in years past.<\/p>\n
Of course, Mike Babcock isn\u2019t falling over himself looking for excuses.<\/p>\n
Just tell him when the game starts, and get the heck out of his way.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, all that’s noise or outside stuff that doesn’t even matter,\u201d Babcock said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to eat a meal, and you\u2019ve got to have a nap, and you\u2019ve got to get ready to play. You\u2019ve got to be ready to go (no matter) timing.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery team in the league does it. So get used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Well, Oilers fan. We hope you enjoyed that California road trip, with its 8 or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":933103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-933102","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\/933102","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=933102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"32](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792008371_845_32-Thoughts-podcast-Elliotte-Friedman-Kyle-Bukauskas-640x360.jpg\")
32 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n