{"id":501349,"date":"2026-10-19T20:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T20:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/501349\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T20:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T20:06:08","slug":"anaheim-ducks-get-through-a-15-hour-travel-day-with-nfl-redzone-and-some-card-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/501349\/","title":{"rendered":"Anaheim Ducks get through a 15-hour travel day with NFL RedZone and some card games"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Getting to the East Coast for their road trip this week involved the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> changing airports, switching planes, sitting on the tarmac and arriving at their hotel after 2 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a long shift,\u201d coach Joel Quenneville said.<\/p>\n

Quenneville, a hockey lifer, watched football \u2014 a lot of it \u2014 thanks to NFL RedZone. Rookie Roger McQueen<\/a> and some of the younger guys played cards. All in all, it was a 15-hour travel ordeal Sunday for the Ducks that was less than ideal as the delays were unfolding but something they hope will turn out to be a valuable bonding experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou spend tons of time with each other, and something like yesterday could be one of those moments where it could bring everybody together,\u201d Quenneville said Monday after the team’s morning skate at Madison Square Garden. \u201cThey handled it like pros, and so here we are today. Let\u2019s play hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars were on the field in London when Anaheim players, coaches and staff departed for John Wayne Airport in Orange County. The 1 p.m. Eastern slate was well underway by the time they changed course to Los Angeles International Airport to meet their rerouted plane.<\/p>\n

Were there doubts about getting to the New York area?<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure,” defenseman Jackson LaCombe<\/a> said. \u201cWe had no idea what was going on for a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

They were on the plane to see the Pittsburgh Steelers come back to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and were still sitting there by the time the preseason Super Bowl favorite Los Angeles Rams lost to the Arizona Cardinals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe watched a lot of football games,\u201d forward Cutter Gauthier<\/a> said. “Pretty much every single one of them. That killed our time nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mechanical issues led to them needing a different charter plane, which did not take off until after the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers kicked off in primetime at Lambeau Field. That plane landed at 1:45 a.m., and players were on the ice before 11:30.<\/p>\n

\u201cTried to enjoy it on the bus with the guys, play some cards,\u201d said McQueen, who made his NHL debut last week. “A lot of phone (time). But we tried to play some cards. Didn\u2019t really finish any of our games \u2014 well, actually, one of them. No, it was good. Some more time with the guys. Delays aren\u2019t fun, but you take what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was new for the likes of McQueen and Gauthier and old hat for some of the veterans. Captain Mikael Granlund<\/a> called it part of the game, and the Ducks don’t want to use travel trouble as an excuse when they face the New York Rangers<\/a> and Islanders, New Jersey Devils<\/a> and Philadelphia Flyers<\/a> before turning around and going home.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re ready to go,” defenseman Nick Jensen<\/a> said. \u201cThere\u2019s something to the mentality where it\u2019s just like, \u2018We\u2019re here, let\u2019s do this.\u2019 Like, it doesn\u2019t matter. We\u2019re showing up. Yeah, yesterday wasn\u2019t fun, but we made it, we\u2019re a good team and everyone\u2019s kind of in the same position.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

\n See AP\u2019s full NHL coverage here\n <\/p>\n

Stephen Whyno, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Getting to the East Coast for their road trip this week involved the Anaheim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,127],"class_list":["post-501349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}