Don’t complain about the Flyers’ grueling early schedule. They asked for it. | Mike Sielski
Yep, the Flyers like hitting the West Coast — and, this year, Europe — in the season’s first two weeks.
The Flyers will begin their 2019-20 regular season on another continent, and the only things missing from their early schedule are Steve Martin, John Candy, and a couple of pillows that aren’t actually pillows.
As part of the NHL’s Global Series, the Flyers will play an exhibition game, their final one, in Lausanne, Switzerland, against Lausanne HC on Sept. 30, then travel to the Czech Republic to open the regular season on Oct. 4 against the Chicago Blackhawks at 02 Arena in Prague. From there, they will fly back to Philadelphia for their first home game, against the New Jersey Devils, on Oct. 9, then head to Western Canada for three games in five days before returning to the East Coast.
If you’re counting, that’s Philadelphia to Lausanne, Lausanne to Prague, Prague to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to Vancouver, Vancouver to Calgary, Calgary to Edmonton, and Edmonton back to Philadelphia: a total of nearly 13,600 miles over two-and-a-half weeks. That’s a lot of Dramamine to pack, and what makes that itinerary even stranger, at least at first glance, is that the Blackhawks, after Prague, will have seven consecutive home games.
If you’re a Flyers fan, you might be scratching your head at how this all worked out the way it did. You might think this schedule is so grueling as to be unfair — some fans already think that. You might worry that Carter Hart, the team’s promising, 20-year-old goaltender, will struggle to handle what seems a heavy early workload and that Brian Elliott, his 34-year-old backup, will be able to spell him only so much.
You might be wondering why the Flyers will have traveled west (last year’s trip was to Las Vegas and Denver) during the first week of each of their last four seasons. You might also wonder whether you can duck out of work early to catch the 2 p.m. Eastern time puck-drop of that game against the Blackhawks.
Here’s what you can’t do, though. You can’t feel sorry for the Flyers.
Why?
Because they asked for this.
In an email interview Thursday morning, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said that the league’s schedules are “constructed with the input and feedback of our clubs, particularly with respect to the timing and placement of West Coast road trips. The Flyers have requested the placement of this West Coast trip early in the season. The early West Coast trip has been a club preference over the time period you refer to.”
As for scheduling that trip so soon after crossing and re-crossing the Atlantic, Daly said, “Again we defer to the participating clubs in how they want to construct their schedules around departure from and return to North America. Some clubs want an extended stay at home upon their return. Other clubs want to ‘work their way back’ to their home cities following a European trip because they feel they can ‘check boxes’ in terms of their overall schedule requirements on the way.
"Still others approach it the way the Flyers will be approaching it this year. Clubs are always looking to maximize the competitive aspects of their schedules in the context of balancing all of the other things they need to balance, including booking their buildings, available dates, travel, schedule matrix requirements, etc. This situation was no different.”
Chuck Fletcher, who became the Flyers’ general manager in December, confirmed in a phone interview that he and the rest of the organization’s decision-makers had no problems with their players and coaches hoarding all those frequent-flyer miles so early in the season. In fact, he regarded it as a potential benefit.
The Flyers will have four off-days between the Blackhawks and Devils games, two between the Devils and Canucks games, two between the Canucks and Flames games, and two more between the Oilers game on Oct. 16 and their second home game of the season, against the Dallas Stars on Oct. 19. Fletcher pointed out that those six games could have been packed together more tightly, over a shorter span of time, than they already are.
“Frankly, to get that Western Canada trip over with, to me, is actually a good thing,” he said. “With the wear and tear of the season, sometimes you get that trip in the second half of the year, and it can really be a drag on your energy, and players are more susceptible to injury.
“I just feel with the way October is scheduled, with all the breaks, it’ll be demanding, but it’s always demanding when you go up there. I talked to [coach] Alain Vigneault about it, and I think we feel comfortable, particularly early in the season, that we’ll be able to have the energy to play well in those games.”
If it turns out they don’t, they’ll have no one to blame but themselves.