Voyaging in 2024-2025: the CH is the 3rd team in the East that travels the most.

All NHL teams travel extensively in a season to face each of the 31 other teams in the league at least once abroad.

Obviously, this presents a huge puzzle for the league in terms of creating the schedule and timetable for each team.

Sometimes it is necessary to combine games in sequence when they are in the same region to make it logical, but sometimes this is not the case.

We must also remember that amidst all this, we have to consider the availability of different NHL arenas and ensure there are no scheduling conflicts with another sport or event/concert.

Each team therefore has its own itinerary in a season, sometimes involving quite illogical arrangements.

In short, all 32 teams travel a lot during the season, but some cover significantly more distance than others.

What’s especially noticeable this year is the almost 17,000 kilometers of travel difference between the Montreal Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators.

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How is this possible?

How can such a distance of travel separate two teams that are only two hours apart by road?

The Canadiens are the 13th team in terms of kilometers traveled this season with 43,300, while the Senators are 31st with 32,800 kilometers.

Yet, Ottawa is the city with the closest NHL team to Montreal.

Clearly, there has been better scheduling organization for the Senators than for the Canadiens.

And we know this; we’ve been able to note it over the past few weeks, even a month.

  • On December 14, the Canadiens made a round trip to Winnipeg to face the Jets and then returned directly to Montreal for a game at the Bell Centre against the Buffalo Sabres.
  • On December 29, the Canadiens flew from Tampa Bay to Vegas to face the Golden Knights on the 31st.
  • On December 3, the Canadiens were in Chicago and then faced the Avalanche in Colorado the very next day, with three hours of flight separating the two cities.
  • Last Friday, December 10, the Canadiens went to Washington for a simple round trip before playing the next day at the Bell Centre against the Dallas Stars.

In short, it’s a very questionable schedule.

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The Canadiens are actually the third team in the entire Eastern Conference that travels the most this season, only behind the two teams from Florida, which logically, considering their geographical position (very far South), are in the top 10.

Ultimately, this shouldn’t change much, and seriously, as Canadiens fans, especially right now, we can’t complain about travel and road games.

It is partly due to tough away games against strong teams that the Canadiens began their incredible streak since December 17.

It remains interesting to note just how significant the difference in kilometers traveled can be between two teams that are supposedly so close.

In Brief

– Indeed.

– Worth reading.

– Interesting.

– Noteworthy.

– This will be worth following next season.