The Winter Olympics are coming to Vancouver in a couple of weeks, so the Canucks are leaving now - on a 14-game road trip.
And they won't return again until mid-March.
While security fences and Olympic banners went up and roads were closed amid the din of constant construction around General Motors Place the past month, the Canucks have been busy packing for an NHL record trip that begins Saturday in Toronto.
"You definitely have to pack more underwear, socks, shirts - everything," defenseman Christian Ehrhoff said. "And you really have to think about what you pack."
Further complicating the Canucks' Olympic Odyssey is a two-week break: The NHL will go on hiatus for the 2010 Games because many of its players will represent their countries.
Unlike the Calgary Flames, who went on an 11-game trip during the 1988 Calgary Olympics, and the Philadelphia Flyers, who were displaced by an ice show for 11 games in 2005-06, the Canucks view it as two trips.
They start with eight games over 18 days leading up to the Olympics and return from the break to play six games in nine nights shortly after the closing ceremonies.
"I get a chance to play a couple days in between here with a different team but it's going to be a tough stretch to be away that long, said Ehrhoff, who will represent Germany for a third time at the Olympics. "First of all it's tough being away from home that long, and then the travel isn't easy as well."
The opening ceremonies aren't until Feb. 12, and hockey doesn't start until four days later. But with media coming from all over the world, and more teams competing than there are locker rooms, the local organizing committee took the building over early.
So hours after wrapping up a four-game homestand Wednesday, the Canucks logo had already been scraped from beneath center ice and sponsor ads were removed from the boards as the transformation from General Motors Place to Canada Hockey Place began.
It's all part of a deal that earned the Canucks' ownership an $18.5 million payment up front and a rental fee of $110,000 a day.
The cost is the Canucks do not play a home game for 44 days. But for a West Coast team that went on a seven-game road trip and two six-game treks last season, the idea of traveling 12,500 miles over the next six weeks seems less daunting, even if they have been decidedly worse as the visitors.
Vancouver had an NHL-best 47 points at home (23-7-1) after sweeping a four-game stay with a 3-2 win over St. Louis Wednesday, but is just 10-11-1 on the road.
"We're used to traveling. I know a lot of people are making this to be a big issue, but it's just a road trip and we'll be fine," coach Alain Vigneault said, pointing to a 6-3-1 record the last 10 away games. "It is a long trip. It is a lot of games. But our game on the road has been a lot better lately."
So has their schedule, thanks in part to several meetings second-year General Manager Mike Gillis had with NHL officials to address travel concerns.
The first portion of this long trip kicks off in Toronto and stops in Ottawa and Montreal before veering south to Boston, then to Tampa Bay and Florida. The team then heads to Columbus and Minnesota.
It is certainly a more sensible route than a stint last season that saw them play in New York and Minnesota on consecutive nights with a return trip east for an afternoon game against Pittsburgh less than two days later.
"It's not too crazy," said goalie Roberto Luongo, who pulled his groin on the trip last season and missed two months. "Most flights except the first one are within an hour or two, so it's nothing too extreme."
Things get tougher after the Olympics, with two sets of back-to-backs during a stretch of six games in nine nights that starts in Columbus, where the team will have a minicamp a couple of days before the game.
The Canucks' seven Olympians - Luongo, Ehrhoff, Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Sami Salo, Ryan Kesler and Pavol Demitra - will travel together the day before the game.
Last season Gillis hired a fatigue management company to track the Canucks' sleep habits using bracelets that monitored circadian rhythms, or body cycles. They've since altered how and when they travel based on scientific formulas rather than personal preferences.
"If they think it's best on some nights to stay over, they know what they are talking about," Luongo said. "If it gives us a slight edge, why not?"
Vancouver starts the trip without top-4 defenseman Salo (groin), Willie Mitchell (concussion) and Kevin Bieksa (ankle). But Salo could return in the first few games, and they won half of a current six-game win streak without them.
With an impressive 9-1-0 record against Eastern Conference teams this year, the Canucks may be leaving their time zone, but not their comfort zone.
"It's going to be a long one, but it's going to be fun," Kesler said.
