July 22, 2013
There was much discussion after the release of the NHL's schedule and new divisional alignments about which teams benefited in terms of travel. The Red Wings, for example, were an obvious beneficiary, moving from the Western Conference to the East, where their travel mileage will be cut down significantly.
But SB Nation site On the Forecheck went the extra mile and actually calculated each team's travel distance for the season -- as it has for the past several seasons, actually -- and found that the Coyotes are among just two teams in the league that will log more than 50,000 travel miles this season.
The Sharks, also in the more-spread-out Pacific Division, will lead the NHL with 57,612 travel miles, a full 16,000 miles above the league average, while the Coyotes are second at 52,633.
It should be noted that this is not exactly a new thing for the Coyotes: Even in the old Pacific Division format -- when it didn't include three Canadian teams (the Canucks, Flames and Oilers) -- they traveled 49,192 and 53,843, respectively, in 2011-12 and 2010-11, the last two full NHL seasons. The Coyotes opened the 2010-11 season in Europe, though, skewing their total from the start, so the fact that they'll approach that total this year is indicative of a lot of continental travel.
In case you're wondering why, it's clearly a divisional-layout thing, as the next five teams on the list are as follows: the Avalanche, the Flames, the Ducks, the Canucks and the Stars, with all but the Avs in the Pacific.
-- Matt Swartz
