And so the big trip begins.
It’s time for the Kings’ annual Grammy Awards trip, as they wander the eastern U.S. for two weeks to make room for Justin Timberlake. This time around, the trip is so big that it not only includes eight games, but appears to have dragged the Ducks along for the ride. (Even though the Honda Center has nothing to do with the Grammys, the NHL presumably didn’t want to send opponents to Southern California for just one game.)
This year, the trip includes seven games in the Eastern Time Zone — “We’re looking forward to seeing how the other half of the league lives,� said coach Marc Crawford — and is broken up by the team’s ability to settle into the New York area for a few days. With games against the Islanders, Devils and Rangers over a six-day period, they’ll actually settle into the same Times Square hotel for five nights, and won’t have to get onto an airplane for a full week. (They’ll have two nights where they stay put after a game — unusual for a road trip — staying in Philadelphia after tonight’s game before busing to Long Island, and staying on Long Island Thursday night before busing into Manhattan.)
In general, as Crawford notes, the schedule — which also takes the team to Detroit, Pittsburgh, Columbus and St. Louis — is relatively kind.
“The games are spread out on this trip,� he said. “We’ve only one back-to-back� — Pittsburgh and Columbus — “and it’s an afternoon and an evening game, so really, we have an extra half-day between which makes it not that taxing.�
Which is not to say it’s easy. Crawford notes it will probably the longest road trip most of his players have been on — “It’s one of the longest I’ve ever been involved in,� he said, “and I played in Vancouver where we routinely had two-week road trips� — and veteran forward Derek Armstrong says simply, “It’s tough.
“You’ve got to take it for what it’s worth,� he says. “You try to bond with the guys a little bit, and check the movie schedule to see what’s come out the last couple months.
“It’s definitely tough on the brain, but when you look at the schedule in October, you know it’s coming.�
Before the all-star break, Crawford indicated it was likely the Kings would be making some personnel moves to provide some depth for the long march.
“You’d like to have a number of people to draw on,� he said. “We haven’t had an extra player here since Christmas. … So from that standpoint, we’ve talked about personnel and what we’d like to have.�
And, he said, there are likely to be a few team activities on some of the off-days.
“I think we’ll do something with the Super Bowl,� he said. “It’s the second year in a row we’re in a city that either has the Super Bowl (or is involved) — we were in Miami last year, and this year we’ll be in New York which I’m sure will be a hotbed of Super Bowl activity. …
“We’ve planned a number of things for our guys and for our team.�
The Kings’ next home game is Feb. 15 against Calgary. They play the next night in Phoenix, then return home for three games.
Anaheim’s trip: The Ducks’ trip, which now will feature Teemu Selanne, who announced his return Monday, includes six of the eight teams the Kings will play — Anaheim goes to Minnesota and Colorado instead of Pittsburgh and Columbus — and also allows for a long stay in New York City. After their Feb. 2 game in Philadelphia, the team has two off days before playing the Islanders, Rangers and Devils in a four-day period.
While personnel was the first thing on Crawford’s mind going into the trip, game preparation was the foremost trip preparation for Ducks coach Randy Carlyle.
“We’ve done a little pre-scouting on the opposition,� he said, referring specifically to the four Atlantic Division teams, “because we haven’t had a chance to play against them. So we’ve had our pro scouts go in to give us a little bit of a pre-scout on paper.
“We’ll do some more work, but other than than that, we’ve got video and we’ve had people at three or four games. We’ll do our evaluation, but I think it’s more important for us that, yeah, we respect the opposition and recognize things they do well, but it’s more important to focus on the things we can do well.�
Carlyle, who has always believed in team-building activities on an extended trip — most famously a practice on a frozen canal in Ottawa — said there is likely to be “something along that line.� There’s also going to be a fairly significant field trip, although the team has not yet been cleared to announce details.
Bye week: There won’t be a notebook next week, since I’ll be on a road trip of my own, but look for the next edition to appear online Feb. 11.