For those who haven't seen it before, basically I have taken the schedule for every team in the WHL and figured out the distance, arena-to-arena, between each of their games. I've tried to take into consideration situations where a team would come home when they have a few days between road games, so that mileage is added in there as well. Add it all up, put it in this nice little chart, convert distances to both metric and Imperial measurement for the benefit of fans on both sides of the border, and you have an idea of how many miles (kilometers, eh?) each team in the WHL will put on their bus this upcoming season.
For the third year in a row, the WHL's travel champions are......the Prince George Cougars. And also for the third year in a row, Brandon comes second:
| Rank | Team | km | miles | change (km) | 2011-12 | 2010-11 |
| 1 | Prince George | 31450 | 19546 | 1931 | 29519 / 18342 (1) | 29816 / 18531 (1) |
| 2 | Brandon | 29834 | 18542 | 607 | 29227 / 18161 (2) | 28548 / 17743 (2) |
| 3 | Edmonton | 28235 | 17548 | 2355 | 25880 / 16081 (6) | 26931 / 16738 (4) |
| 4 | Kootenay | 28011 | 17409 | -235 | 28246 / 17551 (3) | 28124 / 17479 (3) |
| 5 | Prince Albert | 26946 | 16747 | 1662 | 25284 / 15711 (7) | 26785 / 16647 (6) |
| 6 | Spokane | 25829 | 16053 | 1806 | 24023 / 14927 (10) | 26856 / 16691 (5) |
| 7 | Medicine Hat | 25709 | 15978 | 1614 | 24095 / 14972 (9) | 24825 / 15429 (12) |
| 8 | Tri-City | 24634 | 15310 | -2269 | 26903 / 16717 (4) | 25602 / 15912 (8) |
| 9 | Portland | 24550 | 15258 | 1804 | 22746 / 14134 (12) | 25451 / 15818 (9) |
| 10 | Swift Current | 24367 | 15144 | 1617 | 22750 / 14136 (11) | 25757 / 16008 (7) |
| 11 | Saskatoon | 24175 | 15025 | 2610 | 21565 / 13400 (18) | 24441 / 15190 (14) |
| 12 | Red Deer | 23816 | 14802 | -495 | 24311 / 15106 (8) | 24465 / 15205 (13) |
| 13 | Kamloops | 23607 | 14672 | -2292 | 25899 / 16093 (5) | 25393 / 15782 (10) |
| 14 | Lethbridge | 23234 | 14440 | 536 | 22698 / 14104 (13) | 24957 / 15511 (11) |
| 15 | Regina | 22833 | 14191 | 952 | 21881 / 13596 (17) | 24111 / 14985 (15) |
| 16 | Kelowna | 22703 | 14110 | 634 | 22069 / 13713 (15) | 22346 / 13888 (20) |
| 17 | Victoria | 22410 | 13928 | 499 | 21911 / 13615 (16) | 19231 / 11952 (22) |
| 18 | Everett | 22283 | 13849 | 3000 | 19283 / 11982 (22) | 22447 / 13951 (18) |
| 19 | Vancouver | 21778 | 13535 | -497 | 22275 / 13841 (14) | 23096 / 14354 (16) |
| 20 | Seattle | 21693 | 13482 | 1436 | 20257 / 12587 (21) | 21913 / 13619 (21) |
| 21 | Calgary | 21358 | 13274 | 185 | 21173 / 13156 (20) | 22941 / 14258 (17) |
| 22 | Moose Jaw | 21108 | 13119 | -90 | 21198 / 13172 (19) | 22425 / 13937 (19) |
As you can see, for the most part there isn't a lot of movement year-over-year; simple geography dictates that isolated teams like Prince George and Brandon are going to have to travel a lot more distance than teams that are fairly close to one or two frequent opponents - the proximity of Seattle/Everett and Moose Jaw/Regina to one another helps keep those teams near the bottom of this chart every year, for example.
One thing that does stand out is the giant swings in distance traveled - many teams have increases or decreases from last year of over 2000+ km. But then, if you compare their distance this year to that of two years ago, in many cases it looks more similar. So at least a good chunk of these swings in distance can probably be explained by the WHL's alternating schedule for when the Central & Eastern divisions visit the U.S. division, and vice versa. Edmonton's distance is up 2300 km from last year, for example, but then last year they didn't make a trip to the U.S. teams - which are the furthest teams in the league from them - and this year they do.
Does all this mean anything, other than just being a "fun fact" kinda thing? Well, who knows. Common sense would tell us that a team that travels more will be more fatigued and might see a downturn in their play. Prince George travels the most, for example, and they have struggled on the ice far more years than they have been successful. But on the other hand, Brandon travels almost as much and they are perpetually one of the more competitive teams in the league. So I'm gonna state the obvious and say that while travel might be a factor, the strength of your roster is still far, far more important.
Anyway, enjoy....
6 comments:
You could also go vice versa and say teams who travel least might be less fatigued and see more success. But like you pointed out, roster makes the difference consider Seattle is a lesser traveled team and hasn't been too succesful the last few years.
For some fun perspective...
The equatorial circumference of the earth is 40,067 km.
I love these kind of comparisons.
For another one, the circumference of the Earth at the 49th parallel (the border between Canada and USA through the western half of the continent) is 26,341 km.
So five teams drive more than the equivalent of putting their bus on the Canada/USA border and driving completely around the Earth.
Surprised not to see victoria up near the top of the list. Did they not purchase a new bue that the players have bunk beds on. Looks like PG and Brandon should be purchasing this type of bus.
Yes, Victoria did purchase that bus.
Victoria is kind of a special case here because every single road game they play involves a ferry ride to the mainland first - and then another ferry ride when they return. The actual distance of the ferry ride may not be that much but it is a very time consuming way to travel. So while their distance traveled may not be as high as other teams, I'd venture that they might spend a lot more time actually traveling than some teams that log more actual miles.
As I understand it, their bunk-laden bus will make it easier for them to arrive at the ferry terminal at any time of day, and simply sleep there on the bus if they're required to wait overnight for the morning sailing. Smart move, really.
Victoria Royals Main Camp Roster:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AtwdL1284EzgdFktRHhUME81ZmpfLTRNdU15cGNralE&output=html
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