The Canadian | CH and sleep management

The Canadian had the chance to face the Blue Jackets on Saturday who were playing a second game in 24 hours. The longer the game went on, the more Columbus looked like a team that was looking for its legs.

With the Habs, it was quite the opposite. “We had a light off-ice practice in Minnesota on Friday and the guys looked good tonight. In any case, I felt good! “, said Jake Evans after the match.

After Thursday’s match, CH in fact extended its stay in Minnesota. Rather than jumping on the plane and returning to Montreal in the middle of the night, the flight took place during the day.

This choice by Montrealers is part of a new approach to travel this season. It was in fact the third time that they had stayed in the city where they were playing to spend the night.

• On October 31, the team slept in Washington and trained there the next day at noon, before heading to Pittsburgh. Next game: 3-1 loss to the Penguins.
• On November 9, the team slept in Toronto and trained there the next day at noon, before heading to Buffalo. Next game: 7-5 victory against the Sabres.
• On November 14, the team slept in Minnesota and held an off-ice practice there the next morning, before returning to Montreal. Next game: 5-1 victory against the Blue Jackets.

Let us first point out that in the past, it still happened from time to time that the team opted for such an approach. Minnesota’s return, for example, sometimes took place after the match, sometimes the next day.

What is new is that the players wanted to push the thinking. We feel a certain restraint in going into details, but we understand that captain Nick Suzuki, his assistant Mike Matheson as well as veteran David Savard were notably part of the discussions.

“We talked to management about it at the end of the season,” confirms Suzuki. In Washington, I was able to go to bed even before the time we would have landed in Pittsburgh. So I was able to sleep longer. I don’t know if it had to do with the ice hours in Pittsburgh, but either way it was nice to be in bed before midnight and get a good night’s sleep. »

Savard had experienced such a change with the Blue Jackets. “Our performance director had made this request. A good night’s sleep after a match is much more restorative,” Savard remembers.

Last year, some seemingly questionable choices were made, including a flight to St. Louis after a Thursday game in Arizona. The team arrived at the hotel around 5 a.m., didn’t practice on Friday and got thrashed 6-3 by the Blues on Saturday.

“I took that flight east a lot when I was playing for the Coyotes [de l’Arizona]remembers striker Christian Dvorak. It’s a three-hour flight plus the time change. It messes up your biological clock, it can take you two days to get over it. »

“Sometimes we did things like that that didn’t make sense. If we’re doing all the other things to help us, why not do that too? “, Matheson recalled.

The science behind the idea

It is important to understand that even for short flights, the cumbersome logistics make it difficult to fly before 11:30 p.m.

A match at 7 p.m. will conclude around 9:40 p.m. This is followed by interviews in the locker room and the coach’s press briefing, simultaneously with a short post-match training. It’s then time for a shower, before jumping on the coach which takes the team to the airport. In some cities, like Edmonton, the drive from the arena to the airport takes a good half hour. The departure operation can be even more tedious if there is a change of country, and therefore customs control.

At the end of the line, you can practically smell the D^r Jonathan Charest, assistant professor at the University of Calgary and Université Laval and sleep specialist, is tearing his hair out.

“The flight doesn’t take off until midnight. Even though the planes are very comfortable, the players do not sleep as well as in their beds, arriving at the hotel at 2:30 a.m. and going to bed at 4 a.m. This therefore results in a broken night, which is very bad for the circadian rhythm, the biological clock.

“Sleeping twice for four hours doesn’t work. Players are treated like shift workers, like CN employees, like nurses. No one is optimal in these conditions! And we ask them to perform. It shows how fit these athletes are,” continues the D^r Charest.

This Quebecer who also worked at the University of Calgary has acted as a consultant for a few NHL teams over the years.

“I tell them: go straight to the hotel. You arrive at midnight and you can have a decent night’s sleep. Plus, if you have veterans who have children, they’re happy, because it’s like a night off. But your leaders must also ensure that young people do not go out in the evening! »

However, these possible solutions are not unanimous. “If the next city is close, I prefer to take the plane after the match,” says forward Alex Newhook. It often takes a long time to calm down after a match, so if you can’t sleep before 1:30 or 2 a.m., you might as well travel straight away. Otherwise, I like to stay in the city where we play. »

Matheson, however, does not see things the same way. “When we stay in the city, it gives a lot more time at the arena, because we’re not expected on the bus 30 minutes after the game. So you have time to train, do your cool down, take an ice bath. You come back to the hotel, you eat and you go to sleep. It’s better than rushing to get on a plane. »

Obviously, for a combination of factors, it is impossible for teams to always sleep in the city where the match took place. In a series of two games in two nights, for example, the NHL asks clubs to travel after the first of two games, to avoid doing so on the same day of a game. The availability of ice rinks can also guide decisions.

The Habs will repeat the experience a few times between now and the end of the year. It will be interesting to see if practices change further over the years.