From planes to elevators, NHL road trips have a new look (2024)

Walk down the aisle of a charter plane carrying an NHL team and you would likely find the coaching staff huddled in the front rows discussing their team’s play.

A few seats behind them, you’d find rows of players in comfortable leather seats. Some of them passed out still wearing their headphones. Others eating one of the in-flight meals or snacking on something small. There is a chance they could be watching a movie or reading a book. A few of them could be arguing about their fantasy football teams. And another group playing cards.

That’s in a typical season. And, the 2020-21 season is anything but typical.

Today if Avalanche forward Tyson Jost, who lives on his own in Denver, pulls up at Whole Foods and sees a large crowd of people, the 22-year-old just heads home.

Hurricanes players are always keeping an eye on each other. If anyone is spotted without a mask, at least one person will loudly yell, “MASK!” They want to hold each other in check but not make it a personal attack.

“I’m just staying at home and trying to stay away from people,” Jost said. “That’s just kind of the dialogue that’s in the dressing room, too. It’s just to try and stay away from places and be as smart as you can. Like when it comes to going on planes and stuff like that, I think that’s pretty safe. … But it is the things outside of the rink and kind of away this little bubble of hockey and being at the rink, it’s just the other things that can really catch up to you and you gotta be smart about that.”

One of the most daunting questions facing the NHL heading into this season was how to handle travel. The NHL created a 13-page travel protocol document to establish guidelines. It covers everything and then some. Air travel. Bus travel. Hotel stays. What teams will do for meals. Whether or not it is better to use elbows and knuckles or fingers to press an elevator button. Even strongly urging teammates sitting next to each other on a team plane to not eat at the same time.

Only certain personnel are permitted to travel. Everyone on the trip must adhere to local rules and regulations in addition to league guidelines. And unless there are extenuating circ*mstances, everyone must use team-provided transportation.

Every team is responsible for providing masks, hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes to all members of the traveling party, according to the NHL. The league also demands everyone wear masks at all times during travel, and frequently clean and/or disinfect their hands and high-touch surfaces — a process repeated whenever players enter the team hotel, the visiting arena, the plane, the bus, or touch luggage, hotel key cards, remote controls, phones, airplane seatbelts and tray tables.

“I think for guys that have been around the league a little bit, everyone has their routines, their habits and their gameday stuff,” said Capitals forward Tom Wilson, whose team was on the road on opening night. “That all gets altered a little bit. You have to adjust on the fly a little bit more. … When you show up to the rink, maybe it’s wearing a mask a little bit more. But other than that, we can focus on playing hockey and the meals and the flights and everything has been great so far.”

The NHL also has individual sections covering what is required for air travel, buses and hotels with great detail. The section on airplanes lists how players will sit in assigned seats, that they shall remain seated for the whole flight unless it is to use the bathroom, and to avoid eating and drinking at the same time as others in the same row. The section for buses details how teams will have at least two buses with each bus filled at no more than 50 percent capacity, with no eating or drinking on the bus.

Perhaps the most detailed guidelines were reserved for the team hotel. It is more than four-pages long, covering everything from housekeeping, equipment and luggage, to food and beverage service and elevator usage. For example, the elevator guidelines state that teams have a designated elevator that may be subject to capacity limits and have floor markers. And, the use of stairs is preferred to avoid close contact. The NHL also suggests using knuckles or elbows and not fingers to press elevator buttons; not entering crowded elevators; not lingering or standing around in a crowded elevator bank; and not talking to others while in the elevator.

“I’ve found myself using my elbow to hit the elevator today and I hit two other floors and I have to get better at that,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “There’s Purel outside our rooms, I think, at the hotel we’re at here. This is my first time and I’m not the experienced one who has the answers. There are definitely things that are in play that are a little bit different. For instance, the bus unloads in Buffalo, it’s usually a lot quicker for guys to get their keys and get to their rooms. But with the limited amount of space in elevators, it just takes a little bit longer.”

Usually, communications and team services personnel have a little more than two months to book hotels, secure busing options and reaffirm their status with their charter flight partners.

This season they had a handful of weeks between when the schedule was released in late December to opening night on Jan. 13.

“Everything was a little more crunched,” Hurricanes vice president of communications and team services Mike Sundheim said. “We had protocols that we had to try to weave through and understand how those things were necessary to keep us safe and allow us to have a season that is continuous. That way, we would not be worried about canceling games because we are doing the right things and our players are doing the right things.”

Sundheim said getting everything coordinating meant working with his counterparts throughout the Central Division to have every team staying in the same hotel in each city. That way, every team could be assured that all the hotels were familiar with the NHL’s protocols. The same collaboration was done with bus companies in each city, while each team was responsible for handling its own charter flight arrangements.

“You’re in a situation in which a lot of hotels aren’t even operating right now,” Sundheim said. “We had to go through and figure out which properties were even open or consider being open for even us and NBA teams. We did collaborate even on the bus companies, too. A lot of it is about trying to limit the amount of people your whole league is exposed to and what precautions those companies are using to see their employees safe and in turn, keep us safe.”

Another important item? Finding available ice that met NHL guidelines in the event a visiting team needed to practice beyond the typical morning skate. Normally, a visiting team can practice at a nearby rink either on a college campus or a public location. There are even times when visiting teams skate at the home team’s practice facility or the arena depending upon the schedules. The challenge facing teams this season was securing a rink with limited exposure.

It gets even more complicated in cities that have the NBA and the NHL, as there would be less availability at the arena. Sundheim said the NBA also has strict protocols, and it’s why the Blackhawks, Lightning, Red Wings and Stars have committed themselves to helping visiting teams book practice ice.

Sundheim and his cohorts around the league also had to rethink how they approach road trips. Playing a host team twice in three days means the visiting team could spend at least three days in a hotel.

Because of these longer stays, teams had to consider the need for outdoor space, and the temptation of having restaurants and shops nearby to explore. Sundheim said the Hurricanes went away from hotels in mixed-use shopping districts because of the temptation to leave the hotel, and instead favored hotels with a lot of open space around them so players could get outside without a high risk of exposure.

Isolation is only part of the equation. Sundheim said the discussions with hotels centered around whether or not they could commit to having certain floors dedicated to just the team; if they would be willing to grant exclusive access to gyms for set blocks of time; and if they had space for a designated meal room, along with sizable meeting rooms for coaches and players.

“In the cities we are going to, there is going to be temptation and it is up to all of us to guard against that,” Sundheim said. “Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, Dallas and Nashville are places that are pretty wide open and there certainly are options for putting yourself in a situation that you could not be in within the context of the world. At the end of the day, it’s up to all of us to be personally responsible and not endanger our teams or the league with what we do in our free time.”

“I think now it is going to be pretty simple; there’s not much to it,” Canucks forward Adam Gaudette said. “You have to stay in your room and hang out with a close-knit group of guys. Obviously, it’s a lot different. With a regular road trip, you could hop right off the bus and go get a bite to eat. It’s not going to be like that right now and it might be a little bit of a grind mentally, but we all have each other and we’ll stick together. We’re here to play hockey and we’re not really here to go out and explore clubs and restaurants. We all have a job at hand and we’re all working for the same goal.”

Charter jets are a common staple of NHL team travel. Every team uses a service. Every Canadian team is partnered with Air Canada. The Avalanche previously used Air Canada but will use Delta this season, a team spokesman confirmed, because of the closed border.

A dozen NHL teams are part of the new joint venture between iAero Group and Private Jet Services. Much has been said about how the commercial airline industry has financially struggled since the pandemic began. Conversely, Private Jet Services CEO Greg Raiff said the private airline sector has faced its highest demand in years as a result.

Why? Control.

“Nobody wants to fly on an airline with someone they don’t know,” Raiff said. “These flights for teams, entertainers, they go through a FBO, meaning a fixed-based operator. It’s expensive. … These things are widely in demand. People think of private aviation as caviar and champagne. It’s not that at all. It allows you to control who else is on the plane with you.”

Teams flying with iAero-PJS will have three flight attendants, two pilots and a concierge. Raiff said those flight crews will remain at an airport hotel separate from the teams to limit interaction. iAero-PJS also has a contact-tracing program that can be used in the event of a positive test.

NHL teams will also be traveling with COVID-19 testers. That means the teams, their support staff and those involved in transporting the teams should have regular access to testing on every trip. iAero-PJS have dedicated five planes for the 12 NHL teams that are using their services this season. Raiff said each plane will be cleaned and sterilized immediately after every flight.

An Air Canada spokesman said the seven Canadian teams will each have a dedicated flight attendant crew for the full season. Those flight attendants, at the request of the teams, are being tested 48 hours prior to each flight. So far, those teams have not asked for the pilots to be tested as there will be no contact between them and the team. Some of the teams have also asked Air Canada if the crew can stay at the same hotel and Air Canada will fulfill that request.

The flight crews for Air Canada, iAero-PJS or the other charter providers will be required to wear masks and gloves throughout the duration of the flight, according to NHL protocol. It is also recommended that flight attendants place food items, hand sanitizer, masks and gloves in each seat. The guidelines also call for a limited amount of in-flight catering, along with the distribution and clean up of food and beverage to avoid interactions and touchpoints. In the cases of short flights, it is asked that in-flight catering not be used at all. Also, items such as single-use utensils, napkins, plates, condiments and hand wipes will be provided and then disposed of after each meal.

Air Canada’s planes are equipped with HEPA filters, which effectively capture 99.9 percent of particulates from recirculated air in the aircraft’s cabin. That includes microbial organisms such as bacteria and viruses. It is a filter similar to what is used in hospital rooms with the cabin air being refreshed 20-to-30 times per hour.

While private aircraft will move teams from city to city, charter buses will move them around within the city in most cases. Maryann Bellissima, the regional sales director for Academy Bus Lines, said some routes such as New York to Philadelphia or Washington to Philadelphia are short enough that some teams will travel by bus instead of using a plane.

“We’re going to see more bus travel than we’ve had in the past with NHL teams,” she said. “In the past, they have always used one to two buses. Now they are using two to three buses. That is primarily because of COVID and they mandated a 50 percent passenger capacity on each bus.”

NHL protocols state each person will be assigned a two-person seat on the bus for the duration of each trip. In other words? Once a player has been assigned to a seat, that is where they are staying for the remainder of the trip.

There will be no eating or drinking on the bus. Drivers, in addition to wearing a mask, either have to be separated by a physical barrier such as plexiglass or passengers must sit at least six feet behind the driver. It is also mandated that buses be cleaned and disinfected before teams re-board the bus during their trip. Furthermore, bus drivers will remain in a separate area and will not interact with other people, while also adhering to the NHL/NHLPA requirements for cleaning, disinfecting and hygiene.

“In the past, our drivers … would open the luggage bays and they would help,” Bellissima said. “This time, due to COVID, our driver being the first person off the bus will open the luggage bays and he will stand back six feet or more and everyone is going to handle their own luggage. Once everyone is inside the hotel, he will then walk back over to the bus, he will close the luggage bay doors and either stand by, depending upon what the itinerary tells him, or he will be finished for the day.”

One of the conversations Bellissima had with teams was about testing. Academy told NHL teams that it would have its drivers undergo PCR testing prior to picking up the team. Bellissima said most teams agreed to have Academy administer a PCR test and that once a driver has arrived the team could then have the driver do another COVID-19 test at the team hotel.

Academy busses also have the highest efficiency air filters available on the market, according to Bellissima, and fresh-air intake ventilation.

“I think the bubble prepared us well or what’s coming now,” Avalanche goaltender Philipp Grubauer explained. “But even now, we are not in the bubble anymore. We are traveling to different cities and we are not stuck in one place anymore. It’s going to be important. Even at home. We just can’t go out to dinner or can’t have friends come in or even go out to dinner with friends. You gotta be really cautious with what you do and you almost have to be a step ahead of everything. You can’t meet with somebody who is not part of the team almost.

“Even going on the road, you can’t sit at a table with too many guys even though we got tested. Because if one guy gets infected, what are the chances other people get it? You’ve always gotta be cautious and make sure you wear your mask and do the right things.”

(Top photo of Alex Ovechkin: Mark Blinch / NHLI via Getty Images)