Life On The Road: The American Hockey League's Toughest Opponet

From overnight sleeper-bus rides and missed flights to forgotten passports, life on the road in the American Hockey League is anything but predictable. Perhaps the toughest opponent for teams in the AHL isn't the competition on the ice, but the journey from one rink to another.

For Calgary Wranglers forward Alex Gallant, life on the road in the minor leagues once meant securing himself to his bunk on a sleeper bus with a skate lace while playing in the Southern Professional Hockey League.

"I used to actually take a hockey lace. I was at the very top bunk. I would tie myself in from right around my hip, tie it to the bar so I wouldn't fall off at night."

Thankfully, Gallant no longer has to secure himself to sleeper-bus bed frames. These days, he flies from one AHL city to another, something especially common for teams in the league's Western Conference.

For the Calgary Wranglers, the top affiliate of the Calgary Flames, life on the road is made a little easier thanks to team services manager Rees Giacchetta.

Wranglers head coach Brett Sutter praised Giacchetta's work.

"He's someone if I say we need three bus times here, he'll make sure that it gets done and done on time. That's where it's great having a guy like Rees. We can sit down together before every trip, making sure we're dialed in on everything, making sure we're not missing anything."

Gallant echoed his coach's sentiment when discussing Giacchetta's work ethic and his ability to be a Swiss Army knife when it comes to making everyday life on the road a little easier.

"Rees is amazing at his job. He's got your ticket, he's got your per diem, helps out with meals. If there's guys going up and down, he's taking care of all that. He kind of takes care of every little bit of everything for us."

Giacchetta described his job as being "a firefighter who wears a lot of hats," a fitting description of how versatile he must be on a daily basis.

While Giacchetta's responsibilities include booking flights, arranging practice ice time in visiting cities and securing hotels, sometimes his job requires him to think on his feet.

That was the case when Calgary called up defenseman Kyle Walker from the ECHL.

Walker, who had recently completed his senior season at Mount Royal University in Calgary, was playing for the Reading Royals when he received a call from his agent, Andy Chengalath.

"How would you like to be an American League hockey player?" Walker recalled his agent asking.

The call-up required a quick turnaround, as Walker had to meet the Wranglers in Laval, Quebec, for his first AHL game.

However, his excitement quickly turned to panic when he realized he had left his passport in his nightstand in Reading, Pennsylvania, while the Royals were already in Worcester, Massachusetts, preparing to play the Railers.

"Immediately my panic set in, because I remembered where my passport was and it was back in my nightstand in Reading," Walker recalled.

With his call-up hanging by a thread, Walker turned to Giacchetta for help.

Giacchetta sprang into action and arranged a rental car for Walker, who had to make the lengthy drive back to Reading to retrieve his passport.

However, after packing his belongings and heading toward the airport, Walker realized he had forgotten his passport again, forcing another unexpected detour.

"When I packed up all my stuff, I actually forgot my passport again. We were about like 40 minutes down the road," Walker recalled.

Despite the additional setback, Walker eventually reached the airport and flew to Montreal before traveling to Laval to join his new teammates.

With the passport mishap behind him, Walker can now look back on the experience with a sense of humor.

"It was a funny story and it was great that he could still make it, especially because he was getting called up to play his first AHL game," Sutter said.

Before teams depart on road trips, especially Canadian clubs like the Wranglers that frequently travel into the United States, ensuring every player has the proper travel documents is an important responsibility.

"We usually collect passports from these guys just to make sure it's always taken care of," Sutter explained.

Giacchetta echoed his coach's comments.

"We'll collect every player's passport a day prior and we'll check everyone in."

Collecting passports before departure eliminates much of the uncertainty for players, allowing them to focus on hockey rather than worrying about whether a forgotten document could cost them a game or an opportunity at a higher level.

Walker's passport story ultimately had a happy ending. However, Sutter recalled an incident during his playing days with the Charlotte Checkers when another player wasn't so fortunate.

"I was still playing and I believe we were in Norfolk when they had an AHL team. We were sitting around having dinner when one of our players got called up," Sutter recalled.

Unfortunately, the player didn't have his passport.

"So he actually lost his chance on a call-up because he did not have his passport."

While Walker's passport mishap nearly cost him his first AHL appearance, last-minute call-ups can also send teams and their support staff scrambling.

Former AHL video coach Brett Ferguson, who spent time with the Syracuse Crunch, Norfolk Admirals and San Diego Gulls, recalled an incident involving goaltender Jeff Deslauriers while Syracuse was on the road in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Anaheim needed Deslauriers to travel to Philadelphia for a potential NHL call-up, leaving Ferguson and assistant equipment manager Matt Brayfield responsible for figuring out how to get the goaltender there following the game.

The two rented a car and drove Deslauriers approximately two and a half hours from Wilkes-Barre to Philadelphia.

The kicker was that Deslauriers ultimately wasn't needed, leaving Ferguson and Brayfield with a five-hour drive back to Syracuse in the middle of the night.

"We just drove him for two and a half hours to the airport and we had to drive five hours home, but thanks guys," Ferguson recalled.

To make matters worse, Deslauriers was sent back to Syracuse the following day.

"Then Deslauriers doesn't even get called up the next day. But they bought him a plane ticket from Philly to Syracuse."

The experience illustrates just how quickly plans can change in the American Hockey League.

While surprise call-ups can derail a carefully planned road trip, geography can make just as much of a difference in how teams travel.

During Ferguson's time in Syracuse, road trips were often relatively short, allowing players to sleep in their own beds following games. Syracuse's location in the Northeast placed the Crunch within a few hours of several opponents.

"There's a spider web of teams in that northeast area that you could get to within two to four hours," Ferguson recalled.

Nearby cities such as Rochester made bus travel convenient, allowing players to return home for a few hours of sleep before heading out for another game.

However, that convenience disappeared when Anaheim moved its AHL affiliate to Norfolk, Virginia, where the closest opponent was roughly five hours away.

Because of the lengthy journey to Norfolk, visiting teams often played back-to-back games against the Admirals rather than making the trip for a single contest.

"Being kind of on an island, The first thing is any team that came into play in Norfolk was coming for two," Ferguson recalled.

One of the challenges that made travel even more grueling for AHL teams in the Eastern Conference was the unpredictable winter weather.

Following a game in the Northeast, the Admirals were scheduled to face the Hershey Bears the following afternoon at 2 p.m. However, getting to Hershey proved to be an adventure of its own.

Approximately 30 minutes into the trip, heavy snow began falling, forcing the driver to pull the team's sleeper bus into a gas station in hopes of waiting out the storm.

After waiting another 30 minutes, the driver attempted to get the team back on the road. However, as the bus maneuvered around the gas pumps, its equipment trailer began to jackknife and slide, eventually becoming wedged between two pumps.

After several unsuccessful attempts to free the trailer, the exhausted players and staff climbed off the bus and took matters into their own hands.

"It was a group of 25 guys trying to push this big black trailer around these gas pumps," Ferguson recalled.

Through teamwork and communication, the players and staff eventually managed to straighten the trailer, allowing the Admirals to continue their journey to Hershey.

While snowstorms and overnight bus rides present their own challenges in the Eastern Conference, life on the road in the Western Conference isn't necessarily any easier.

When Anaheim relocated its AHL affiliate from Norfolk to San Diego, Ferguson discovered that California presented its own unique travel challenges.

One of those challenges was Southern California's notorious traffic, which once left the Gulls scrambling just to make warmups before a game against the Bakersfield Condors.

"I remember one time we rolled in and it was about 6:05 and warm-ups were at 6:28," Ferguson recalled.

That left the players just 23 minutes before warmups, with little time to prepare for the physical demands of a professional hockey game.

For the Calgary Wranglers, the geographical distances between opponents mean spending a significant portion of the season away from home.

"We're on the road for 81 days this season. And just to put in comparison, from the start of AHL training camp to the end of the season is about 202 days, so you're only home for about 122 of those days," Giacchetta explained.

Giacchetta also noted that the Wranglers typically make approximately 12 to 14 road trips throughout the season.

While these extended road trips can be physically exhausting, there is a human element to life on the road that can turn a group of players into a close-knit team.

Wranglers head coach Brett Sutter witnessed that firsthand during an early-season road trip, as players spent time together away from the rink and developed relationships that extended beyond hockey.

"All these players by the time they get back from this road trip, they're going to feel like family," Sutter said.

For Sutter, those relationships can translate into stronger chemistry on the ice.

"When you have a close group, it makes everyone want to do things for each other."

From securing themselves to sleeper-bus bunks with skate laces to forgetting passports and pushing equipment trailers through snowstorms, players and staff across the American Hockey League face challenges that extend far beyond the ice.

The road may be one of the toughest opponents in the AHL, but it's also where teammates become family.