It's exciting to think about the Arizona Coyotes playing two games in Australia but the team will embark on a long flight beforehand.
The Arizona Coyotes are set to travel to Melbourne, Australia as the team will play two preseason games on Sept. 22 and 23 against the Los Angeles Kings.
Everyone may be thinking about the results on the ice for the Coyotes but the real question is what will go on during the team’s 16-hour flight to Melbourne?
First off it doesn't seem there will be wifi on the plane which does not boil over too well with one of the Coyotes top prospects.
“A little mad about the no wifi,” Logan Cooley said.
One thing is certain: There will definitely be some casual card playing amongst the players on the plane. Jason Zucker may or may not be a part of it.
“I will not be playing cards at all … Maybe I’ll get into something after hour 12,” Zucker said. “I might be going sort of crazy, so we’ll see how it goes, but we’re just relying on the medical staff to see if they’re going to tell us when we’re supposed to sleep … but we’ll just try to adapt to it as much as possible and just do the best we can.”
There will be a 17-hour time difference between Arizona and Australia so on the flight it will be critical for all the players to manage their sleep schedules.
“We have absolutely fantastic sleep doctors and everything so we're well prepared… It's about doing the right thing managing our body, managing our sleep, making sure we eat the way we eat and everything. It's easy to say, it looks easy but it's not as easy, so we will be on top of that,” André Tourigny said.
It may be a lengthy flight but it is perfect for a team that will now have a ton of time to connect with each other helping grow team chemistry.
“On the human side, It's fantastic,” Tourigny said. “We're going to Australia, will have a good time, we will be all the boys together, we'll have 17 hours on the plane. It will be fantastic.” Tourigny said.
Here are all the players that will be traveling to Australia.
Forwards: Nick Bjugstad, Travis Boyd, Michael Carcone, Logan Cooley, Lawson Crouse, Dylan Guenther, Barrett Hayton, Alex Kerfoot, Clayton Keller, Matias Maccelli, Jack McBain, Liam O’Brien, Nick Schmaltz, Jason Zucker
Defensemen: Josh Brown, Travis Dermott, Matt Dumba, Sean Durzi, J.J. Moser, Victor Soderstrom, Troy Stecher, Juuso Valimaki
Goaltenders: Connor Ingram, Andrew Oke, Karel Vejmelka