NHL players are going to the Winter Olympics this year, but at what cost?
Monday, November 3, will mark the Vancouver Canucks’ 14th game played since October 9. It’s part of their second road trip of the month and the 11th city they will have travelled to within this span of time. All these factors are a result of the NHL’s 2025–26 schedule, which was condensed to accommodate the near month-long break in February during which some players will represent their countries at the Winter Olympics. While the Olympics will undoubtedly be a treat to watch, as this will be the first time NHLers will participate since Sochi 2014, the schedule they’re currently working around has already begun to show its negative side.
Injuries And Games Played Around The NHL
As of November 2, there are eight players currently out of the Canucks’ lineup, 10 including players like Guillaume Brisebois and Jett Woo, though Quinn Hughes expected to return to play on Monday. That’s the highest injury total within the entire NHL, as per CBS Sports’ list of injuries, which counts 130 total injuries within the league as of right now. In comparison, last year, the Canucks only dealt with one injury absence sustained during the regular season in the month of October.
Following CBS Sports’ list of injuries, the second-longest injury list belongs to the Pittsburgh Penguins (8–3–2), who have actually performed quite well to start the season. The Penguins are missing a total of eight players, seven of whom are on the IR while forward Justin Brazeau remains day-to-day. With that being said, Pittsburgh’s schedule has been slightly more accommodating than Vancouver’s, as they have only played in one back-to-back and have yet to go on a road trip longer than three games.
The Boston Bruins are the team that leads in the most games played so far with 14. Boston has had a relatively tame schedule of their own, however, as nine of these 14 games they have played have been at home. Their lone road trip outside of the East Coast was a three-game stretch that took them to Vegas, Colorado, and Utah within the span of a week.
By November 2 of the 2024–25 season, no team had played more than 14 games (the New Jersey Devils). The Devils had logged more games than the rest of the league mostly due to the fact that they had played in the Global Series on October 4 and 5. Without these two games in consideration, New Jersey would have only played in 12 regular-season matches by this time. They took part in two back-to-backs during this span but only had one time zone change with less than two days of adjustment.
Canucks’ 2025–26 Season Start Vs. Previous Years
Taking a look at solely Vancouver, the Canucks have played a total of 13 games since October 9 — just over a game per day pace of 0.5. In this span of time, they have played in nine different cities (including five in one week), changed time zones six times with less than two days to adjust, and taken part in two back-to-backs. While they’ve realistically only played one or two games more than they have during the same span of time in past seasons, the conditions in which they’ve played in have definitely been more difficult to deal with.
In the first 25 days of the season during the past five years, the Canucks had only played more than 13 games once. This exception was the 2020–21 season, which operated under much different rules due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020–21 Canucks played in 15 games over 25 days, averaging out to 0.6 games per day. However, the travel requirements were on the lower side of the past five years, as they only travelled to six cities in this span and changed time zones three times with less than two days to adjust. This is because the bulk of their trips to each city would end with the teams playing two-to-three games per trip, including some back-to-backs.
The rest of the season starts generally had more travel but less games played and less immediate time zone changes compared to the 2020–21 season. The lowest amount of travel came in 2024–25, as the Canucks only made stops in five different cities within the first 25 days of the season. Every time zone change they faced had at least two days’ worth for an adjustment period. They also did not play in their first back-to-back until November 16 and 17, with both games taking place on home ice.
Of the past five regular season starts, the 2022–23 season was the most strenuous, though the team only played in 12 games during this 25-day stretch. They played in two back-to-backs, taking place a little over a week away from one-another, and faced two short time zone adjustment periods. Vancouver went 3–6–3 during this particular set of 25 days.
The Future Trickle-Down Effect Of A Condensed Season
The correlation between a condensed schedule and increases in injuries to players is already being proven by a team like the Canucks, in which a good chunk of players’ injuries seem to have been caused by absorbing hits. More games within a shorter span of time means that players grow more tired after games — something that can only be made worse by constant travel and time-zone adjustments. Tired players will look to preserve energy in other ways, knowing the slate of games they have coming up, such as being unable to take that extra step to avoid a particular hit. As well, medically speaking, not getting proper rest can cause the body to recover from injury much slower than if well-rested.
There are more ways for injury rates to decrease when fitted around a more spaced-out schedule. During some of their more schedule-heavy stretches, the Canucks have been unable to fit proper practices and morning skates in. From October 17 to 20 and October 24 to October 28, the Canucks strictly played games, being unable to fit morning skates or practices in while playing in three games each during this stretch. While these practice sessions are important for developing team cohesion with a constantly changing roster, they are also useful in making sure players are properly stretched-out and warmed-up ahead of long spans of matches.
It can be hard for a team to develop chemistry when dealing with so many injuries. Because of how early this is hitting the Canucks, establishing this will take a lot longer once their lineup is as fully healthy as possible. In turn, this may imapct the way they want to play deeper into the season, when most teams are looking to build on their positions in the standings. Of course, once players begin returning to the lineup, the team isn’t going to look powerful and competitive out of the gate — it’ll take them some time to get back into the swing of things when paired with different players.
Even now, with players exiting games left, right, and center, it’s hard for them to establish identity and chemistry when they may be playing with someone they’ve never skated with before. Players such as Max Sasson and Linus Karlsson were expected to slot into the lineup at some point this season, of course, but injuries have forced the team into bringing up young players like Kirill Kudryavtsev and Tom Willander early into the season when they should be honing their skills in the AHL with the Abbotsford Canucks.
As much as the issue can boil down to Vancouver’s lack of depth in particular positions, this level of depth wouldn’t be tested were it not for the conditions the team has been playing through.
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