Road Trip, Day 7: Cal-Gary

After a 45-minute flight from Edmonton to Calgary, we arrived at hotel at around 12:30 last night. It’s substantially warmer here in Calgary. And by warmer, I mean it’s about 16 degree Fahrenheit compared to the 0 degrees it is in Edmonton right now.

We only traveled 190 miles from the two cities, our shortest journey of the trip. That brings us up to a total of 5,150.

The team has a full off-day today and they took the hour-and-a-half trip to the resort town of Bamff, which is like the Vail, Colorado or Miami of Canada.

There will be a team practice at the Saddledome tomorrow afternoon.

The Flames are playing tonight against the San Jose Sharks (remember them?). A lot of the staff and some of the traveling media will be attending the game.

Road Trip, Day 6: Orange & Blue vs. Copper & Blue

It’s cold in Edmonton and Calgary isn’t going to feel much better later tonight. Up in the press box at Rexall Place and it feels as cold up here as it does outside.

Doug Weight is out tonight with a leg injury. The Oilers are putting together a tribute for him about scoring 1,000 points in the NHL. The former Oiler captain scored 577 points with Edmonton. Weight has to be ready for it by the 14-minute TV timeout of the first period. Then in the second intermission, Sportsnet will be interviewing him. Doug is scheduled to be on MSG-Plus during the third period. It might have been easier if he just played through in the injury!

When the Oilers were announcing the starting line-ups for the Islanders, the accidentally put up a headshot of Andy MacDonald when announcing Joey MacDonald as the goalie.

The Oilers entering the ice through an oil rig is still one of the entrances in the NHL.

And if you can’t tell on TV – or if you’re not watching or listening on the radio – Edmonton fans have not forgiven Mike Comrie for leaving all those years ago.

Road Trip, Day 5: Welcome to Oil Country

The Islanders traveled to Edmonton today to begin their five-day quest through the great province of Alberta.

In a rare move, the team stayed over in San Jose last night. With the built in off-day to the schedule after playing tough back-to-back games, there was little reason to rush out of San Jose just to fly for three hours and then lose an hour on the clock by going from Pacific Time to Mountain Time. By the time the team would have checked into the hotel and settled in, it would have been close to 4:00 AM.

Nothing new to report on the team today. The team will be back on the ice for their traditional 11:30 morning skate at Rexall Place tomorrow morning.

We traveled about another 1,750 miles today.

Total distance traveled so far: 4,960 miles.