Although not often rooted in common sense, people will usually try to look for good omens, particularly when it comes to the world of professional sports. Take for example, the Vancouver Canucks holding this coming season's training camp in Penticton, British Columbia.
Of note, this will be the first time since 2010, when the Canucks have held training camp in Penticton. That year happened to be the prelude to the greatest season in franchise history, as the team produced their most ever points, won their first Presidents' Trophy and came one win short of claiming the Stanley Cup.
With this in mind, we now present another potential good omen for the Canucks and their fanbase, courtesy of their travel schedule for the 2024-25 campaign. It turns out that the team is better-placed than usual.
Not as far to travel in 2024-25
As per Bleacher Report, TJ Stats has calculated how far all 32 NHL teams will travel during the coming regular season. For the Canucks specifically, they will total 42,500 miles (or 68,397.12 kilometres).
This puts the Canucks in 14th place overall, which is almost effectively around the halfway mark, i.e. league average. The reason this is relevant, is because Vancouver's team is usually near the top when it comes to the most overall mileage for travelling to road games.
This is of course just down to pure geographical location, with the Canucks nestled away in the corner of the Pacific Northwest. The reason for the shorter travel itinerary this coming season, is due to the makeup of the schedule.
Canucks prosper on the road regardless
Now in fairness, the Cancucks did pretty well on their travels in 2023-24, going 23-14-4 during the regular season and then 4-2 in the playoffs. And the season before they were actually better on the road compared to at home, with a 19-17-5 record.
At the same time however, any advantage you can get certainly can't hurt. Even allowing for the modern comforts and advantages afforded to professional athletes when flying to play on the road, the mileage/kilometres still all add up and become potentially taxing over the slog of a long season.
On the subject of any potential advantage, it's also noteworthy that the Canucks face the shortest travel distance of all eight teams in the Pacific Division in 2024-25. In fact, five of the other seven teams are in the top 10 for the NHL as a whole for most distance travelled, led by the Edmonton Oilers at number three overall.
The Dallas Stars top the charts with 56,700 overall miles (91,249.805 km), while the Pittsburgh Penguins are last with 31,700 miles (51,016.205 km). Overall, 12 of the top 16 teams come from the Western Conference,