Impact of Travel on Offensive Performance

by Hawerchuk on Dec 2, 2009 9:00 AM EST Comment 1 comment

Last week, I looked at how the number of days of rest a player had affected his offensive performance. But not all back-to-back games are created equal - two home games in two days is not the same as two games in two days with extensive travel.

If we divide back-to-back games since the lockout by the miles traveled by a player's team, we can see the impact of travel distance:

1 day rest	GP	P/82	+/-/82	TOI
>1000	359	38.1	-19.9	24.14
500-1000	5354	38.5	-7.4	24.11
100-500	11898	39.4	-4.1	24.14

There haven't been a lot of back-to-back games with long travel in between - just 20 in total over the last four seasons. But the impact of travel distance on offensive performance without a day of rest is very stark.

How does this compare to playing two days later?

2 days rest	GP	P/82	+/-/82	TOI
>1000	8427	40.2	1.3	24.15
500-1000	9850	41.0	0.4	24.11
100-500	17845	40.8	0.2	24.21

This time we have a lot more games in the long-distance bucket. After 2 days, the length of travel no longer appears to have an obvious impact on performance. Our takeaway is unsurprising: clearly, if you're playing back-to-back away games, you want to minimize the amount of time spent traveling between the two road cities!

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I think a significant issue is cumulative travel. A western team travels a lot more miles (and hours) than does an eastern team. By the end of the season, its effects can be seen.

This gives eastern teams more time for rest, rehabbing injury, practice etc.

The problem is there is no obvious control group for a quick statistical study.

by PuckStopsHere on Dec 2, 2009 10:35 AM EST reply actions