Stars: On The Road And Weary

A banged-up and tired looking team managed only one even-strength goal in as many nights on Wednesday, giving up a third-period score to lose at Calgary 2-1. The Stars are still a point out of eighth place, but now they have one more loss than Minnesota and dropped to 10th. After spending the night in Calgary, it’s on to San Jose, where one of the league’s best teams is worked up over its play of late.

According to KulasKorner, the Stars travel the third-most miles among NHL teams. Since they play in a division with three California teams and Phoenix (Arizona doesn’t observe daylight saving time), they probably play the most games two time zones away. But most of the players who came through major junior hockey, especially the Western Hockey League, have earned their spurs in the most rugged of travel in terms of miles and winter weather. I talked to a couple of WHL alums on the Stars about it before they hit the road this week.

Brian Sutherby (who appeared to injure himself last night on a slide to block a shot) played for Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan. “We had pretty good travel for the Western League, being in the Eastern Conference. The longest trip in our division was four hours to Prince Albert and Brandon. Twenty-one hours to Prince George and Kamloops out there. I remember sleeping on the floor of the bus, driving through the mountains and sliding back and forth.”

Marc Fistric played on the other side of the league, with the Vancouver Giants. “Being in Vancouver, you get acquainted with the Coquihalla Highway, which runs between Kelowna and Kamloops. There are times you get up there so high that you hit snowstorms; you’re six feet away from going over the cliff.

“Roads are bad, and sometimes a five-hour trip turns into an eight-hour trip ’cause you’re going 20 miles an hour on the highway. We used to travel day of game, four hours, five hours. We’d stop halfway for a pre-game meal. Get there two, two and a half hours before a game. So if anything went wrong, there were times when we had to rush to get into the arena and get dressed for warmup.”

One of the tragedies of Western League travel saw four players on the Swift Current (Sask.) Broncos killed in December 1986 when their bus, driven that night by a volunteer, hit black ice shortly after leaving town and getting on the Trans-Canadian Highway. It skidded off the road and into a snowy ditch, throwing two players from the bus and trapping two others beneath it.

One of the four killed was Brent Ruff, brother of long-time Sabres coach Lindy Ruff. One of the survivors was Joe Sakic. It wasn’t until the NHL All-Star Game in Dallas two years ago that Ruff could bring himself to approach Sakic and discuss the accident.