You’ll forgive some of the Toronto Sceptres if they didn’t recognize their own front doors upon completion of the toughest stretch of their schedule. There’s a good chance some will have trouble locating the actual keys for those doors.
Over the previous 51 days ending this past Wednesday, the Sceptres will have played 14 games — only four of which have come in their own city — logged 26,758 km, taken 13 flights and had five extended bus rides.
Despite all of that, the team has managed to improve its place in the league standings significantly.
They went from two regulation wins, an overtime loss, and four regulation losses through Jan. 7, to eight regulation wins, two overtime wins, four overtime losses and seven regulation losses.
It’s an improvement of 25 points and a jump from last place in the six-team standings to sole possession of second, though third-place Boston is just two points back with two games in hand.
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Between all that was a PWHL international break of a week to allow players taking part in their European Olympic qualifiers or, in the case of Canadian and U.S. players, to take part in the conclusion of a Rivalry Series that serves as a tune-up for the coming world championship.
All told, the Sceptres had six Canadians, three Americans and a Czech national player involved in games, so that week-long PWHL break was hardly time off for a good chunk of the roster. Both head coach Troy Ryan and GM Gina Kingsbury also were busy, travelling with the Canadian team.
The reasons for such a condensed Sceptres road portion of their schedule goes back to the team’s move from Mattamy Athletic Centre to the much-larger Coca-Cola Coliseum.
There is much more room to host fans at Coca-Cola, but it also comes with the added wrinkle of having to share dates in a building that was already home to the Toronto Marlies. Add to that a month-long boat show and, yeah, there were going to be some issues.
But rather than suffer those consequences, the Sceptres have actually prospered over this time.
Take it from strength and conditioning coach Jeremy Steinbach, the man who is testing and training and improving the fitness level of these players on a daily basis, as well as serving as the team’s de facto travel guru. He says the recent success is a testament to the Sceptres’ fitness and the planning skills and preparedness of a staff that left no stone unturned when searching out ways to best set up the team for success over a very trying stretch of games and travel.
“‘Our whole team came in at the start of the year in such great shape,” Steinbach said. “Everybody was up to a high standard. They took the off-season very seriously. Being aerobically fit will allow you to get over jet lag or travel fatigue a lot quicker than if you are not in shape. It really comes down to the athletes.
“And then we can have the best strategy, but if they don’t buy into it, it all goes for naught, so one of the things we try to do is educate the athletes on what we are doing and why and how it may help them.
“At the end of the day, they are pros. They are not all going to do everything we suggest but at least they have the information and the ability to pick what is going to work best for them.”
One of the first jobs of that staff coming out of this summer was to assess the schedule and determine how best to attack it.
Steinbach was in those meetings from Day 1 along with Kingsbury, Ryan and the rest of the Sceptres top staff.
Every member of that staff has played a part in making the past two months not just survivable, but a time when the team could thrive. Ryan said the unorthodox schedule forced the team to alter its approach in a number of ways.
“It’s wild,” Ryan said midway through the 51-day span. “Just running down the meetings, you want to have: So there’s pre-game, you have pre-scout, you have game reviews and all these meetings, so on our white board in the dressing room, there is just this long list of all of them. Now we are saying, that is what we would do in an ideal world, but what do we take out here. We can’t just keep having all these meetings.”
So the team adjusted, cutting back where they felt they could, but more than anything, Ryan was concerned with not letting the players get overwhelmed with what was in front of them.
“A lot of it is just managing what we do in that situation, but we’ve tried to have fun with it too,” he said. “I forget the exact numbers but we keep track of how many kilometres we are travelling in a short window so all the things people could complain about or let bring them down, you just throw it out in the open and try and have some fun with it.”
Steinbach recalls the team circling the recently completed four-game trip (Feb. 15-Feb. 26) which included a rather quick turnaround to begin with, playing a Friday night game on home on Valentine’s Day followed by a 2 p.m. start in Edmonton a day-and-a-half later as one that could potentially be trouble.
With that in mind, the traditional post-game workout was skipped, allowing the athletes to get home and in bed sooner.
The trouble started almost immediately on this one as the flight west was delayed by around three hours, making an already-tight turnaround even tighter. The team got to the hotel in Edmonton around 10 p.m. local time, leaving players still needing sustenance, phoning ahead to the hotel from the plane so they weren’t eating at midnight.
A slow start to the game with the Charge was overcome with shootout win, and quickly the team was already looking ahead to the next game in New York.
Earlier planning had determined they could cut down on travel time by taking a bus from Edmonton to Calgary and flying direct to New York from there.
The alternative — flying from Edmonton to Toronto and then on to New York — would have led to all sorts of issues. Just ask the Ottawa Charge, which were scheduled to fly to Toronto and then connect to Ottawa that following day.
The Charge’s flight was turned around and sent back to Edmonton after a plane coming to Toronto from Minnesota crash-landed, winding up on fire and upside down on the Pearson Airport runway.
Ottawa was stuck in Edmonton for two extra days.
Miraculously, no one was killed in the Pearson accident, but the ramifications of that crash played havoc with travel into and out of Toronto and the surrounding airports picking up the slack for the next few days.
By busing from Edmonton to Calgary and picking up that direct flight to Newark, the Sceptres avoided any potentially long delays they would have faced getting back into and out of Toronto for the game in New York on Wednesday.
But good flight-planning was just part of the recipe for Toronto’s success on the road.
The team leaves few stones unturned when it comes to putting the athletes in the best possible situation.
Case in point was the team’s decision this past off-season to expand their staff. They brought in Emily Fulton, a registered dietitian and sports nutritionist consultant who also works with the national women’s hockey program and is herself a former professional hockey player with the CWHL’s Toronto Furies.
Also brought on board was Dr. Beth McCharles as a mental performance consultant. She brings 20 years of experience working with Olympians and professional athletes, coaches, artists and executives to the Sceptres and is there to help the athletes through any mental health obstacles they might encounter or be dealing with.
Obviously, McCharles’ work with the team is strictly between her and the athlete, but the point is the Sceptres have that kind of resource at their disposal.
Fulton’s impact is more transparent and easily shared.
Before every trip, everyone on it receives a package from Fulton including dietary tips and a list of what restaurants are near the team hotel, even what those restaurants specialize in and some menu items that would be most suitable for that particular day’s meal, not to mention suggested timing for eating on game days.
This was something Steinbach was tasked with a year ago in addition to his expected duties as the team’s strength and conditioning coach. Suffice to say Fulton’s addition has taken this role to an entirely different level.
Arguably the most important aspect of the effects travel can take on a professional team revolve around sleep and the Sceptres take this very seriously.
The players are constantly monitored for how much sleep they are getting throughout the season and tweaks are made where necessary.
“There is a wellness survey every day, so we know if they are sleeping or not,” Steinbach notes. “If an athlete is struggling, we can give certain supplements that will help them with their sleep, but the key thing is a full staff approach of not planning, say, an 8 p.m., 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. team meeting.
“Or, on the contrary, not having a 7:30 a.m. breakfast planned. It’s giving the athletes enough time to not only sleep, but unwind and relax, and go from there.”
Steinbach is a huge proponent of the less-is-more theory, particularly when it comes to travel-heavy portions of the season. Steinbach used the 3 1/2 days the team spent in New York last week as an example.
After arriving late afternoon on Monday, the team did not have anything scheduled for the remainder of the day.
The first thing on the itinerary Tuesday was a pre-practice early lunch. After practice, the players had the remainder of the day to themselves.
On game day the following day, there was an optional morning skate. Obviously, there are a few team meetings and the odd video session thrown into the mix, not to mention the early activation sessions to get the blood flowing, but the Sceptres like to keep things light on the road.
“Our coaches are fully on board with that,” Steinbach said. “It’s basically setting up athletes for success when they need to perform and not tiring them out (in between). Obviously we need to practice still, but not tiring them out to the point where it compromises how we can actually play the game.”
On the use of supplements, Steinbach is completely open. As long as the supplements have been thoroughly researched and approved, he has no qualms issuing them when needed.
“On game days or days that sleep is more important, we will offer some tart cherry juice to help them sleep if that’s an issued,” Steinbach said. “That is one small supplement that we will take advantage of.”
But it’s not the only one.
“If there is going to be a benefit to it, we will use it,” Steinbach said. “We actually provide quite a bit, but it needs to be certified, to make sure the athletes aren’t exposed to anything that could be flagged in drug testing, and then is it well-researched? If so, then absolutely I want to expose our athletes to it to get any small increases in performances we can get.”
Still the best way to handle a potentially arduous and possibly trouble-filled travel segment is a level of preparedness for any eventuality.
“We have an extensive team here and all play an equally important role,” Steinbach said speaking of the Sceptres non-playing staff.
“Making the sked and setting the athletes up for success, everyone has played a part. But ultimately we have a great group of athletes that have bought in. They truly are professional in how they take care of themselves with nutrition and sleep habits and then having additional things available — supplement-wise or even the dietician piece that can aid the athletes and set them up for the most success possible.”
The Sceptres have nine games remaining in their season, five at home and four on the road.
While there is nothing left comparable to the 51 days they just completed, the team will have all four of their remaining road games in succession, though a minimum of three days between each one and that doesn’t include a near month-long break for the world championship.
Compared to what they have just been though, thanks to careful planning, that will feel like child’s play.