Former NHL hockey player Chris Pronger tells how heavy the away game trips are.
Chris Pronger ended his NHL career in 2012. He played his last season in the Philadelphia Flyers. AOP
Former NHL hockey player Chris Pronger tells in detail in his Twitter account how time-consuming the hassle of traveling to guest games actually is.
Pronger, 47, spent 23 seasons in the NHL and had a whopping 1167 games.
The NHL team is known to play 82 matches during the season and half of them are away. According to a quick calculation, there were 583 away matches in Pronger’s career.
To the middle seat
The 1993 NHL season was Pronger’s first. He played at Hartford Whalers, now known as the Carolina Hurricanes.
The really big Canadian defender recalls how, as the team’s yellow beak, he was bothered to sit in the ever-narrowest gap.
– Most of the time I was given the task of sitting in the middle.
Pronger avoided the middle if the team flew in a private plane, but otherwise he described as sitting between two pieces of bread.
Long journeys
The distances between NHL cities are long and Pronger says that was one of the advantages of playing at the Philadelphia Flyers.
– After playing in Philadelphia, I’m sure there isn’t another city on the map in the NHL.
While the journeys are tedious for the players, most of all they are physically challenging.
– Not ideal for rest and recovery! Pronger commented.
The importance of food
Pronger cites food as one of the most important things in gaming trips.
– Every athlete is different. I’ve been playing with athletes who gain weight just by looking at food and who lose weight over a long period of time.
Pronger says he himself wears out the latter set.
– During one longer game trip, I lost 4.5 pounds of weight.
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Sleep tastes good
NHL team away matches may be short due to the tight pace of matches.
– We are less often in the city for more than 48 hours, Pronger commented.
As fatigue builds up, coaches can see from players how the limit is going. Pronger says players will be given free practice depending on the situation.
Pronger ended his career in 2012 and many things have progressed in ten years. He highlights the benefits of various monitoring devices.
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