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Road trips a whole different game for NHL rookie:
Nugent-Hopkins has to dress the part, but he also gets a healthy per diem, travels by planes and stays in nice hotels

Jim Matheson, edmontonjournal.com November 1, 2011

Apart from the fact that teenager Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has to look the part of an NHLer when he goes on the road now, there’s the matter of pocket money.

“I got $80 every two weeks when I played in Red Deer. I think per diem in the NHL is $98 a day. I don’t think I’ve touched much of that yet,” said the 18-year-old Edmonton Oilers centre.

Nugent-Hopkins gets more money for dinner and cabs in the National Hockey League than he got paid to play with the junior Rebels as one of the Western Hockey League’s marquee draws, and the buses go from the hotel to the rink, not down the highway to Prince Albert, Sask., or Cranbrook, B.C., in the dead of winter.

“The bus in Red Deer was a nice-looking bus, but it’s sometimes eight hours on the road and you have to play the next day,” said Nugent-Hopkins, who will be heading out on his first extended NHL road trip on Wednesday.

The Oilers will play in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Montreal, Boston, Detroit and Chicago.

“A plane is still, uh, better than a bus,” he said.

Also, nobody’s yelling at him to do his homework.

“Exactly,” said Nugent-Hopkins, whose education is now on the ice, not the classroom.

“It’s going to be interesting for me to see different buildings.”

The Oilers have had only three road games at St. Paul, Minn., Calgary and Denver. Nugent-Hopkins was drafted first overall at St. Paul, so he’s been there, done that. Calgary? He’s played there lots in junior. No big deal. He was in Denver for about 20 hours. There was no time for sight-seeing; barely enough time to see the retired jerseys of Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg in the rafters.

He did get to see Steve Tambellini’s hotel suite, though, when the Oilers general manager had Nugent-Hopkins come up to tell him he was staying with the NHL club and not going back to Red Deer. So, Denver will always have a soft spot in his heart. The JW Marriott, especially.

“I’ve noticed the hotels are probably a little nicer in the NHL than junior,” Nugent-Hopkins said with a laugh.

Now, he’s going to four of the Original Six cities. Will he sit in the seats at Montreal’s Bell Centre before the game and eat a couple of chien chauds? Will he be looking for the octopus on the ice at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit? Is he keen on looking up, way up, to see Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara? How’s he going to do against Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews if he’s matched up against the Canadian Olympic hero?

It’s always interesting for young players on the road in their first NHL season, especially ones like Nugent-Hopkins. He’s taking part in the team’s “Movember” campaign, hoping to get a worthy moustache going to help raise money for prostate cancer, but he’lll probably find it easier to stickhandle past Chara than grow any hair on his lip.

“I’m hoping I have one by the time we get back from the road (on Nov. 14),” he said optimistically.

Nugent-Hopkins can expect a full-court press of media on the road since he’s in the top 10 in NHL scoring. He’s a point-a-game guy with 11 in 11 games.

But, the Oilers, as a team, have caught the fancy of the public and the media after getting absolutely no notice the last two years. That happens when you’re 7-2-2, of course, having a cadre of youngsters, Ryan Smyth back and scoring, and the best goaltending in the NHL.

“Sports Illustrated’s calling, The Hockey News, NHL Live, the NHL Network, ESPN … that’s great for us,” said Oilers public relations director J.J. Hebert.

“I’m happy that the fans of Edmonton can be proud of their team at home or on the road … that’s a huge part of all of this,” said coach Tom Renney. “I’m happy we have good stories to talk about with other media people around the league. I’m happy, too, that our opponents might have to pay particular attention to what might be a threat, that they’ll have to battle for two points.

“It’s a continuation of a work in progress and I hope the story continues.”

This is an acid-test month for the Oilers, who’ve had eight of their 11 games so far at Rexall Place. Not only do they have this six-game road trip, but 10 of their 14 games in November are on the road. Generally, about 80 per cent of the teams that are in the playoffs (the top eight in each conference) on the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend in late November are there in April, too.

“I honestly don’t know if I thought we’d have these results (in October), but I did know we’d have the effort, that there was some continuity from last season,” said Renney. “There’s all sorts of ebbs and flows in a season, though, and there will be on this road trip. I’m sure of that.

“We have to embrace this upcoming trip as an opportunity to see if we can sustain our work habits.”

And to keep the wins coming.

It took the Oilers until Nov. 29 to win seven games last year, 23 games into the season.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
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