Tips finish dead last
Published 11:52 pm Tuesday, July 19, 2011
OK, so this is one of those things where coming in last is probably a good thing.
Once again Alan Caldwell has been hard at work. This time it’s computing the miles that will be traveled by each team in the upcoming season.
And Everett comes in at No. 22 out of 22 teams. That’s right, the Tips have to drive the fewest miles of any team in the WHL this season. The 11,982 miles Everett will travel is about 600 fewer than No. 21 Seattle, and it’s about 6,400 fewer than No. 1 Prince George.
You’d think this would be a significant advantage for the Tips, who annually find themselves toward the bottom of this list. Not only does it mean Everett has to pay the least amount of money for fuel, the Everett’s players should have less in the way of bus legs than any other team.
The notion of miles traveled affecting a team’s play would seem to be reinforced by Prince George being in the top spot. The Cougars regularly top this list, and they often find themselves struggling in the standings.
On the other hand, Nos. 2 and 3 this year are Brandon and Kootenay. Kootenay just won the league title, and both teams are almost always among the top teams in the Eastern Conference. Both these teams are regularly toward the top of the mileage chart, too, so perhaps time on the bus doesn’t have much to do with results after all.
One other thing jumped out at me from this year’s numbers. While Everett and Seattle are at the very bottom, U.S. Division rival Tri-City is all the way up at No. 4. The Americans are traveling about 800 miles further this season than last season, despite the fact that the U.S. Division is traveling to the Central Division instead of the East Division. What the heck happened there?
