Wolf knows the schedule equals out for all teams over the course of a season but he also knows his counterpart with the Carolina Hurricanes is enjoying a nine-game homestand at the same time.

"This is the longest trip I can recall, going back to the 1960s when we had a nine-game trip," Wolf said. "There's so much travel, there's no question that guys get tired. They're away from their families and NHL teams have a lot of young families. That's a tough thing, but the players look at it as a bonding process on the road."

Wolf said the Kings do the planning and transporting for all their players, coaches and staff as well as the traveling media.

"We've got a TV crew with us and because we're going to Montreal and Toronto, where a lot of players are from, we had some families come along, too. We try to accommodate them and we had about 40 people with us," Wolf said.

The road differs from home in many ways, affecting practice times, access to gyms and hotel services.

"When you fly west to east, with the time difference, there's usually no practice that day," Wolf said. "We can leave Los Angeles at 9 a.m. Pacific Time and get in at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. The hours are just not right so we'll often have off-ice workouts. Dave Good, the assistant speed, strength and conditioning coach knows the gyms all around the country, and gets us set up for that."

Some head coaches like to make roommate assignments, but Andy Murray leaves the Kings' pairings to Wolf. There are a few quirks to be worked out but the Kings have few problems in that area.

"A couple of guys will approach me and ask if they can room together," Wolf said. "Or, I'll ask players who they'd like to room with. I just try to make sure no one gets left out. Some guys are willing to pay extra for a single room and the goalies are both given single rooms."

For every travel horror story, there's a laugher, given the optimistic, youthful nature of the players.

"We were on a really bumpy flight one night, so bumpy the stewardess sat down and pulled on a seat belt. You know, it's bad then," Wolf said. "One of the players suggested we might do something religious, given our frightening circumstances. Next thing I know, someone had passed a hat down the aisle.

"On our flight to Vancouver, the headwinds were so strong, we were forced to land and refuel," Wolf continued. "Our young Russian rookie, Alexander Frolov, not familiar with North American travel times, got all his equipment together and was ready to go, thinking we were home. The players all had a lot of fun with that before they told Frolov we still had hours of flying left."

Wolf laughed when he heard former Minnesota Twins manager Billy Gardner's lament about team travel. Said Gardner, who was rooming with his pitching coach, former Brooklyn Dodger great Johnny Podres of the famed hook nose, "This is wrong. I married Miss North Carolina and I'm sleeping with Podres."

Wolf keeps the players' visas and the flight manifest for the players, the head coach and his three assistants, public-relations staffer, two equipment managers, two athletic trainers and a massage therapist.

"Although we charter planes all season, we still have to have a manifest to send to the charter company and I keep a copy," Wolf said. "Americans and Canadians can, by treaty, cross the border without visas, but the Europeans need them. Zigmund Palffy and Jaroslav Modry have green cards but Lubomir Visnovsky, Jaroslav Bednar and Frolov need visas. I spend a day during training camp at the Canadian consulate getting the passports in order. I also have to prepare for the minor leaguers in the event they get brought up."

Sutter: I think it's important to try to create an atmosphere on the road in which the players view the games as fun to play because that is the essence of hockey: It's a game and it should be fun to play.

Travel impacts the way head coaches conduct their business. On the road, they're without their offices, video rooms and other comforts of home. Leave it to Brian Sutter, the pragmatic coach of the Chicago Blackhawks, to immediately identify the most important difference about coaching on the road.

"The biggest difference is that the home team has the final line change on faceoffs," Sutter said. "So, sometimes you get caught with matchups you don't like and you have to change on the fly after the faceoff. But that's all discussed beforehand so everyone knows what they should be doing in those situations. You just have to be on your toes for that."

Call Sutter an optimistic pragmatist. With 26 NHL seasons under his belt as a player and coach, Sutter knows the value of a level head and a steady hand, but a sunny disposition and an ability to roll with the punches is equally important, he said.

"I think it's important to try to create an atmosphere on the road in which the players view the games as fun to play because that is the essence of hockey: It's a game and it should be fun to play," Sutter said. "It's very hard to play this game if you're not having fun. We're hockey players but we're also people with families and homes and responsibilities. The game is a small reflection of our lives so we want to enjoy it as much as we want to win."

The Blackhawks missed the playoffs in the five years before hiring Sutter. They went 28-7-5-1 at home in 2001-02, but only 13-20-8-0 on the road. Improving the road record is key to continued success.

"One of the hardest things to get used to in hockey is that you have to play with consistency, at home and on the road," Sutter said. "Get used to going to bed with a headache and aches and bruises. Get used to waking up and having a hard time getting started. Get used to sleeping in hotels away from home."