On The Road: Trip To Tampa Bay

The Colorado Avalanche is on a four-game road trip on the east coast with games against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals.
ColoradoAvalanche.com is writing and taking photos of the trip.
The Avalanche doesn't have a team practice today, and all the players are told to arrive at the airport by 11:30 a.m.

Before the players arrive, the team's equipment staff is hard at work loading up gear onto the Avs' charter flight. The team needs to bring enough equipment for every situation during this seven-day, four-city trip. Colorado has four games and two practiced schedules over the next six days.

All the players, coaches and staff are on board, and the team's charter flight departs Denver for Tampa, Florida. The plane takes off promptly at 12 noon and makes the roughly two-and-a-half-hour trip out east.
Nail Yakupov was the first player to arrive and had the opportunity to pick his own seat.

The club lands in Tampa Bay just prior to 5 p.m. ET. After a long taxi on the tarmac, the players depart the aircraft, gather their luggage and load up onto buses destined for the team hotel.

With the Avalanche arriving in the Tampa area at rush hour, it takes the buses 45 minutes to get to club's downtown hotel.
Once there, the players gather their room keys and head to their rooms to drop of their belongings before going out for dinner.