Sunday marks a team travel day for the Seattle Kraken, as they wing their way to upstate New York for the start of a two-week, six-game expedition that will zig zag them through Buffalo, Washington, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and New York (Rangers), before a strange stopover in Edmonton on the way home. 

For the streaking Kraken, who have won six straight and earned points in each of their last 10 (8-0-2), the trip represents an opportunity to solidify themselves back in the playoff bubble if they can string together more strong performances during these six games. 

“When you’re winning games and playing well on the road, it really helps your team bond,” Jordan Eberle said. “We had a great season on the road last year, and this road trip for us in the standings is going to be absolutely huge, so we want to continue that.”

In total, Kraken players, coaches, and traveling staff will spend 12 days on the road, bouncing from city to city and living out of their suitcases while still conforming to the NHL norms of making themselves presentable for entrances and exits to each arena on game days. 

So how do they pack for all that? What personal responsibilities do they need to handle before embarking on such a journey? We asked these questions of Kraken players and their coach to get a better understanding of what goes into preparing for an extended road trip like this one. 

The packing list

Clothing

One consistent theme we picked up from Kraken players was that they try to pack as lightly as they possibly can. They don’t want to be schlepping multiple suitcases through six different cities, and they’re more willing than we expected to re-wear clothing in order to make it all fit into one piece of luggage. 

Take Alex Wennberg, for example, who considers himself a minimalist when it comes to packing for a long trip. “[I’m a] one-suit kind of guy,” Wennberg said. “I learned the hard way to bring another dress shirt because, you know… pasta, meat sauce with a white dress shirt; not always the best combo. Other than that, it’s just a pair of sneakers and the dress shoes, so I pack light.” 

Yes, that’s one suit for six games, but the center doesn’t plan on doing laundry or dry cleaning during the journey. 

“No way [I’m doing laundry], I’m just dealing with it. And, I mean, if worse comes to worst, there’s some stores that could help me out with [clothes], so yeah, that’s my idea.” 

Defenseman Will Borgen is similar in his approach. “I usually just pack, obviously a suit, sweatpants, sweatshirt, some going-out-to-dinner clothes, some jeans. Loungewear… some shorts for the hotel, that’s about it.”

Eberle, on the other hand, figured out a hack for making the suits look a bit fresher in his walk-in photos from game to game. 

“I usually only have like two pairs of pants and two jackets, so I flip them around with the blazers,” Eberle said. “And then, you obviously need a couple shirts. So I’ve just learned that it’s easier to pack that way, and then you’ve just got to figure out outfits for dinner.”

Of the players we talked to, it seemed that two dress shirts was about the maximum they would pack, and even that was to be on the cautious side. Jared McCann said he learned the hard way on a trip earlier this season when he tried to get by with just one dress shirt. 

“Beginning of the season, I had a pretty bad spill, and it was like a one-day road trip,” McCann said. “So I didn’t have an extra dress shirt, and I had to wear my polo. I looked like an idiot.”

As for coach Dave Hakstol, who has to be fully buttoned up on the bench for each game and will be featured prominently on television, he had yet to actually get his bag packed as of Saturday afternoon. 

“I’ll let you know [what I’m bringing] in about two hours,” Hakstol said. “I’ve got to go home and pack. I’m trying to figure out how I can get through with one suit and two shirts, but I don’t think that’s going to work. So yeah, it’s a long list for this one.”

Even so, Hakstol indicated he would not allow himself to exceed one suitcase for the trip. 

“Essentials”

There were a few different ideas of what the “essential” non-clothing items were that players would make sure to bring along. 

For example, McCann jumped straight to snacks, specifically Skittles, while Borgen veered toward his iPad, headphones, and his Nintendo Switch, which he plays with, “Yammer, Dumo, Schuller, Bjorky, Lars, Matty, and then sometimes Schwartzy, sometimes Kartsy.” (When you’re talking about playing Switch with the boys on the road, you simply have no choice but to refer to them by nicknames only.) 

Wennberg brings his computer for movies, and McCann brings his “PC,” as he called it, for occasional gaming of his own. 

But then there’s the card-playing crew, which requires a unique piece of equipment, a “ledger” that is carried and maintained by Eberle for playing a game he called “13 Up, 13 Down.”

“Hey, Schwartzy, who’s the best card player?” Eberle called across the Kraken dressing room. 

Jaden Schwartz yelled back, “Probably me.” 

Eberle did not accept this answer. “No, be honest.” 

Schwartz thought about it again for a moment, and then, in a more hushed tone, said, “Ebs is pretty good.” 

“Yeah, see? I just needed him to say it,” Eberle said with a smirk. 

Personal dealings

It can often be lost on fans that professional athletes are human beings with families and real-life, adult responsibilities of their own. For some, going away for two weeks isn’t an easy thing to do. 

The preparation levels for such a trip range from “Just make sure the lights are off and lock the door,” in Borgen’s case, to making sure to spend quality time with wives and kids in the cases of veterans like Wennberg and Eberle, or—in McCann’s scenario—giving plenty of attention to Cheddar, his pet corgi. 

“I prefer to be home, rather than on the road,” Wennberg said. “On the road, you’re doing the same thing all the time. You’re hanging out in your room, you go out for dinners, which is nice, but eventually you kind of miss the home life, the family. But, I mean, it’s part of work. There’s nothing you can do about it, so I try to make the best out of it and just see some positives.”

While life on the road brings nice perks for NHL players, like flying on a chartered all-first-class jet, staying in five-star hotels, and dining in top-tier restaurants with teammates, players with families know they are missed when they’re away. 

“I think it’s nice, nowadays, obviously with FaceTime, that you’re able to see [the kids] every day and try and get that in,” Eberle said. “But as bad as this is to say, I think they’re used to me leaving quite a bit. That’s always the hardest part for me is just being away from the kids for so long.”

Having said that, for a father of two young children, Eberle sees some benefits to going out on the road.

“You get a chance to get a full night’s sleep, which is nice,” Eberle said with a laugh. “I mean, you miss [the kids], but you get a full night’s sleep, so that’s always huge.”

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Seattle’s first game of the six-game trip will be played Tuesday at the Buffalo Sabres at 4 p.m. PT and will end Thursday, Jan. 18, with a game at the Edmonton Oilers.