Ingen vila för den trötte

Alright, I'll stop doing that....but it means "No Rest for the Weary", as Helene St. James reported here, sleep and jet lag is proving to be an issue for the team that arrived in Sweden yesterday...

"We were all kind of hemming and hawing when we found out we had to skate today. But I think now everyone is happy about it. You kind of get the legs going instead of just lounging around in bed."--Kirk Maltby

Kronwall decided to help Maltby out by taking him on a little tour of his home town:

"We need to stay up to be able to sleep well. I think any time you fly over here, when you first sit down to relax, that's when it's hard to stay awake. So let's get going, get the body working and then get a good night's sleep."--Nik Kronwall

Not everyone followed Kronner's advice, however. There was about an hour and half of free time before the Wings took the ice. Kris Draper breaks it down for us:

"We got in, checked into the hotel. We had about an hour-and-a-half before we came to the rink. And you know what? It was good to get a skate in. You couldn't stick around the hotel or you'd be sleeping all afternoon, and then you wouldn't be able to get on the right time. We're well aware that we've got to try to adjust right away because we're playing on Wednesday. And before we know it we're playing back-to-back games and then going back home. So it's going to go fast. Guys were trying to get a lot of sleep on the plane. I think most guys felt pretty good when we landed. But that hour-and-a-half at the hotel, I don't think there were too many guys that stayed awake, that didn't have a little nap. Then it's a matter of keeping yourself busy and trying to stay awake and get on that new clock right away."

An hour and a half doesn't seem like too long a time, depending on how quickly and how deep their sleep was during their little cat nap. If you ask me, there is NO better way to get jet lag and bus legs out of your system then getting a nice crisp skate in. Nothing too demanding, but not some fluff skate where you don't even get a sweat going.

"Basically what we thought is we left at a really good time to travel because you're going to sleep on the flight, which is a real positive. Now our day here, if we didn't practice, they'd have napped this afternoon, and then they'd be up half the night."

Apparently Holmstrom didn't sleep a wink. He watched two movies (probably something like the Jonas Brothers 3D Experience and Hellboy 2) and then paced the aisles of the plane.

To ensure that nobody hit the sack for the night too early, there was a mandatory team dinner at 7:30 PM. "There's lots of Swedes that don't want to go to the team meal, I imagine, "said Babcock. "But the reality is we're here to get points and prepare."

Travel is nothing new for Detroit, who being in the Western Conference, is always in top running for most-traveled-team during the regular and post-season. But this is a little different, since they are used to a 3 hour maximum time difference. One can only hope they pull themselves out of this funk by tomorrow so they don't get embarrassed and lose...like the Florida Panthers did.

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Why did Florida get to play overseas anyway? Ah forget it, who cares...