A year ago, college hockey travel often resembled professional luxury: flights, hotel suites, catered meals, and morning skates in the enemy rink. But now, in the time of COVID-19, it’s back to basics: busing in and busing out on the same day. Lake Superior ran the entire longitudinal line down the heart of Michigan, busing 11 round-trip hours for a three-hour game with Adrian.

Bowling Green has used a bus-range footprint to find non-conference replacement games: Adrian, Robert Morris (Pittsburgh), and Mercyhurst (Erie) all within four hours. But thanks to BGSU’s generous administration, the Falcons do not arrive with ruffled feathers.

“One of the things we did differently this year was we have a sleeper bus we take on our long trips,” said BGSU coach Ty Eigner, “and have that kind of be like your hotel room, since we were going day of. We want the guys to be able to lay down and sleep on the bus, and the coaches will drive over [in a minivan]. Now our guys will be able to sleep on the way home and be ready to go for school.” 

The downside to traveling by sleeper bus is that they don’t fit as many players. The Falcons have been arriving with a skeleton crew. 

“We’re not bringing any extra people,” said Eigner of his last series with Mercyhurst. “We didn’t bring a third goalie, we didn’t bring an extra forward.” 

Gameday travel has inherent risks. The era of ticking off half a dozen deadlines with military precision is a distant memory, as schedules are often disrupted by daybreak. Simply getting out of the parking lot on time can be challenging. 

“With COVID testing and all the things you need to do in order to follow your protocol, sometimes you gotta wait for people to get their test results back,” said Eigner. Starts delayed by last-second test results leave teams vulnerable to traditional road trip headaches.

“When we went to Robert Morris, it’s in Pittsburgh, so there’s traffic, and then we had snow. We got in a shade late. We told our guys: ‘Before we do this, before we even get on the bus, we’re not going to complain about it.’ OK, we’re five or six minutes late, so we back our meeting up.”

NCAA hockey is the sporting pinnacle for most of the 1,200 scholar-athletes playing throughout the U.S., but in 2020-21 the college game now resembles the hockey from these players’ youth. 

“All of our kids played junior hockey,” said Eigner. “They’re used to getting on a bus, getting off a bus and playing a game and getting on it and going someplace else and playing the next day.”

Up in Sault Ste. Marie, Lakers coach Damon Whitten is sweating out holiday travel on a global scale. His players have just been given their two-week leave with orders to be back on campus the day after Christmas. The simple command is fraught with uncertainty for Damon’s “United Nations” roster. His squad has 10 players from foreign countries — nine from Europe and one from Japan. All those nations have different COVID protocols, most containing two-week quarantines. This poses a serious dilemma.

“In this environment, it’s challenging for our guys to travel,” said Whitten. “Do you go home, do you not go home? Tough decisions.”

At the same time Whitten and his Lakers sweat out overseas travel, Eigner and his Bowling Green staff are trying to give his troops a special treat during their mid-December trip to Connecticut to play Quinnipiac, creating a bright spot in the midst of a 20-hour highway grind. For this trip to Hamden, he’ll have two of the sleepers booked, making sure every player in the program will make this unique trip, one that couples hockey with world-class pizza.

“I’m a huge pizza guy,” said Eigner, who knows of what he speaks. “The #1, the #7 and the #20 pizza places in America are in New Haven.” 

Wooster Street, the famed pizza mecca of the East Coast, is just a 10-minute commute from Quinnipiac’s facilities. Eigner and his daughter Ellie, both pizza aficionados, conducted a thorough survey of New Haven’s finest pizza emporiums this summer. Knowing that his players share their passion for classic Italian pies, Eigner has built in time to sample — and rate — the best ‘za’ in the land. 

“We’re going to do a pizza taste test,” said the coach with a smile. “We’re going to get five or six from each place and see which one our guys like the best.” 

So even in this time of no-frills travel, Eigner has found a time-tested way to his players’ hearts — through their stomachs.

Tim Rappleye is the author of two books: Jack Parker's Wiseguys and Hobey Baker, Upon Further Review. You can find him on Twitter.