The Edmonton Oilers are going to play games at slightly different times for most of this season.
That’s because, when it would be normally time to change the clocks in Alberta, the province is no longer making that move.
“When the clocks don’t change on Nov. 1, for the first time in our collective lifetime, our favorite winter pastime — watching our local National Hockey League team — will change as well,” writes Mark Spector of Sportsnet in a new article on Wednesday. “Game time changes at home. Games in California and Seattle (but not in Vancouver) start an hour later than they used to. A couple of 9 o’clock starts for Saturday Night Hockey games in Edmonton. And a bunch of Saturday afternoon matinees that we never used to get, a welcome spin-off from a provincial policy that was announced in late April, and likely caught the NHL schedule maker by surprise.”
Edmonton will be joined in this shift by the Calgary Flames, who are also in Alberta.
The clocks would normally change on November 1, but this year, Alberta will roll with the time it already is.
Why Isn’t Alberta Changing Times on Clocks?
Alberta decided that it will now operate under permanent, year-round Albert Time (ABT).
The clocks won’t “fall back” on November 1.
Instead, they remain on Mountain Daylight Time all year.
Other Western portions of Canada have already decided this is a better change for the flow of the day — British Columbia, Saksatchewan, Yukon and the Northwest Territories don’t change their clocks, either.
How Oilers’ Schedule is Impacted
Spector’s entire story for Sportsnet is fascinating, and you can read it here.
We’ll capture a few of the intriguing highlights here.
The Oilers have two home games starting on Saturdays at 9 p.m. local time, which they haven’t had before but were likely scheduled before the NHL’s schedule maker adjusted for the lack of clock change.
Edmonton also has five games starting past 9 p.m. local time on the road that fans tuning in from home will have to watch late — although this is something East Coast sports fans are used to, with West Coast games starting past 10 p.m. on the East Coast.
The Oilers also have four Saturday home games that start in the afternoon — two at 2 p.m. and two at 2:30 p.m.
“It’s the 9 p.m. starts that have the Oilers organization maneuvering to make sure they get their sleep cycles in order,” Spector writes. “Because hockey people are creatures of habit, and this is something altogether new.”
There’s also an impact on travel for the Oilers, who would be getting back home later local time after road games than they were before.
“The macro issue of the changing time zone affects the Oilers’ travel — especially the decision on whether to fly home from a road trip immediately after the final game,” Spector writes. “You don’t want to arrive home at 3 a.m. MT, have your players get to bed at 4 a.m. MT, and then get woken up by the kids at 8 a.m.”
It’ll certainly be different, and the Oilers will just have to adjust beginning on November 1.
Oilers’ Schedule Takes Odd Twist — Alberta Isn’t Changing Clocks