Arizona Coyotes defenseman Matt Dumba is writing a blog for NHL.com during the 2023 NHL Global Series in Melbourne, Australia, the NHL's first event in the Southern Hemisphere. The Coyotes will play the Los Angeles Kings in two preseason games at Rod Laver Arena on Saturday and Sunday. The games will air on NHL Network and ESPN+ in the United States; Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ in Canada; and 9Go, 9Now, ESPN and the ESPN App in Australia.
Today, in his first entry, Dumba writes about his impressive sleep schedule during the Coyotes’ 15-hour trip to Melbourne, Australia, and the team building the Coyotes have planned for the trip.
MELBOURNE, Australia -- When I got on the flight from Los Angeles to Australia, I went to sleep immediately.
I was catching Zs. Everyone will tell you that. I got like 13 hours of sleep. I made sure I was gassed when I was stepping on the plane, so I slept great. The team did a great job preparing us for that, making sure we were getting the right vitamins and eating at the right times. I wore some compression pants, got the Compex (muscle stimulator) going there for a bit when I woke up. It's been a good experience so far.
There was a card game at one point being played on top of me. They asked me if I wanted in, and I just said I'd be the table. They basically treated me as such. But I was out like a light. I think I slept the most of anyone on the plane. I felt fresh waking up.
For the rest of the flight, I watched the "Shaq" documentary on HBO. It kind of got me fired up.
When we got to Australia, we went shopping for a little team event. We made groups and we need to have matching costumes, so we went on a little adventure. That was fun. We got to see Melbourne a little bit. It was 10 o'clock in the morning so places were just opening up. We were kind of just scattered throughout, tried a couple different places. It didn't work out the way we expected.
Our group wanted to go as koalas, but they didn't have that. We thought maybe we'd get the tights going and maybe stuff the tights with some pillows, maybe go Iggy Azalea. But we ended up going with AFL [Australian Football League] uniforms. We went with the Demons, the local team here.
We'll see how it all works out tomorrow when we have a team-building event. It should be funny.
I'm excited for this experience just to get to know the guys better. It's an awesome group. From Day One, you can see how tight knit this group is. A bunch of young guys, all battling, working hard. That's what happened on the ice today. We could have made excuses and complained the whole time, but we strapped on the boots and got after it today. It felt good to get a sweat in and make our first day in Australia not a snooze-fest.
