Leafs, Oilers forced to endure abnormal travel plans on Thursday

Such is the case with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers, who have arranged travel plans that are a bit unorthodox. According to TSN's Darren Dreger, both the Leafs and the Oilers traveled by bus across the U.S. border, to New York State and Washington, respectively, where each will fly out of to their respective destinations (Tampa Bay and Los Angeles).

The Leafs traveled by bus to Buffalo on Thursday morning, with plans to head to Tampa later today. Meanwhile, the Oilers flew to Vancouver and traveled by bus to Seattle (presumably), where they will hop on a plane and take off for LA. The reason for employing multiple types of travel is to bypass mandatory COVID-19 testing that exists when traveling from Canada into the United States.

Dreger also confirmed that certain teams were using these methods during the regular season as well, so the idea is not something that is is being utilized just because we're in the postseason. He did not confirm whether or not the Leafs and Oilers were among those teams.

Both the Leafs/Bolts series and the Oilers/Kings series are deadlocked at 1-1. For the Leafs, that means they've effectively lost home ice advantage and will need to steal one of the two games in Tampa in order to re-establish that advantage.