On-ice expectations were high for the Vancouver Goldeneyes. What went wrong?

After more than two weeks on the road, Vancouver Goldeneyes head coach Brian Idalski just wanted his players to feel normal again.

To go home, do laundry, and train on home ice.

"I don’t sleep well on the road, so that’s a thing," Idalski told reporters after his team's 5-1 loss to Boston on Tuesday. "Switching hotels from one to the next, and flights and connection flights and buses, it takes a toll. We’re still figuring out what that looks like and what that impact is."

The loss, which came in front of 10,794 fans in a Takeover Tour game in Edmonton, was the Goldeneyes' fourth regulation loss in five games.

Vancouver now sits seven points back of fourth-place Toronto in pursuit of the final playoff spot, with only four games left to play. Making things more difficult is that none of those games are against the teams that Vancouver needs to pass to make the playoffs.

Eldridge scores twice leading the Fleet to a dominant win over Goldeneyes

Though neither have been mathematically eliminated, it feels likely that both Vancouver and the last-place Seattle Torrent will miss the postseason in the teams' first season, despite stocking their rosters with talented players during the expansion process.

Idalski doesn't think that's a coincidence.

"We’re both struggling," he said. "There’s something there. There’s something with the travel and us going back and forth that’s happening to our bodies. We need to learn how to manage that better."

The Goldeneyes and Torrent are outliers in an eight-team league where five teams are based on the east coast. Minnesota is a bit closer, about a three and a half hour flight away from Vancouver.

Seattle is the closest team geographically, but the Goldeneyes won't make their first visit to