The Penguins' flight from Sweden is scheduled to touch down here around 10:30 p.m. tomorrow.

And while they will know well before then whether their season-opening trip to Stockholm qualifies as a success -- they'll be able to make that judgment by the end of their game against Ottawa today -- it will take a bit longer to ascertain precisely what the long-term repercussions of their venture to Europe, if any, will be.

Members of some teams, including Anaheim in 2007, have suggested that similar excursions had a significant and enduring impact on their seasons, and the Penguins, coming off a playoff run that ended two victories shy of a championship, understandably want to minimize that possibility. (And they felt that way long before they knew they'd have to get through much, possibly most, of the regular season without their top two defensemen, Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney.)

To that end, conditioning coach Mike Kadar and trainer Chris Stewart spent considerable time in the offseason discussing the issue, sharing their own experiences and seeking input from European players who cross a half-dozen or so time zones every year en route to training camp.

And then they got some unsolicited assistance from an unlikely source: A military man who has developed strategies for dealing with problems caused by long-distance travel. And who happens to be a longtime Penguins fan.

He is Kevin Divers, an Air Force Reserve officer who works at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Ohio and sent Kadar a letter offering to share his expertise.

A radically abridged version of Divers' credentials: Air Force Academy graduate, MBA degree, medical officer for the Navy SEALs and Air Combat Command pilots, for whom he provided assistance with fatigue management and developed schedules to maximize performance.

"Initially, I didn't know what to think," Kadar said. "I e-mailed him back, we started to talk and I realized he wasn't just a super fan.

"He takes it to another level. He deals with peoples' lives. When you're pre-programming someone to go on a bombing mission and they may not get sleep for 15 or 18 hours, that's huge."

Divers' strategy is based on circadian rhythms, which are the changes in mental and physical characteristics that take place over the course of a day and are governed by an individual's "biological clock."

To that end, he had Kadar sent a questionnaire to each player, seeking information on things like his eating, sleeping and napping habits.

After processing that data, Divers sent Kadar a personalized daily schedule for every player -- beginning Sept. 21 and running for a week after the team returns home -- designed to limit the negative effects of crossing the Atlantic a couple of times.

"He came back with a template that showed every day how much you should be sleeping, when you should be sleeping, when you should be eating,"

Kadar said. "His whole thing was, 'Let's pre-program these guys prior to leaving, get them on different eating and sleeping patterns so that by the time they get to Sweden, their bodies have already adjusted." Divers' plan included advice on when lights should be turned on or off during the team's flight to Sweden eight days ago.

Of course, there's no guarantee his program will help -- "In my mind, there's nothing to lose," Kadar said -- and each player was allowed to decide whether he wanted to follow the regimen Divers laid out.

Suffice to say, participation figured to be well below 100 percent, particularly among players who had competed in Europe previously and have formulated their own plans.

"It's great that we have access to that," center Sidney Crosby said.

"But, at the same time, if you can use your experience, you have a better feel."

Another aspect to life without Gonchar

The Penguins know they can't replace Gonchar's combination of skill and experience while he recovers from shoulder surgery for the next four to six months.

But the NHL's collective bargaining agreement at least gives them an opportunity to try.

A provision in the CBA enables teams to seek salary-cap relief for a player with a long-term injury -- he must miss 10 NHL games and 24 days to qualify -- by effectively removing his cap hit for the duration of his absence.

That gives clubs the latitude to bring in a player from outside the organization, especially if the injured player is expected to miss the entire season, or to promote one or more from its farm team without being concerned about exceeding the cap ceiling, as long as the players' cap hits don't exceed that of the injured player.

In the case of the Penguins, that would translate to $5 million of "extra" cap space, at least until Gonchar returns. The moment he does, his cap hit kicks back in, and the Penguins would have to make whatever personnel moves are necessary to comply with the ceiling.