One more for the road
Phrase takes on new meaning as home teams struggle for wins
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
NHL teams spend 82 games in the regular season competing for playoff seeding.
The primary objective is to earn home-ice advantage for as many rounds as possible.
Seems perfectly reasonable.
But as Round 1 of the 2018 playoffs winds down, it’s clear that playing at home hasn’t been much of an advantage: Visiting teams were 21-21 after games Monday night.
“It’s kind of different,” Penguins left winger Jake Guentzel said. “Because you expect home teams to maybe win a little more.”
The Penguins’ firstround series against Philadelphia, which ended with their 8-5 victory in Game 6 Sunday at Wells Fargo Center, contributed mightily to road teams’ impressive record.
The Penguins won all three games in Philadelphia, while the Flyers took two of the three contested at PPG Paints Arena. The Penguins’ 7-0 victory in Game 1 was the only time either team won at home.
The Penguins didn’t just survive their games on the far side of the commonwealth; they dominated most of Games 3 and 4, and ran off five unanswered goals — four by Guentzel — in the series-clincher.
But while visiting teams in the Penguins-Flyers series fared particularly well, they hardly were the only clubs that have thrived when they’ve gone out of town.
And it’s not as if road teams just ran up their record by accumulating victories early in series, when games might not have quite the urgency of those a bit later.
Consider that five higherseeded teams built 3-1 leads and were positioned to close out first-round series by winning a Game 5 on home ice, but that three of those — the Penguins, Boston and Nashville — were unable to do so.
Which means that three clubs — Philadelphia, Colorado and Toronto — faced a presumably motivated opponent on the road if they wanted to extend their seasons and found a way to make it happen.
Against, it should be noted, opponents that, respectively, had the third-, fourth- and fifth-best home records in the league during the regular season; the Penguins, Bruins and Predators were a combined 86-26-11 in their buildings in 2017-18.
History shows that being able to win on the road consistently is imperative for any team hoping to make an extended run through the postseason.
The Penguins were 7-4 in away games in their drive to the Cup in 2016 and 6-6 on the road when they defended their championship last year.
If they are to claim a third title in a row, the Penguins might have to overcome a home-ice disadvantage in each of the rounds to come because only San Jose finished below them in the regular-season standings.
But, after compiling a lackluster 17-20-4 road record in the regular season, the Penguins confidence in their ability to win away games likely has been restored by their success in Philadelphia.
That doesn’t mean they would object if the reached the finals and found San Jose their opponent for the second time in three seasons.
Having an opportunity to take early control of a series by winning a couple of games on home ice — and having the series-deciding Game 7, if necessary, played in familiar surroundings — has an appeal that simply too strong to ignore, no matter what the numbers so far in these playoffs indicate.
“I don’t know why it is that road teams have been playing so well,” winger Conor Sheary said. “But I think home ice is still really important.”