Knights hope to ride away ice advantage in Western final
There’s no place like home except in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
After nearly two rounds of clutch goals and sublime saves, of high-sticking and face licking, the NHL’s vaunted home ice advantage has been nuked and vaporized.
Heading into Game 7 of the Winnipeg-Nashville series, home teams have won 31 games during the passion play of trial, error and sudden death overtime.
But away teams have won 33.
“Truthfully, home ice doesn’t mean one thing to me,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said as he waited for the Jets and Predators to resolve differences so the Golden Knights could begin specific preparations for the Western Conference Final that begins Saturday.
Good thing, because the Knights won’t be enjoying home ice this weekend. Or in Game 7, should it come to that. Regardless of who they play.
Bono skates first
The Predators led the West with 117 points; the Jets finished with 114. The Knights earned 109 points during their momentous inaugural season.
Even had the Knights finished ahead of Nashville and Winnipeg, they would have had to cede home ice to Bono and U2 for a spell. The seminal Irish rockers called dibs on T-Mobile Arena for Friday and Saturday long before Marc-Andre Fleury began doing headstands between the pipes.
Gallant said if the Knights wind up going where the streets have no names, so be it.
“Sure it’s great to finish first in the Pacific Division, but (had) we started out on the road in either of those other cities (Los Angeles or San Jose) it didn’t matter,” he said. “People make a big deal of home ice — and I say that (because) we appreciate our crowd, they’re outstanding for us, we do a good job on home ice — but when we go on the road, like we were in San Jose … San Jose is tough building to play, a noisy place, and I think it helps us.
“I think the guys are used to a crowd that’s going crazy and having fun. There’s no issue with (not having) home ice, really.”
At least not in the NHL.
After last year’s playoffs, the website FiveThirtyEight studied home field, home court and home ice advantage for the major stick-and-ball sports dating to 2000. In the NFL and NBA, home teams won 64.7 and 64.5 percent of the time during the playoffs. In the NHL and Major League Baseball, the edge slipped to 55.3 and 54.2 percent.
Road warriors
Knights forward Alex Tuch was surprised to learn road teams have won more often than home sides during the 2018 postseason.
“Honestly, I just think it’s such a close battle with pretty much every series,” the youngster Tuch said. “As much energy as you get from your home crowd, (road teams) are still ready to play. A lot of guys are experienced playing those road games; they’re just ready to play.”
What about the theory that road teams prefer a straightforward, no-frills approach to Denis Savard spinaramas and other crowd-pleasing flourishes? Could that be swaying results in favor of the away boys?
“Keeping it simple, trying to match the opponent’s energy, trying to capitalize (on an early opportunity),” Tuch said. “I think if you can get that first goal it quiets down the crowd and stuff. I think you saw that in the Nashville-Winnipeg game” Monday night.
“They get the first couple of goals and Winnipeg, a crowd that is usually one of the loudest in the NHL, was pretty quiet.”
There are multiple reasons you’d normally want to play at home. One is tactical. Home teams are given the last line change before face-offs, which helps a coach get matchups he desires. But Gallant often seems more interested in keeping his four lines rolling than matching them up with the other side.
“We felt pretty good at home, but to be honest, I just think in the NHL the teams are so close together, the parity in the league is so close, that anybody in the league can beat anybody (else),” he said.
But if it comes down to a Game 7 — and regardless of statistical trends, of how many sticks are raised or, heaven forbid, faces are licked during the first six games — Gallant said he’d still rather sleep in his own bed.
“One-hundred percent,” he said with a grin more honest than the checking line’s shift in a 1-1 game.
“We don’t have it in this series, but 100 percent.”
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Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.
