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Penguins center Ryan Craig, left, has helped the team secure home-ice throughout the playoffs with a 55-18-3-4 record.
BILL TARUTIS/For The Times Leader
Having led the U.S. National Junior Team into several World Junior Championships, Penguins coach John Hynes knows the importance of playoff home ice.
Jennifer Wychock/For The Times Leader
Nobody knows the importance of home ice advantage better than Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins head coach John Hynes.
Before he became a coach in the AHL, Hynes led the U.S. National Junior Team into several World Junior Championships.
Competing against teams such as Russia, Canada and Sweden, home ice during the championships wasn’t about staying at your home rink but playing in your home country.
“There’s a distinct home ice atmosphere in those tournaments,” Hynes said. “You’re not just battling the team. You also have to battle the crowd.”
Playing in Canada, for example, no doubt provides a huge momentum swing for the young Canadian players. It’s such a huge swing that Hynes said players can play a level higher than their ability just riding the adrenaline rush created by a raucous home crowd.
And sometimes there is more than just hockey to fire up the home crowd.
“We won a World Championship in Slovakia (2002) and we played Russia in the final,” Hynes said. “We won and the crowd booed our national anthem.
“It’s not just hockey. It’s national pride.”
While geography does play a part in the spirit of an AHL home crowd – think Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Hershey, it is more about winning when it comes to the postseason.
But from a player’s standpoint, there are numerous perks that go along with having home ice advantage in the playoffs. After claiming the best record in the AHL and the Eastern Conference title, the Penguins will have home ice advantage for as long as their postseason run takes them. As a result, the Penguins will enjoy the benefits of less travel and more time at home away from the ice.
“We don’t want to blow it out of proportion, but a big thing is just the comfort of home ice and familiar surroundings,” said captain Ryan Craig.
Defenseman Andrew Hutchinson is a big proponent of the less travel benefit that comes with home ice advantage. As a member of the Texas Stars last season, Hutchinson’s team was the lowest seed in the Western Conference after sweeping the Rockford IceHogs in the first round.
That meant Texas spent the majority of their playoff run on the road.
“We got stuck on the road for two weeks. Everyone was a little drained and we dropped the first two games of the series against Hamilton,” Hutchinson said.
Texas went on to turn things around and beat Hamilton, but they didn’t have much left in the tank for a finals matchup against Hershey, losing in six games.
Hutchinson said the lack of home ice advantage was a factor.
“We didn’t put up much of a fight. The travel is draining on you, especially in long playoffs,” he said.
Even though the Penguins have home ice advantage wrapped up for the entire playoffs, they still have to deal with a bit of travel and will have to play in hostile environments on the road.
And if they get complacent after wrapping up the regular season as the top team in the league, the road can be a very dangerous place in the postseason.
Just ask Chris Collins.
As a member of the 2007-08 Providence Bruins, the postseason was highly anticipated for the team that had the best record in the AHL with a 55-18-3-4 mark. The Bruins swept Manchester in the first round and won their first two games in the next round against Portland. Both of those games were at home, and when the Bruins traveled to Portland for the next three games of the series, things took a drastic turn for the worse.
“They beat us three straight. Then they eliminated us at home in Game 6. It was a complete shock to us,” Collins said. “We learned that the road, especially Portland, is a tough place to play.”
So what do the Penguins need to do to avoid a similar fate?
“Just because we have home ice advantage, we can’t take anything for granted,” Collins said. “You can’t get too comfortable. Playoff hockey is a completely different world.”
But that doesn’t mean the Penguins aren’t going to utilize their home ice advantage as often as they can. From the fans to the comforts of spending more time in a familiar city, home ice is definitely a perk. And it also has its advantages on the ice as well.
The home team gets to make the last line change during a game, allowing the home coach to get the matchups he wants on the ice. The center for the home team has to put his stick down last on faceoffs, affording another advantage that can go a long way in game management.
Considering that Hynes places a lot of emphasis on strategy and details, the on-ice benefits of home ice should suit him well in the playoffs.
“Things like that do help,” Hynes said. “Line matchups and game management things are important. The biggest thing to me is game management.”
Craig said when it comes to home ice advantage and managing the game, the Penguins have been preparing for it over the last two months.
“We’ve been working on matchups and getting guys used to doing those types of things that go on in the playoffs,” Craig said. “You want to make sure you take advantage of home ice in all situations.”
But, as if taking a cue from Collins’ experience with Providence, Craig stressed that the Penguins have to look at their home ice advantage in the short term.
“We don’t want to look too far ahead,” he said. “We have home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs, and then we’ll go from there.”