How important is home-ice advantage in Wednesday’s action?
Wednesday features an interesting slate of games, with the Philadelphia Flyers looking to eliminate the Pittsburgh Penguins on their third try, while the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens and the Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Mammoth find themselves in a best-of-three action. The Game 5s are in Tampa and Vegas, while Philadelphia hosts Game 6, so will home-ice advantage be a factor in any of those games.
Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton broke down the impact of hosting tonight’s action, and which teams might struggle with it, on Daily Faceoff Live.
Tyler Yaremchuk: I look at Montreal and Tampa Bay and I don’t think home ice matters at all. I just think every game is a coin flip that is going to come down to one little bounce.
I think in that Vegas series, home ice might be a little bit more important for them just to get the right matchups to try to play their style, just because I think they’re so different stylistically. Compared to Montreal, Tampa, which are again just so tight.
Carter Hutton: Yeah, I think it’s going to be tight either way, home or away.
The factor of home ice in a series that is wild is the Philly-Pens one for me, the way things have gone. Now you’re at Game 6 and it’s in Philly. I think the pressure of that fanbase folding in on you, you’ve had two games to try to eliminate the almighty Sidney Crosby, Letang, Malkin. Vladar, the way that third goal went in. I just think this crowd could spin on you at times and the home ice might not be much of an advantage for the Flyers if they don’t start on time tonight. I think an early goal by the Pens could really turn this one on its ear.
So I think that’s the most exciting one to watch right now, whether it’s home ice or away. I just think that’s going to be a big factor in Philadelphia.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Yeah, that’s actually a great point. In the first 10 minutes, if you’re Pittsburgh and you get one, I think home ice advantage for Philly almost turns into a detriment, not an asset. That crowd’s going to get on you. You got to remember, they’re still a very inexperienced hockey team. So if Pittsburgh can get an early lead, I think that’ll tell you a lot about the way that game is going to go.
You can watch the full episode here…