Flyers not as imposing at home
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The Penguins once went more than 15 years without winning a game in Philadelphia.
Take that nugget of knowledge at face value and it might look pretty bad, but that's a bit misleading. The reality of that streak actually was much worse because the Penguins went not just 15 years, but 42 games between victories on the other side of the commonwealth.
In that miserable stretch, they lost 39 times and salvaged all of three ties in the Spectrum, then the Flyers' home rink.
The Penguins haven't experienced anything remotely close to that since -- really, how many teams in any sport go the better part of two decades without winning in a venue where they play multiple times per season? -- but Philadelphia has continued to be a place few teams are eager to visit.
Until this season, anyway.
For even though the Flyers remain one of the league's most formidable clubs, they are contending for home-ice advantage in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs mostly on the strength of their road work.
Philadelphia is 18-9-2 in away games but was just 13-9-6 at home before beating Buffalo, 7-2, Thursday night. The Flyers ended a 2-3-3 skid at Wells Fargo Center, where they will take on the Penguins at 1:08 p.m. Saturday
So, while Penguins winger Arron Asham, a former Flyer, describes Philadelphia as "one of the toughest" places in the league for visiting teams, it has not lived up to that reputation so far this season.
The crowd still ranks among the most hostile and coarse in the league, but all the venom visiting clubs must deal with is not helping the home team to accumulate points as often as usual in 2011-12.
There are, it should be noted, a couple of statistical explanations for the Flyers' modest success at home this season.
Before the Sabres game, Philadelphia had given up 84 goals on home ice, third most in the league. That total included 25 power-play goals, which tied Ottawa for the most in the NHL.
The Flyers' penalty-killing success rate at Wells Fargo Center before playing Buffalo was 77.3 percent, third lowest in the league. That's significant because Philadelphia is the most-penalized team in the NHL and has been short-handed an average of a little more than four times per home game.
Clearly, Philadelphia's home record reflects problems with the execution of at least a few facets of its game.
First Published February 17, 2012 12:00 am
