After learning the Leafs had a rather ridiculous stretch of 17 road games in 22 coming up, I was curious to see which teams had played the most imbalanced home-versus-road schedules. So off I went to NHL.com, to find this:
Most home games (road)
Toronto -- 18 (10)
Detroit -- 17 (12)
NY Rangers -- 17 (9)
Tampa Bay -- 16 (13)
Dallas -- 16 (12)
Anaheim -- 16 (14)
Los Angeles -- 16 (12)
Most road games (home)
Vancouver -- 18 (11)
San Jose -- 18 (12)
New Jersey -- 18 (11)
Winnipeg -- 16 (13)
Montreal -- 16 (14)
Obviously, teams are more likely to win at home than on the road. While occasionally it’s the reverse (i.e. the Rangers had a better road record than home last season), the Canucks are probably feeling pretty good about banking 11 road victories already, with nine of their next 11 at home.
On the other hand, a team like Dallas has to be concerned that it’s only been able to win five of its first 16 home dates. Last season, the Stars finished 23-11-7 at American Airlines Center.