Stanley Cup Playoffs road teams had historic run in 1st round

It was a historic first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the road teams.

Visiting teams went 31-19 to set an NHL record for most road wins in a single round.

Six of the eight first-round series were clinched on the road, with Florida Panthers and Seattle Kraken each winning a Game 7 on the road.

What was the reason for the occurrence?

"I'm not sure. Parity in the League No. 1, for sure," said Avalanche coach Jared Bednar, who saw the road team win five of the seven games in their loss to the Seattle Kraken. "When you have two teams that are equally matched in a lot of the series, to me, venue doesn't make as big of a difference."

Rangers coach Gerard Gallant was asked about the road success after his team won the first two games of their series against the New Jersey Devils on the road, before losing the next two at home.

"Honestly, I'd like to have a better answer for you, but I can't figure it out," he said. "You get your crowd that we've had here the last two nights -- Game 3 was a great game (2-1 overtime loss), but Game 4 wasn't a good game (3-1 loss) -- the way the crowd is excited for your team and you can't build momentum off it.

"Obviously we're not the only ones. It's happened around the League quite a bit. It's the same as trying to explain 3-0 leads and 4-1 leads. They're tough. It's a different game. There's lots of scoring opportunities."

Each of the 16 teams in the postseason won at least one game on the road in the first round. That was just the second time in the NHL expansion era (since 1967-68) in which each playoff team had at least one road win (also 2012).

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"Honestly, as a player I thought it was a huge thing; as a coach I don't see that anymore with the way the game is played today," said Gallant, who played 11 seasons in the NHL (1984-95). "I don't think there is any intimidation anymore; very, very little honestly. You might get a team or two that tries that, but for the most part you just play the game. Back in our day there used to be seven or eight fights in the first period and then things settled down."

Even though the home team won the final three games of the series, Devils coach Lindy Ruff wasn't surprised at the road success throughout the playoffs.

"I think it is parity," he said. "You look at our series, it's a tough battle. When you look at it overall, I think it's just that teams are that close. Maybe when playing at home you have a few more distractions with friends and family, probably."

The Florida Panthers won Games 2, 5 and 7 in Boston en route to eliminating the team that had the most wins (65) and points (135) in a single season in NHL history. This after the Bruins went 34-4-3 at home during the regular season.

"The other thing is the game is so much different than it was 15 years ago, 20 years ago," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. "It's just not even as loud in some of these buildings. It's just not the same. There's not five heavyweights on either team that if the score runs up it's on. There's not that kind of intimidation in the game anymore. "

Vegas Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy had similar thoughts.

"When you think back to the playoffs, you think of the old Boston Garden, Chicago Stadium, much more intimidating buildings, smaller, you can build your roster around it a little bit, like baseball parks," said Cassidy, whose team went 2-0 on the road in a five-game win against the Winnipeg Jets. "Now we go into Seattle and it's like you're visiting a spa in the visitors dressing room. So you are comfortable right away. Those are the new buildings. That might have something as well to do with the road record; you are mentally not trying to talk yourself out of things instead of into things."

The Dallas Stars won two games on the road against the Minnesota Wild, including the clinching Game 6.

"I honestly think early in a series, I've said this before, starting at home is tougher," DeBoer said. "I think as the series goes on, there's no doubt home ice is more of an advantage. You want Game 5 and 7 at home. I don't care what the records say, you want those games in your rink."

The road streak also included 10 straight games won by visiting teams at one point and three days in which the road team won all four games (April 18, 22, 23). It's the first time to feature three or more such days in a single postseason.

"If you look throughout the playoffs, the road teams have done better," Bruins forward Taylor Hall said. "I'm not really sure why. It's the opposite of the regular season. Maybe it's just you're in a hotel and you're around the guys and the focus is a lot more. Maybe there's less distractions. I'm not sure."

NHL.com staff writers and independent correspondents contributed to this report