First Shift 🏒
Home ice advantage wasn’t such a big deal for the Stars last season.
Dallas went 26-10-5 on the road – a new franchise record. The Stars were 26-11-4 at home, so not too shabby. That said, the lads in Victory Green were 6-3 in road playoff games and just 4-6 at home in the postseason.
And that could be concerning.
But is it a trend worth noting? The Stars say they aren’t too worried.
“We were still pretty good in both places,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “We love playing in front of our home crowd at American Airlines Center, so I don’t read a lot into that.”
Robertson said he remembers having slow starts at home, and said that is something the team can address.
“I do think we were not good in first periods at home,” Robertson said. “We were dialed in on the road, and we weren’t at home. There does seem to be more focus on the road, probably because of the environment, and at home you’re more relaxed.”
So as the team plays home games Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday, they definitely can at least be aware of the trend. Dallas was fourth in scoring at home last year at 3.71 goals per game and 20th in goals against at 3.07. They were second in road scoring at 3.46 (as most teams tend to score lower on the road) and third in goals against at 2.63. That difference in GAA is significant and seems to indicate the team does play looser at home. But center Matt Duchene said he’s not aware of a different mindset.
“Maybe we were a little looser at home defensively at times last year, but this is a different year,” Duchene said. “I think we want to put the same game on the ice no matter where we are.”
Asked if that’s difficult to do, Duchene said, “It’s not hard. It shouldn’t be. We go out there with the idea of playing the same game, of being consistent.”
Duchene said most teams are better at home than on the road, so last season was an aberration. And as DeBoer said, both numbers are pretty good. Dallas ranked first in road record last season, but was eighth at home. That’s not a reason to panic. Heck, you can talk about their record against the East (18-11-3) as the Islanders come to town, or their record against non-playoff teams (33-7-2) as they get Seattle and San Jose in this stretch. The bottom line is the Stars are working to be a good team this year, and they know they have to grow into that team.
“Every year there’s something different,” Robertson said. “We’ll see what it is this year. Hopefully, it’s not anything bad.”
