Home teams need to watch out for road warriors

Home-ice advantage? OK, if you say so. Heading into tonight, there have been 23 playoff games and the home team has an 11-12 record. Last night, there were four games, and Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburgh and Detroit all recorded road victories, and that did not escape the attention of Terry Murray. Granted, the higher-seeded team won every game, so it’s not shocking by any means, but the results do reinforce the point that teams cannot relax on home ice. The San Jose Sharks recorded 50 of their 105 regular-season points on the road this season, so the Sharks are certainly no slouches on the road. Both teams have had two days to rest, re-evaluate and prepare, so both teams figure to be at their best tonight.

MURRAY: “Coming back home, we had the day off and the team deserved that. They had a nice off-ice workout and got back on the ice yesterday for about an hour of intensity and fun together, working hard for each other and hard together. I think there’s a good feeling in the locker room. We’re excited about this game. We know what happened last night in the league. Every home team lost. It’s going to be important, today, that we go through the process of understanding what happened in those games, and that you come out and play the right way. The old cliche is, don’t mistake activity for achievement. You need to come out and play with structure, play the system, play the right way, and that way everything stays under control.”