Penguins have a chance at winning road record

Sidney Crosby -- On the brink of the playoffs

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Penguins' first Stanley Cup team couldn't do it. Neither could the second, for that matter. Or the club that reached the Eastern Conference final in 1996.

Fact is, only three Penguins teams have managed it since the franchise was born in 1967.

But the 2006-07 Penguins will join that select group if they can win one of their final four away games this season -- beginning with a visit to Washington at 7:08 tonight -- because that would guarantee them a winning record on the road. Under at least one accounting method, anyway.

They enter the game against the Capitals with an 18-14-5 road mark, which means they have earned 41 points away from Mellon Arena; that's exactly half of what's available from the 41-game away schedule NHL teams play.

Finishing .500 or better in away games is something only their predecessors in 1992-93 (23-15-3), 1997-98 (19-14-8) and 2000-01 (18-13-7-3) have achieved.

The Penguins' road record this season carries a hefty asterisk because the NHL did not mandate that there be a winner in every game until 2005, and more than half of their away victories in 2006-07 have come after the third period. They've won five in overtime, five more in shootouts.

They also have lost two road games in overtime and three in shootouts.

Given that 17 of the NHL's 30 teams are above .500 on the road at the moment, having three points in play when a game goes into overtime obviously has had a profound impact on away records.

But regardless of how one crunches the numbers -- some observers regard an overtime loss as just another defeat, while others see it as the equivalent of a tie under the former system -- the Penguins' ability to compete on the road has been a major component of their success this season.

If they are able to win the Atlantic Division, or even to finish fourth in the Eastern Conference and secure home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs, the points they've picked up on the road might be the difference.

Never mind that the players struggle when asked to cite reasons for their success in away games.

"We've just had an overall good year," defenseman Ryan Whitney said. "And when that happens, you're automatically pretty good on the road."

Well, not quite automatically. When the Penguins won their first division championship in 1991 -- a few months before earning their first Cup -- they went 16-21-3 on the road.

A year later, when they picked up Cup No. 2, their away record was 18-19-3.

Both of those clubs were outscored on the road, something this year's team has a chance to avoid. To date, the Penguins have gotten 126 goals in away games and allowed 130.

That gap would be smaller, or non-existent, if the Penguins killed penalties as effectively on the road as they do at Mellon Arena.

Their home-ice penalty killing ranks seventh in the league, with a success rate of 87.2 percent; on the road, they are 30th, and their kill rate plunges to 75.5 percent.

The difference is obvious. The reasons aren't, because personnel and strategy are the same in both places.

"There's no explanation," penalty-killer Maxime Talbot said.

Actually, the game tonight might indicate how the Penguins would fare while short-handed in a neutral-site game, because there always is a large, loud contingent of their fans in the Verizon Center. Some drive from Western Pennsylvania, others are transplants.

"They make the big trek to Washington, and we have tons of fans there," Whitney said. "It's exciting to know that if we score, it's not going to be too silent."



Coach Michel Therrien has the Penguins winning on the road.


Then again, recent history suggests the Capitals might give their fans reason to make some noise early tonight, because Washington has outscored its opponents, 8-1, during the first period of its past six games.

The Penguins want to avoid having the Capitals grab a lead. When facing a team that will be sitting out the playoffs, the idea is to get in front quickly and stay there.

"Don't give them any reason [to believe they can win]," coach Michel Therrien said.

The same concept will apply when the Penguins visit Boston Thursday and perhaps when they're in Toronto Saturday, if the Maple Leafs stumble in the next few days.

"We'll see how the next three games go," Talbot said. "We definitely want to win the three of them."

And this season, the Penguins have good reason to believe that they can.


(Dave Molinari can be reached at DWMolinari@Yahoo.com.)