The mysterious case of the Sabres being better on the road
By Zach Jezioro
Homefield advantage can be critical for any sports team. In the big moments and the big games, having the home crowd does wonders. It gives the home team a huge edge. You think that would be the case for the Buffalo Sabres, right? Well, not exactly.
For some reason, the Sabres seem to play better on the road than at home. Buffalo is 14-11-3 on the road this year. When it comes to playing on home ice, they are 12-16-1. Pretty strange, right? Buffalo has won their last two games, both of those on the road against Montreal and Columbus.
With those bizarre stats, this is nothing new for the Sabres. Going back to last year, Buffalo was 17-20-4 at home. It was the complete opposite when they were away as the team went 25-13-3 on the road. When you think about it, it's truly mind-boggling a team seems to perform better on the road rather than the comforts of home ice.
The @BuffaloSabres edged the Blue Jackets on Friday to win their fifth straight game as visitors and equaled the fifth-longest road winning streak in franchise history.#NHLStats: https://t.co/lJvuMTGmTt pic.twitter.com/LT4FcbQCxC
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 24, 2024
With their recent victory against the Blue Jackets, Buffalo has won the last five games on the road, which you can see in the tweet above from NHL Public Relations, is their fifth-best road winning streak in franchise history. It's not just the team as a whole, but one player is thriving on the road as well. Goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is not phased with playing on the road.
UPL has won his last four starts and putting up good numbers as well. Luukkonen has had a solid season, there's no question about that. At home, he's 7-8-0. On the road, Ukko is 9-6-2. Again, it's so strange that the team gets better results when they are not playing at home.
After they host the Carolina Hurricanes tomorrow night, the Sabres need their road success to continue as they will be in Florida and Tampa Bay next week in part of a two-week gauntlet where the team will face all playoff teams or teams in the race for the postseason.
Those road teams excluding the Panthers and Lightning, include Toronto and Nashville. As for the team coming to Buffalo excluding the Hurricanes, Vegas, Winnipeg, and Edmonton.
(All stats are credited to StatMuse).
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