Home Run Thinking

[duballstar014]

There are a few players in the league who are dominant no matter where they are playing. Jarome Iginla is a good example. He has 66 points in 68 games this season and of those, 33 have been recorded both at home and on the road. Rick Nash has 29 points at home and on the road as well, but not every player is wired this way. Many perform either better on the road or better at home and in this two part series, I'll look at both.

Nashville has the most lopsided final schedule of any team. In 15 games remaining, they play 12 at home. If you can get him, Shea Weber is worth grabbing. Outside of the injured Steve Sullivan, Weber is the only Predator to score more points at home (22) than on the road (19) and that comes with having played more nine more road games than home up to this point of the year. With 12 more games at Bridgestone Arena, you can expect Weber's production to rise.

In San Jose, the Sharks have 9 home games remaining and only 6 road games. So if you're a contender and you managed to grab Joe Thornton or Patrick Marleau at your trade deadline, your future looks pretty bright. Thornton has 32 points at home and only 22 on the road while Marleau follows suit with 35 and 16 respectively.

Other players to keep an eye on include Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk who has 31H/21R points and 10H/6R games remaining, Buffalo's Drew Stafford who has 24H/16R points, with 9H/7R games remaining, Phoenix's Ray Whitney who has 32H/18R points and 8H/6R games remaining, Boston's Zdeno Chara who has 20H/12R points and 9H/7R games remaining, and Carolina's Jamie McBain who has 16H/9R points and 10H/6R games remaining.

On the flip side, there are guys who play well on the road, but have a lot of home games remaining. I'm not telling you to dump and change on these guys, but if you're hoping for a late season (fantasy playoff) push from them, you might want to lower your expectations. Logan Couture, for example, has only 13 points at home and 31 on the road. So with 9 home games and only 6 road games remaining, his production might not be ideal.

Ryan Kesler is an example of a player who performs well at home (34H/25R points), but has a road-heavy schedule (6H/8R). Tomas Plekanec is another with 33H/19R points but only plays 6 more home games, with 9 on the road. Claude Giroux (37H/24R) and Mike Richards (35H/20R) have only 7 home games compared to 9 road games.

Without getting into the numbers, other players who have road-heavy schedules but perform well at home include Stamkos, St. Louis, Purcell, Lecavalier (just about the whole TB team), Tanguay, Jokinen, Parenteau, Moulson, Comeau, Grabner, Nielsen, Bolland, Seabrook, Keith, and Brian Campbell, among others.

Some players fluctuate more than others, but simply looking at total points and total games remaining might not paint the whole picture for you and your playoff planning. Stay tuned for my next article Road Warriors, which focuses on players who perform well on the road and whether or not they have favorable schedules for the remainder of the season.

[horrorfan]

Nice work Dub - thanks for putting this together.

[kevinsrangers]

interesting thoughts. ill be sure to look into this and see how it plays out.
thanks.

[Thegolden1]

Being the avid Flyers fan you are and throwing some legit numbers out there about your boys is good bro. Good read!