Three Stars - Part 4 - Road Losers

Losing on the road is not unusual in the NHL. Out of the 1230 NHL games in 2008-09, the road team won just 543 for a winning percentage of about 44%.

When you lose on the road, you need to be prepared to get no respect from the media in the arena where you're playing. Some teams, however, get more respect than others. Here's the chart showing the number of players, by team, that was named one of the Three Stars when their team lost on road.

Take special notice of the Kings and Lightning near the top - these were not good teams last year, yet they earned notice more frequently than some more talented team. Did they play better road games?

The Sharks were tops, which makes me think they engender respect (even grudging respect) when they play on the road.

The team with the least respect? That would be your Toronto Maple Leafs, followed closely by the Thrashers and Senators.

I'd be interested to see how goal differential played into this (ie, you would think the teams at the top would have played closer games on the road), but I'm a bit too lazy to figure that out right now.

	Road Stars	Road Losses	Road Ratio
Sharks	11	20	0.55
Kings	12	25	0.48
Flyers	10	21	0.48
Oilers	10	21	0.48
Ducks	9	19	0.47
Lightning	13	29	0.45
Blue Jackets	11	25	0.44
Rangers	10	24	0.42
Red Wings	7	17	0.41
Capitals	8	20	0.40
Penguins	8	21	0.38
Wild	9	24	0.38
Hurricanes	8	22	0.36
Panthers	8	22	0.36
Predators	9	25	0.36
Stars	9	25	0.36
Islanders	11	31	0.35
Bruins	6	17	0.35
Canucks	7	20	0.35
Sabres	8	23	0.35
Flames	7	22	0.32
Blues	7	23	0.30
Avalanche	8	27	0.30
Coyotes	8	28	0.29
Devils	5	18	0.28
Blackhawks	5	19	0.26
Canadiens	6	24	0.25
Senators	6	27	0.22
Thrashers	6	29	0.21
Maple Leafs	4	23	0.17