from Jeremy Rutherford and Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,

In the past two years, the Blues' combined postseason record is 5-7 at home and 9-4 on the road. They are 1-1 at home and 3-0 on the road this season, after going 4-6 at home and 6-4 on the road last year.

"Especially when you have home ice, you want to win your home games," Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester said. "It's one of those things, late in the year, we've played well on the road, won some games. We feel comfortable playing wherever. If there's something to improve, our home record could be a little better. In the first round, did we win one at home? That's a pretty small sample size though. You prepare like anything else. You want to win the games and take advantage of home ice."

Blues coach Mike Yeo obviously wasn't around last season, and said he doesn't have an opinion on it, but did say "looking at our play on the road, we're going into tough buildings, and I think there's an understanding of how we have to play the game and make sure that doesn't change when play at home. That's part of the challenge. It's the beauty of the game is how you prepare and how you get ready for your opponent and I think watching what (Nashville) did in round one makes it pretty easy for us in terms of our preparation and how we have to approach how we handle them."

In sweeping Chicago, Nashville won Game Nos. 1-2 at United Center by a combined score of 6-0. Goalie Pekka Rinne made 59 saves in the back-to-back shutouts for the Predators.

Rinne said Wednesday that the Preds will try to bring some of that confidence they gained from winning in Chicago to St. Louis.

more