Originally posted on 09/24/2011:

Home ice in hockey is not overrated at all.
There are inherent advantages to being at home built into the rules of the game, unlike any other sport.

You get a matchup advantage with last change. You can choose to match power on power or checking line vs scoring line, etc, depending on your (and their) personnel. You can get favorable scoring matchups for your offensive stars (this is why the Sedins score a lot, 75% Offensive zone start, highest in the league). You can create bad situations for theirs, etc...

Also, you get a slight advantage in overall puck possession due to a faceoff advantage. Home team gets to put their stick on the ice last. Its not noticeable over small sample size but it leads to a slight increase in overall puck possession throughout the year at home vs away. Puck possesion leads to more goals for and less goals against in the long run.

No other sport has rules built into the game that give an inherent advantage to the home side.

Of course these advantages are not overwhelmingly large, but they are a slight edge over the long run to the home side

Also, goalie is pretty overrated to look at as long as the starters are both starting. There is a 0.014SV% difference between the best goalie in the league and the 30th best.
Thomas on average will stop 27.66/30 shots a game
Scott Clemmenson (career backup) will stop 27.27/30 shots a game

Overall team defense matters a lot more than goaltending at NHL level. Every goalie in the league is a really good goalie, despite what anyone says. If you can limit a team to 26 shots/game on average, you will do a lot better with Clemmenson than if you allow 30 shots a game with Thomas in net

This is why the Wings dominate year in year out with a revolving door of below average goaltenders. They built Chris Osgood a Hall of Fame worthy resume despite being, at best, average his whole career.

Edit: also, something like 80% of the league is Canadian. Every US team will have a lot of Canadians. Every Canadian team will have lots of Canadians. There is nothing to see in that stat there.