Post-Practice Notes: Is home-ice truly that important in a potential series with Tampa?

Post-Practice Notes

*With three games remaining in the regular season and the Tampa Bay Lightning closing fast, the mindset inside the Penguins locker room hasn't changed and that's on winning home ice in the first round.

"I think right now going into {Tuesday's} game, a big focus for our team is trying to get and maintain home-ice, " head coach Dan Bylsma said today.

Bylsma's message to the team is taking it one game at a time.

"We haven’t said we need to win all three games, " Bylsma said. "We know if we win all three games, we will hold home-ice. We have that focus going in tomorrow’s game....winning this game and making sure we put ourselves in a position to keep home-ice."

Several players inside the locker room echoed the same statements but Brooks Orpik provided some analysis on why home-ice is becoming less important.