Conventional wisdom says that NHL teams generally struggle in their first game at home after a long road trip.
That makes perfect sense, but there are exceptions.
Witness the Penguins, whose 6-4 victory against New Jersey at PPG Paints Arena Friday night makes them 8-0-1 in their past nine home games when returning from a trip of five or more games.
They also have won five games in a row against the Devils for the first time in franchise history.
The victory pulled them out of a 0-1-1 stretch, raised their record to 44-17-9 and moved them back into second place in the Metropolitan Division, one point behind Washington and one ahead of Columbus.