The advantage built into the rink
Home teams get the last line change after a stoppage, which sounds like a small procedural detail and is in fact a real tactical weapon. It lets the home coach see who the visiting team has sent out and respond, rather than committing first and hoping. Over eighty-two games that asymmetry adds up to a measurable home advantage independent of the crowd.
Visiting coaches know this and plan around it rather than fighting it directly, which is one reason road performances often look more conservative: the matchups are not in their control, so the safer bet is to reduce how much any single matchup can hurt them.
Matching to avoid, not just to attack
The common assumption is that a coach with the last change is hunting a favourable matchup — the top line against the opponent's weakest defensive pair. That happens, but just as often the priority is defensive: keeping a shutdown line away from the ice when a dangerous opposing line is out, denying rather than attacking.
This is why some of the most influential players in the sport rarely appear on a highlight reel. A checking-line centre who reliably absorbs the opponent's best line is doing a job that shows up in what did not happen, which the scoresheet cannot record.
How road teams cope
Without the last change, a visiting team often simplifies its deployment, running lines in a more predictable rotation so that whatever matchup arises, the response is rehearsed rather than improvised. It trades some tactical flexibility for consistency, which is a reasonable adaptation to playing a structural disadvantage.
It also means road wins against a team with a strong top line are frequently more impressive than the scoreline suggests, because they were achieved without the tool that is supposed to make containing that line easier.