Faceoff percentage, an area of concern for the Kings early in the season, is popping up as a problem again. The Kings were 21 for 49 in the circle against Carolina, after a 32-for-62 effort against Chicago. Below, Terry Murray talks about his centers getting kicked out of the circle too often. I didn’t notice that as much against Carolina, but I did notice it against Nashville last Saturday, when the Kings won only 18 of 47 faceoffs.
MURRAY: “We’re getting thrown out too much. Center icemen, especially in our D zone, they’re there for a reason. You know that you’re the visiting team and you’ve got to put your stick down first and you’ve got to wait for the other center iceman to react and put his stick down, and then the puck is dropped. I think we’re trying to be too aggressive in those situations, and we’re getting thrown out far too often.”
So what’s the problem exactly? What is our faceoff percentage overall for the year and how does it compare to the rest of the league? Numbers anyone?
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Overall, the Kings are 25th in the league at 47.9 percent. At one point, early in the season, they were last…
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Wheres quisp, he’ll give us the numbers
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let’s not forget that there are two important aspects to a faceoff: within and outside of the circle. Within the faceoff circle involves the forward “winning” or directing the puck to one of his own players. A clean faceoff win is ideal but not always the case. “Outside” of the circle involves those instances when the faceoff is not won cleanly (goes directly to your own player or in their direction) and players must assist in “winning” the faceoff. This, I believe, is where the Kings are lacking: getting to those faceoffs that are not won cleanly. Its boxing out your opponent or jumping on the puck immediately. The Kings are often left flat footed and an opposing player that gets to the puck first and controls the puck counts as a faceoff win.
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This is something TN really needs to look at! At this point we are a puck-posession team and getting back in our own end is huge!
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Thanks for the numbers and scooter, thanks for the analysis. I’m curious, what’s the best faceoff percentage? I’d guess somewhere near 60% is tops… I’d say anything less than 50% is not playoff worthy, but that’s yet another stats analysis…
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Aside from the obvious, one reason that face-off wins are so important is that an offensive zone face-off win is essentially a mini 10-second power-play. It’s the just about only time outside of PP time when a team can run a set play.
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waves,
I watched some of the Sharks game last night and the announcers said the Sharks were 1st with 57% and that 2nd place was either 53 or 54%
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Yes, Waves…top teams tend to be around 55-60 percent.
On a side note, the Penguins were horrific in the face-off circle coming into last season (somewhere around 42 or 43 percent). They are now one of the best in the NHL coming into the season, and have struggled again this year, thus why they are on their current losing streak.
As somebody pointed out, you lose a faceoff, you lose possesion of the puck. You then must expend energy to get said puck back…doing that more times than your opponent can lead to penalties or in the Kings case, spending too much time in their own zone. Thankfully, this team tends to not take lazy hooking penalties, and they are good at moving their feet to get back into position despite losing a faceoff, but it’s not a way you want to play if your going to be a playoff team…not normally.
Chicago, at least least season, was also just garbage in the face-off circle. The person who pointed out that more often than not, it has nothing to do with the center, and more to do with the other 4 guys on the ice winning the 50/50 battles for the lose puck is spot on. Some of it is luck, but by in large, it’s learning how to be in the right position right off the face-off…it comes with time.
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