Some exciting moments of ‘80s-‘90s era Boston Bruins teams were offensive zone faceoffs, with centers like Barry Pederson and later Craig Janney and Adam Oates winning draws back to Brad Park (thru ’83) and Ray Bourque to tee off blasts that often ended up in back of the net.
Faceoffs are also an important aspect of today’s puck possession game and speed/skill trends – and while the offensive zone tilt is the most thrilling – the battle of the draw in all three zones can be pivotal. The centers on the B’s current roster are trending up when it comes to faceoffs and it helps that they happen to have the league’s jedi master of draws in Patrice Bergeron, who topped the NHL in faceoff tries, wins (for the second straight season) and percentage last year while winning his third Selke as best defensive forward.
“He was unbelievable,” Vancouver Canucks coach Willie Desjardins told NESN after a February game in which Bergeron’s 82 percent faceoff wins helped drive puck possession. “That was tough, every time we started we didn’t have the puck, and it was a battle.”
With the exception of Chris Kelly, whose draw stats remained about the same, the faceoff percentages of the Bruins other four projected roster pivots each increased significantly last season.
According to faceoffs.net, Bergeron’s win percentage rose to 60.2% in 2014-2015 from 58.6% in 2013-2014, while David Krejci finished at 53.2% up two points from 51.2% the previous year, Max Talbot ended at 48.1% up from 44.4% (although he took less draws than the others, playing more wing), and Ryan Spooner increased his winning percentage by nearly five points to 45.5% from 40.7%. Kelly held steady at 48.6% after finishing with 48.9% in 2013-14.
The most marked improvement shown was by Spooner, who doesn’t intend to stop at a 5% increase. According to WEEI.com, he worked hard on faceoff positioning with Bergeron and Kelly in practice during the latter part of the year and planned to continue with a faceoff coach this offseason. He’s motivated to improve facets like these and add to his speed/skill game. Late in the season it seemed to be paying off, as he finished his last four games with win percentages of 50, 63.6, 62.5 and 55.6.
“Right now he’s really easy to work with,” Bruins coach Claude Julien told WEEI. “It could be the maturity issue, that he gets it now, and it might be a little bit easier for him to understand.”
As far as zones and situations, Bergeron was dominant across the ice winning 60.1% in the offensive zone, 59.2% in the D zone, and 61.7% in the neutral zone. He also won 55% shorthanded, 60.5% at even strength and a whopping 63.1% on the powerplay. Krejci was also excellent on the powerplay, winning 70% back. Bergeron told NESN last year the keys often are countering an opponent’s stick and hand positioning, and talking to linemates to come in and help. “It’s about taking pride in them,” he said. “It’s about trying to know your opponent and their strength and their tendencies, as well.”
A tangential stat for Krejci was that he seemed to feel more comfortable on the dots at home, winning 58.9% on Boston ice as opposed to 47.3% away. Spooner didn’t take many draws in the D zone last season, but that could change with the B’s losing defensive center Gregory Campbell (53.6% faceoff wins last year, 50.1% lifetime) to free agency and trading Carl Soderberg (48.2% on faceoffs in 2014-15).
The Bruins still have good depth and youth at center. Finnish forward Joonas Kemppainen, 27, signed in May, brings a two-way international game and will compete for a roster spot. Alexander Khokhlachev, 21, has 103 points in 137 Baby B’s games and won 50% of faceoffs over a handful of Boston call-ups. Smaller but speedy NCAA whiz Austin Czarnik, 22, piled up 169 points in 156 games at Miami University of Ohio while winning 53% of draws his final season. Colby Cave, 20, scored 68 goals and 145 points his last two years in the WHL, while former Wild first round pick Zack Phillips, 22, may feel new life in Providence.
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However even amid rising faceoff wins, the B’s still need to leverage them with skill to get a good shot off or maintain possession. Despite Bergeron’s near perfect faceoff performance against Vancouver, the Bruins actually lost that game 2-1.
Cycling the puck around if the shot isn’t there right away or faking it if needed, keeping possession through good stick handling and passing from the half-wall, sneaking someone in the far wing, battling in front and the corners while the points move to keep it in, as well as firing accurate low blasts through screens – or controlling the puck up ice if the draw is won in another zone – are all key.
The art of winning offensive zone faceoffs may also be more exciting for B’s centers this season, as they have a couple 100 MPH-plus laser shooters behind them in Zdeno Chara and Colin Miller to go with Torey Krug’s cannon shot and that of newcomer Matt Irwin, who has put up decent goal totals largely with hard, accurate shots from the point.