One of the most forgotten aspects of the game of hockey is faceoffs. Most coaches ignore it during preseason, and that is understandable. There are other things that need their focus than worrying about something that lasts half a second in the grand scheme of a 20-minute period. It is one of the most boring parts of the game of hockey.
However, it is one of the most important parts of hockey. It sets the tone of the game, it can lead to many different situations and easily lead to scoring chances. Marco Sturm believes that there is a very important aspect of face-offs, and what happens after the puck has hit the ice, whether it is a win or a loss.
Why are face-offs important?
Face-offs determine if payers are starting on their heels or moving forward. Face-offs lead to something bigger more often than they lead to a score. In the Boston Bruins' last regular-season game, the puck dropped 56 times. Which means there were 56 different plays that were run based on the outcome of that face-off.
In 2024-25, the Bruins were the number nine team in terms of five-on-five face-off percentage, However, they were the worst in controlled exits after a defensive zone win and in creating scoring chances when winning in the offensive zone. They were once again ninth in the league in 2025-26, but they cleaned up the controlled exits and were able to generate more shots in the offensive zone.
Why were they able to do so?
They were able to flip the script on how they left the defensive zone because Sturm took the time to look at opponents' tendencies when it came to loosing the certain zones. When he figured out what they did, they would practice those plays until they had a few different plays that they were able to run on the fly. They have a few different plays for each event, whether it is a win or loss.
This comes from Marco Sturm taking the time to look at and scout the opponent's face-off tendencies, which, before last year, he had never done in any of his coaching career. However, it helped the Bruins create scoring chances rather than just winning the puck and throwing it right away, which is one of the reasons the Bruins were losing some of those close games they had last season.
Winning Face-offs Brings the Team Together
Sturm and other coaches mostly devise the plays that come after winning or losing a face-off. He does let the players come up with some plays as well. Allowing the players to join in on the creation of these plays allows for better camaraderie between the players as well. Sturm being able to create this atmosphere where players are allowed to bring in their insight is going to be able to bring out a different side of the scene.
The players creating plays are even better when they get scores off the plays, even if Sturm is not fully convinced of the play design. However, the play designed by Viktor Ardivsson got the team scoring twice. Sturm allows the players to not only help with the team to get the team excited, it also allows for a healthy respect between the team, which shows them that the coach will listen and that they two can help call the shots that could win the team games.
It will be interesting to see if Sturm continues this trend this upcoming season. The Bruins last season, through all of their games, had a 53 winning face-off percentage. Sturm will be smart to continue to scout and prepare for opponents' tendencies as it worked well for the Bruins this past season, and it will only get better the more they refine it.
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