The Importance of Faceoffs
As it turns out, faceoffs can play a semi-important role in hockey. I know that statement is completely obvious, but I mean it more in terms of advanced statistics. To the naked eye, winning a draw gives your team possession of the puck and control of play, which is certainly a good thing. But when you dig deeper, you can find that these wins can add up to some tangible results. There was a study done back in 2012 by Michael Schuckers, Tom Pasquali and Jim Curro from St. Lawrence University on the importance of the faceoff in hockey. The entire study can be found here, from Stats Sports Consulting.
To quickly sum up their findings, faceoffs can have an impact on any hockey game, and on a team's overall chances to make the playoffs. There are three real interesting findings that I want to point out here, which will be relevant for this article:
76 faceoff wins at even strength are worth approximately one goal in value.
41 faceoff wins on special teams are worth approximately one goal in value.
A team that wins 60% of their faceoff draws as opposed to 50% gains approximately 12 extra goals per season, which equates to two extra wins.
Therefore, a player who can produce wins in the faceoff circle can provide tangible results for his team, in terms of goals and wins. The more faceoffs a player wins, the more his team possesses the puck, and the more his team possesses the puck, the more goals that team will score. 76 faceoff wins may seem like a lot, but players who are really good at winning draws can win a lot more than they lose. And anyone who watched this thriller from last year knows that winning faceoffs on the power play can definitely lead to goals.
