I have seen coaches thinking that faceoffs matter in almost every game I have ever watched. From a RH guy in to take a right side draw, to Oshie pitch hitting for Nicky or Kuzy, to the sheer employment of guys like Boyd Gordon and Jay Beagle - it matters to those in the game. We have all seen that extra faceoff guy out for if a guy gets tossed.
Early in the toronto series we were getting killed in the dot and it was swinging play in TOs favor. You could see it rather easily, actually. I think it had a hand in some losses.
Bigger than the 1 faceoff lost that makes a guy good or not, is the individual game itself. It doesn't matter what a guy did all year if he gets killed in game 7 after getting killed all year, and the coach keeps putting him out for key draws. Many times a game, you can see a player all but concede a faceoff. I want to know the key draw stats.
I will concede that in the modern era when a mistake is how a goal is scored, faceoffs and every play in general, has never been less meaningful in how it relates to goals being scored.