Red Wing's faceoff woes breeding inconsistency

[peckthenathan]

Faceoff numbers are bad. Possession numbers are bad. Consistency is bad.

But, heyo, two solid wins in a row! Smith isn't complete garbage! Skate skate skate! Things are looking up, but the Wings still have a way to go to play a complete game night-in-night-out. Starting with that damned faceoff circle.

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[DatsDeking]

It's becoming an issue. Hopefully things even out once Dats and Richards come back. Larkin specifically needs to work on FOs but that's gonna happen. Basically we have to play the wait and see game to fix our problems. Dats and Richards can't come back soon enough.

 

[DanZ]

Larkin has improved a bit. He was at like 37% a while ago and now he's about 43%. So he's been doing better but needs to continue progressing. I have no doubt he will.

 

[Flowah]

Larkin has improved a bit. He was at like 37% a while ago and now he's about 43%. So he's been doing better but needs to continue progressing. I have no doubt he will.

He's played like 12 games total in the NHL and most has been at the wing. 37%-43% is probably natural variation. He needs to practice a ton and take some real draws against competition to get better.

 

[14ari13]

This is what I said in Datsyuk thread

Datsyuk will emensely improve our faceoffs. This is one of the main reasons why we got outshot so much. Our strength was faceoffs, now it is our weakness.

Larkin Z Abby
Richards D Pulkkinen
Nyquist Sheahan Tatar
Helm Glenny Ferraro

Kronwall Green
DeKeyser Ericsson
Quincey Smith/Kindl

And this is so true. Even if Datsyuk can't play his usual great, it will help the team a lot when he comes back and wins a lot of faceoffs.

Feel like my post made to the article.

 

[JPE123]

Not surprised about Z's numbers. He lost 3 big ones last night that could have hurt us. And I have noticed Luke has been good.

 

[TheRatPoisoner]

Remember around this time last season when the Wings were really bad at faceoffs too, and Babcock, after one particularly bad game in the dot, said something along the lines of "we're gonna work on them all week." After that, the Wings shot up to top in the league in FOW% and held it there for a while before drooping off towards the end of the season IIRC.

Point is, I'd suspect that this year's Wings have had bigger fish to fry up until this point. If/when they clean up other major areas of their game, I think you'll see them improve in faceoffs as they get more time to focus on them in practice.

 

[Bench]

The Wings don't get kick out of the dot enough, which means they aren't trying to cheat hard enough on them.

 

[Henkka]

When your best faceoff guy is missing, it always has big impact on total numbers.

2nd best is facing opposite team best, 3rd best is facing opposite team 2nd best etc.

When you get your top guy (Datsyuk) back, it strengthens every line because every line has then a better guy in hierarchy.

At same time, when you have a rookie learning faceoffs, it pushes your numbers down.

 

[Mantha Poodoo]

The Wings don't get kick out of the dot enough, which means they aren't trying to cheat hard enough on them.

On the dot. Winning faceoffs at this level is all about cheating without cheating too much.

 

[Chillwavin]

You're a good writer, keep it up. It's nice to see good hockey writing. Go Blue.

 

[Pavels Dog]

Remember around this time last season when the Wings were really bad at faceoffs too, and Babcock, after one particularly bad game in the dot, said something along the lines of "we're gonna work on them all week." After that, the Wings shot up to top in the league in FOW% and held it there for a while before drooping off towards the end of the season IIRC.

Point is, I'd suspect that this year's Wings have had bigger fish to fry up until this point. If/when they clean up other major areas of their game, I think you'll see them improve in faceoffs as they get more time to focus on them in practice.

Good point. Could be a factor that they're having a lot of other stuff to work on in practice, while teams with more established systems can key in on minor areas like faceoffs. I've noticed we seem to be doing a bit better the last few games so hopefully things continue that way.

 

[14ari13]

Remember around this time last season when the Wings were really bad at faceoffs too, and Babcock, after one particularly bad game in the dot, said something along the lines of "we're gonna work on them all week." After that, the Wings shot up to top in the league in FOW% and held it there for a while before drooping off towards the end of the season IIRC.

Point is, I'd suspect that this year's Wings have had bigger fish to fry up until this point. If/when they clean up other major areas of their game, I think you'll see them improve in faceoffs as they get more time to focus on them in practice.

I think for the Wings it is very important to win faceoffs, moreso than for other teams because of our style.
When you lose defensive faceoffs you risk the pressure by the opponent in your zone and when you win in the offensive zone you might get a scoring chance.
Good example Ericsson's goal vs Ottawa.

We Are a puck possession team, we have to be at least 50%.