Thornton taking defensive faceoffs

[Sevren]

Sorry if this has been discussed before in previous GDTs. I don't read them all, especially when we are losing

I noticed a couple of times this year when we ice the puck and our 4th line is on the ice, Thornton takes the defensive faceoff but intentionally gets thrown out to get replaced by Campbell. I have to think that the reason for doing this is because the refs almost never remove a second player of the same team from the faceoff, which I believe would lead to a penalty. So if you don't want Campbell to be removed from the faceoff, you send Thornton first who intentionally gets removed, and then Campbell has near immunity to do what he wants to win the faceoff.

Seems like a brilliant move by Julien. Or is there another reason why Thornton would be the 1st player to take a defensive faceoff and I'm giving Julien too much credit?

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[zaYG]

More time to breath.

 

[SerenityRick]

Julien would do the same thing with Marchand.. he'd get himself thrown out so Bergeron could come in and get the game going.

Genius from a coach's perspective.. I assume the refs will catch on sooner or later

However... it shouldn't even come to this. the ****ing refs need to drop the ****ing puck. It should not take 15+ seconds to drop the puck. Stop throwing people out. Stop whistling the play dead when you do.. I mean holy ****ing ****.

Yeah it's a pet peeve.