Faceoffs falling short

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This article was published 10/03/2021 (1641 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Pierre-Luc Dubois hasn’t been very quick on the draw. Mark Scheifele, a true student of the game, is repeatedly getting schooled. And even the reliable Adam Lowry is losing more than he’s winning.

And that’s a potential problem for the Winnipeg Jets, a skilled squad that prides itself on puck possession but is repeatedly starting without it after coming up short in the face-off circle so far this season.

The Jets entered play Tuesday night in Toronto in the bottom tier of NHL clubs, sitting at 48.8 per cent in the dot. That’s fifth in the Canadian division and 20th in the league. They’ll fall even further after winning just 34.1 per cent against the Maple Leafs, although it didn’t end up costing them as they hung on for a 4-3 victory due largely to the heroics of goalie Connor Hellebuyck.

Like so many nights this year, it seemed like the opponent controlled play for long stretches.

“It’s a critical piece to the game. My understanding from an analytics point of view is it’s not highly correlated to winning, but it sure does seem like it is. For a possession team, which I think we’re all trying to be now, you want to start with the puck,” coach Paul Maurice said prior to puck drop.

It’s a puzzling development considering Winnipeg has been a very good faceoff team in recent years, especially during the magical 2017-18 campaign when they finished fifth in the NHL at 52.4 per cent. That was followed by an 11th-place rank in 2018-19 (50.7 per cent) and 15th-place last season (50.1 per cent).

Now, for the first time since 2016-17 (48.5 per cent), they’re on the wrong side of the 50-50 line.

“So it’s a skill, and there’s more to it than just bearing down. You find centreicemen improve with age, because so much of this is experience. So short of that, you want to prep your centreicemen for what the tendencies of the other players do, and we do that. A fair amount of video available to them on that. We work on it at the end of practice,” said Maurice.

“And then as a group we will have to talk about at times not trying to win it clean, and getting more scrums, getting it stalled in the circle to give ourselves a chance to battle a little bit harder.”

Based on that logic, you’d think the Jets would be improving since Scheifele and Lowry, now both 27, take a big chunk of the draws. Scheifele went into action Tuesday winning just 43.4 per cent this year. He was 46.9 per cent last season, 46.3 per cent the one before that, and a career-best 51.3 per cent in 2017-18.

Scheifele went a dreadful 2 for 10 against Toronto.

Lowry began the night at 49.3 per cent, which is a significant drop from his past three seasons (53.8 per cent last year, 57.6 in 2018-19, 55.9 per cent in 2017-18). He was 4 for 13 against the Maple Leafs.

“I think it’s just bearing down for everyone. Not just the centremen but everyone,” Scheifele said prior to the first of three straight meetings against a Toronto team that excels in that department. The Maple Leafs began the night second in the division (Vancouver is first), and 11th in the NHL at 51.8 per cent. Jason Spezza, at 58.6, is sixth-best in the NHL. John Tavares (58.3 per cent) is eighth. And Auston Matthews, at 52.6 per cent, is no slouch either.

Matthews (13 for 18) and Tavares (10 for 14) had their way against the Jets.

“I think a big thing when you watch the Leafs play, their wingers jump really quick. So it’s just a matter of everyone being ready. Every single faceoff matters and every single guy on that ice being ready to win that faceoff,” said Scheifele.

Nobody has struggled more than the 22-year-old Dubois, who at least has the inexperience excuse on his side in addition to missing a big chunk of games following the blockbuster trade with Columbus due to quarantine and then an injury. Dubois was at just 37.3 per cent before going 4 for 11 on Tuesday.

“It’s definitely important, and it’s something you work on a lot, something we talk about. Especially here. We practise after practice, do video, watch what other centremen are doing. It’s just something that you need to talk to your wingers about, too, because they can help win faceoffs also. But it’s definitely something that as the season goes on you want to get better at. Obviously you’d love to start in first place, but sometimes it’s not how you start it’s how you finish,” said Dubois.

“As a group here we have guys that love hockey, we have guys like Scheifele. I call him a hockey nerd. He loves the game, loves all the details of it. Even if your stick’s positioned one inch too much to the right, that’s how you lost the faceoff. So to be able to be around guys like that is great. I think that’s how you improve as a player. And that’s how you grow on faceoffs.”

Rather than pick Scheifele’s brain, Dubois might want to spend some time studying 35-year-old Paul Stastny, who leads the Jets by a country mile at 54.7 per cent this season. Stastny is now playing left wing on a line with Scheifele and captain Blake Wheeler, and he’ll often slide in to take the draw in Scheifele’s place. But even he had a rough night in the circle against Toronto, going just 2-for-7.

Another veteran, 36-year-old Nate Thompson, is next at 50.8 per cent and went 2 for 2 on the fourth line against the Maple Leafs.

“In periods of hockey where we’d say we didn’t really love our period but we were OK, it usually meant we didn’t start with the puck very much. So we were defending,” Maurice said of the impact so far this year.

“You didn’t give yourself a chance to get really on a roll. And I think you’ve got to win faceoffs to get on that kind of offensive roll where you wear the other team down with zone time because you win the draw and start with the puck.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg