Quote:
Originally Posted by thefoss1957
Just about the only goals the 'Hawks allowed to the Wild were directly off lost d-zone draws...Faceoffs drive possession, and possession drives scoring...to say that faceoffs don't matter seems fallacious.
The 'Hawks have Yannick Perrault coaching Centers in their system, and he has done wonders for Marcus Kruger, to the benefit of the 'Hawk PK.
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3 of the top 5 face off teams in the league are either eliminated or about to be. Overall face off % means little. Strategically, a great face off guy is useful, but not essential.
Is very complex. Like you said, face offs drive possession, possession drives scoring, and scoring drives winning. However, there's enough chance involved in each of those links to really minimize the impact.
The problem is magnitude. If the best teams win 80% and the worst won 20%, you'd have a point. However, the best face off teams are maybe 10% better than the worst. If a goal is scored off a defensive zone loss once every 20-30 lost d zone face offs (that's a huge stretch, it's likely more rare), and your only going to lose 10% less than your opponent, I wouldn't call that much of an advantage over a seven game series. Maybe 1 goal?