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Originally Posted by ignite09
Would like to see you expand on that. Do you have anything to back that up with?
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http://statsportsconsulting.com/main...lysis12-12.pdf
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As part of this analysis we analyzed 211,372 faceoffs from the 2008-9, 2009-10, and 2010-11 regular seasons.
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a player must win about 76 more faceoffs than they lose in order to obtain a goal differential for his team.
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A team that moves from winning 50% of their faceoffs to winning 60% of them gains just over 12 goals per season which is equivalent to two additional wins.
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No team really approaches 60% of faceoff wins over the course of a season, the best in the last few seasons was Boston at 56.4% in 12-13. While the best players do add to their team's chances, and overall being good at winning faceoffs or losing faceoffs can impact a team positively or negatively, the effort needed to improve isn't really worth the gain you get out of it.
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In particular, for the seasons that we studied, San Jose as a team gained approximately 6.1 goals per season as a result of their prowess winning faceoffs ... this means that San Jose has earned approximately one additional win per season via winning faceoffs.
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Yes, one win can be important, but San Jose was at the extreme high-end of the scale for the study (Edmonton, as they are no good, was at the opposite end). There are more impactful ways to spend time, energy, and money than on improving faceoff winning percentage.
There was exactly 0 difference between the Flames faceoff wins and Canucks faceoff wins last series. Right now the Ducks are up on us by 28 faceoff wins, or about .3 of a goal. It's worth noting that almost all of that discrepancy came in game 3, where they dominated us 40-19 in faceoffs, and we won.
Faceoffs are weird, they
feel important. They
look important. People talk about them like they are important and every now and then a pivotal goal is scored off a faceoff, or a faceoff win results in a vital clearing of the puck, or seals a win in the last seconds.
Players should practice faceoffs. It's good to have players on your team who are good at winning faceoffs. They are absolutely not worth stressing over, losing sleep over, and should not be a priority for training, as their impact is minimal.