[Cali Panthers Fan]

All due respect to your ideas GranteedEV, because they are solid, but there are still moments in games where you need a key face-off win in order to get out of a tough defensive position, i.e. playing against the other team's top line or beginning a penalty kill. These are the scenarios where you aren't going to waste your #1 center if you can avoid it, saving them instead for a moment where they can be on the ice against lesser players.

This is especially true in the Pacific where the other team's #1 centers are also very good defensively and also have the ability to dominate physically. Getting Monahan or Bennett away from the Kopitar's and Getzlaf's is sometimes the only way to beat those teams. Letting Backlund handle those matchups, is preferable, and the best way to begin those shifts is with a face off win and controlling possession. That way you have a better chance of winning the possession battle off the hop.

Backlund's one saving grace is that he's very good on takeaways, especially in the neutral zone, but in his own zone he's more likely to get outmatched physically, lending even more importance to the face-off win.

All of these qualities are dependent on each other, meaning they don't exist in a vacuum, and for some players face-offs are more important than others. I don't disagree that's it's less of a problem for Backlund than most centers, however, it's still a problem that keeps him from being an elite 2-way center. It's a skill, like any other, that can be learned and improved upon.

I look at a guy like Derek McKenzie on the Panthers and he wins almost 54% of his draws over his career, yet he's 5'11" and 181 pounds. What makes him different than Backlund? Experience is roughly equal and he's actually smaller than Backlund. Yet he finds a way to get it done. He's one of those guys that will do whatever it takes to win. Desire, effort, strategy, and some level of skill contribute to his execution of one of his most important duties: Winning key face-offs.

All I'm saying is it still matters on some level. To what level it matters varies from player to player, role to role, and team to team...but it still matters, quite a bit.