ADVANTAGES IN PP FACEOFFS
(Aug 2010)
If you win an offensive zone faceoff at 5v5, whatever advantage you gained is mostly gone after 10 seconds, and it’s completely gone after 18 or so. On the other hand, at 5v4, your opportunity rates never converge. Odds are, if the defensive team wins a faceoff, they’ll dump it down the ice. You’ll lose time going back to get the puck and they’ll get a change, and those fresh legs will ultimately reduce your ability to get scoring opportunities.
CORSI AND PP FACEOFFS
(Nov 2012)
The reason why winning the first faceoff is insignificant is because hockey is a game of puck position, not puck possession.
Whether you win or lose the draw, the puck is deep in their end and you have an extra man. We mash together the words “win the draw and ice the puck”. Those are two separate things and the easier part by far is winning the draw.
The penalty kill wins the draw and clears the puck, it is a very good thing. A good PK will harass the puck the entire 200 feet back. If the power play can’t get set up, it won’t score often.
PP% WHEN FACEOFF WON OR LOST
Overall 5v4 PP% = 18.32%
5v4 PP% when you win the first faceoff = 20.53%
5v4 PP% when you lose the first faceoff = 16.21%
So overall, there is a impact, but it’s small. You’ll score about a goal more every 20 power play opportunities if you go from losing EVERY opening power play faceoff to winning EVERY one. It’s not something that I would lose too much sleep over, although to be fair, every little thing counts.
FACEOFF FORMATION ON PP
Power plays are all about isolating the extra man. The best way to do that is through quick, decisive and crisp puck movement. Off a faceoff, run around and get set up. The initial movement doesn’t allow defense to get set.
The Caps, as a study in contrast, use the slot man to take the faceoff on the right side, which means players start virtually in formation. The advantage of that is obviously that you save even more seconds, but the downside is that there isn’t that initial decisive player movement to confuse the penalty killers.
Tradeoff: lose time setting up in formation, vs a quick shot from the faceoff win.
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