You can have all the big bodies you want out there. If your center loses the draw clean none of that matters. I want the guy who knows how to win or at least tie a draw.
So my one friend sent a message to our hockey group chat "If you're up by one goal and there's 10 seconds remaining in the third, who do you want out as your centre for the defensive zone faceoff? My immediate thought was Bergeron or someone similar, but one of my other buddies is adamantly arguing that Zdeno Chara is the best option. His theory is that you "put out your five biggest guys and bully your way to the puck".
Curious what the masses say.
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You can have all the big bodies you want out there. If your center loses the draw clean none of that matters. I want the guy who knows how to win or at least tie a draw.
12 team Yahoo Roto keeper (keep 3)
9 F, 6 D; roster 3 G max
G,A,PPP,SOG,BLKS,HITS - W,SO,SV%,Saves
F: B Tkachuk, Stutzle, Eriksson Ek, Necas, Konecny, Cooley, Boldy, Lehkonen, Tippett
D: Dahlin, Seider, Matheson, Durzi, Addison, Mintyukov
G: Hill, Husso
IR:
Bench: L Hughes, Merzlikins, Terry, Tuch
I'm going with a Kopitar, Toews, or a Bergeron out there. They are known for their elite faceoff prowess, and if you wanted your biggest guys out there to dish a big hit or block a shot, then put guys like Chara and Weber out on the ice. That doesn't mean that they should be the one taking the faceoff.
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Goalies:
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Team:
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Play the game according to how it's officiated. They're unlikely to call anything that late because they don't want to "decide the game" so just bearhug everyone. If you do get a penalty do the same thing on the next faceoff but with just four skaters. Eventually time runs out.
Might be a long 10 seconds though...
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I want my best face off guy. Sure, flank him With as many chara’s as you want, but Bergeron or the next best thing is who I’m sending out to the dot.
Bergeron or Toews due to their draw skills and big moment experience, but I would also think long and hard about putting Bo Horvat out there for that draw.
I say that you investigate his thinking on other matters, and see how crazy the answers he comes up with are. It's one of those answers that indicates that I need to find out if this is a blind spot for him, or if it's a more general problem with his thinking, or he's trolling.
There's no way I trust anybody to take a faceoff in a pro/collegiate/junior game that isn't regularly taking faceoffs. You generally have 4-5 options among guys who do it semi-regularly, you pick your best one, or at least a good one that is big - Kopitar is a much more logical answer for big & can win draws..
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That's one of the dumbest things I have ever heard in terms of hockey strategy. You want your best face-off person for the side of the ice that the face-off is going to take place on take the draw.
If you lose the draw bullying your way to the puck doesn't help you stop a scoring chance since the puck can move a lot faster than your 5 biggest guys.
Best face off guy, two aware and defensively responsible wingers, and two tough as nail Dmen. When the puck is dropped each guy has a job and and they do it as hard and as dirty as they can.
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I want Bergeron.
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Last second defensive zone strategy.
Best faceoff guy, scramble, pull your inside winger towards their D, outside winger goes right to the scrambled draw, outside D man stays with the offensive winger (or have them help in front of the net), inside D stays with the inside offensive winger.
Goal is to pull the puck to the corner or scramble the draw and push the puck to the outside corner. It's 10s, all you need to do is eat 2s at the draw, eat 5s in the corner, and hope the other team can't do anything for the extra 3s. A pass+Goal takes over 1s if the pass is clean.
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G, A, Pts, PPP, FW, SOG, Hits, Blocks
W, Saves, S%, GAA, Game Started
2C, 2LW, 2RW, 4D, 1Util, 2G, 5BN, 2IR, 1IR+, 1NA
C:
LW:
RW:
D:
Util:
G:
Bergeron.
This is one of those items where I truly wonder if somebody is messing with you... because they enjoy it... or if they are delusional.
I've burned way too many hours entertaining those kinds of jackmonsters.
Guessing here on some statistics, but from viewing I'd guess:
50% of draws are won clean, by one FO-man or the other
35% are won on secondary work, i.e. Not the first swipe, but on a secondary move by a FO-man
15% are won with help from non-draw players***
**So, the pro-Chara guy is really only playing for that 15%.
The current NHL has done a pretty good job with cleaning up face-offs. There aren't too many "scrum"-wins any more.
My thought is that you want 2 centers - first one tries to cheat by half a second, and IF thrown out of the circle, THEN I bring in my best guy, whether that’s Bergeron or O’Reilly or Toews, Horvat, Crosby, etc.
Ok, not really advocating cheating.... how about “anticipate” the puck drop a little...?
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This was happening in the NHL, but has phased out with the penalty rule, and true wingers practicing faceoffs more often now. The issue is when you get your 2nd center on the ice, he doesn't play defensively on a wing the same level of a full time winger.
So the thought is if C1 gets tossed, the new player taking the draw has to be VERY careful not to take a penalty, and typically ends up losing the draw way more often. So even if you have a true center being a winger coming in as a backup center to take the draw, it's tough to win that and not worth the risk defensively.
It's a risk vs reward idea that some teams can do (Stamkos knows well enough how to play winger, same with Benn/Seguin), but most can't where it's not worth the risk of trying to win the draw after your C1 has been kicked out. I'm sure there's stats on how it's like 15% chance to win the draw after your C1 has been kicked out. Another thing, refs won't kick out your C1 unless it's REALLY bad in the final 10s in a 1goal game.
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G, A, Pts, PPP, FW, SOG, Hits, Blocks
W, Saves, S%, GAA, Game Started
2C, 2LW, 2RW, 4D, 1Util, 2G, 5BN, 2IR, 1IR+, 1NA
C:
LW:
RW:
D:
Util:
G: