Faceoff Leaders By Starting Zone

by Derek Zona on Nov 7, 2011 5:00 PM MST in Miscellaneous

Tom Renney is doing yeoman's work to avoid unfavorable match-ups and it's showing up in Qualcomp and faceoffs per sixty minutes of time on ice. My curiosity was piqued, so I dug into the league-wide ratios to see what else we might find buried in the faceoff data. After the jump, we'll look at the top ten and bottom ten in offensive, defensive and neutral zone faceoffs per 60 minutes of even strength time on ice.

*all stats current as of 11/6/11

The offensive faceoff leaders are a familiar bunch to those people who understand how Alain Vigneault runs his bench.

OF/60 RK	Name	Team	GP	TOI RK	OF/60
1	Alex Burrows	VAN	14	165	33.34
2	Henrik Sedin	VAN	14	49	32.37
3	Daniel Sedin	VAN	14	42	32.19
4	Tomas Holmstrom	DET	9	340	30.38
5	Andreas Engqvist	MTL	7	390	29.06
6	Cory Emmerton	DET	9	364	27.32
7	Andrew Brunette	CHI	12	180	27.21
8	Jason Pominville	BUF	13	186	27.08
9	Jeff Carter	CBJ	5	44	26.76
10	Jacob Josefson	N.J	5	267	26.74

Though the Hall-Hopkins-Eberle line has a large percentage of their faceoffs in the offensive zone, by limiting their overall faceoffs, they don't even place in the top 200 by this measure. The Sedins benefit a great deal from Manny Malhotra's work. It's not a surprise that Tomas Holmstrom is on this list, his role in Detroit is that of an offensive and power play specialist, but it is a surprise to see Jason Pominville on this list. My money would've been on Tyler Ennis.

OF/60 RK	Name	Team	GP	TOI RK	OF/60
384	Zac Rinaldo	PHI	9	388	8.723
385	Brandon Prust	NYR	12	262	8.676
386	Tom Pyatt	T.B	8	301	8.291
387	Tanner Glass	WPG	13	292	8.121
388	Maxim LaPierre	VAN	14	310	7.264
389	Samuel Pahlsson	CBJ	10	258	7.104
390	Maxim Mayorov	CBJ	7	281	6.549
391	Derek Dorsett	CBJ	10	296	5.378
392	Aaron Volpatti	VAN	12	321	4.42
393	Dale Weise	VAN	14	327	4.383

The bottom ten gentlemen on the list are a mix of defensive specialists and replacement players. Vancouver's three are the counter-balance to the Sedins and Scott Arniel doesn't allow the Pahlsson line anywhere near the offensive zone unless they get there through a wormhole.

The defensive zone faceoff leaders list has a repeat appearance by Samuel Pahlsson.

DF/60 RK	Name	Team	GP	TOI RK	DF/60
1	Jerred Smithson	NSH	12	194	46.39
2	Manny Malhotra	VAN	14	286	33.76
3	Dustin Jeffrey	PIT	6	343	30.38
4	Nick Spaling	NSH	10	112	30.11
5	Marcus Kruger	CHI	11	325	29.32
6	Derek Dorsett	CBJ	10	296	28.09
7	Samuel Pahlsson	CBJ	10	258	27.87
8	Max Talbot	PHI	13	312	27.53
9	Jordin Tootoo	NSH	12	127	27.44
10	Jim Slater	WPG	11	246	27.32

Smithson, Malhotra, and Pahlsson are being used as defensive zone / faceoff specialists and the numbers bear that out. Spaling, Tootoo and Dorsett are along for the ride.

Renney's strategy of limiting faceoffs for the Hopkins' line, combined with limiting defensive zone faceoffs is apparent in the bottom ten defensive zone faceoffs list:

DF/60 RK	Name	Team	GP	TOI RK	DF/60
384	Joakim Lindstrom	COL	10	220	7.70
385	Stephane Da Costa	OTT	15	283	7.66
386	Ryan Nugent-Hopkins	EDM	13	144	6.77
387	Brad Staubitz	MIN	9	384	6.70
388	Jordan Eberle	EDM	13	164	6.65
389	Andrew Gordon	ANA	14	306	6.58
390	Taylor Hall	EDM	12	139	6.55
391	Mark Scheifele	WPG	7	318	6.50
392	Ryan Reaves	STL	6	386	5.42
393	George Parros	ANA	11	392	4.66

The kids are only taking ~7 defensive zone faceoffs per 60 minutes of even strength ice time. Shawn Horcoff, on the other hand has taken ~24 defensive zone faceoffs per 60. Of note - Mark Scheifele got the same treatment during his time with the Jets, but couldn't produce much in the way of results.

The last two lists are the top 10 and bottom 10 in neutral zone faceoffs for informational purposes only.

NF/60 RK	Name	Team	GP	TOI RK	NF/60
1	Dave Bolland	CHI	11	150	35.37
2	Nikita Filatov	OTT	6	352	35.04
3	Peter Regin	OTT	5	264	34.10
4	Brooks Laich	WSH	12	147	33.05
5	Zac Rinaldo	PHI	9	388	32.40
6	Bryan Bickell	CHI	12	146	32.22
7	Michael Frolik	CHI	12	88	31.82
8	Joel Ward	WSH	12	187	30.97
9	Jason Chimera	WSH	12	192	30.71
10	Jay Pandolfo	NYI	11	304	30.36

The Blackhawks have Brunette in the top 10 OF/60, Kruger in the top 10 DF/60 and Bolland, Bickell, Frolik in the top 10 of NF/60.

NF/60 RK	Name	Team	GP	TOI RK	NF/60
384	Brad Boyes	BUF	13	247	14.05
385	Mathieu Darche	MTL	12	339	13.69
386	Cory Emmerton	DET	9	364	13.66
387	Kaspars Daugavins	OTT	6	156	13.44
388	Scott Nichol	STL	13	365	13.42
389	Mattias Ritola	T.B	5	348	13.27
390	Andreas Engqvist	MTL	7	390	12.91
391	Tyler Ennis	BUF	7	231	11.89
392	Kris Newbury	NYR	6	385	10.43
393	Kevin Westgarth	L.A	5	382	9.95

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Comments

Derek,

Unfortunately I have this habit of posting at the end of threads, and it often leads to people missing my questions/comments. I was wondering if you were willing to address my question at the end of the "The Quirky Numbers Behind Protecting Hall, Hopkins And Eberle thread?

by imkinger on Nov 7, 2011 5:24 PM MST reply actions

There’s a reasonably-sized contingent of Canucks fans who really want AV gone. Which, whatever.

by Passive Voice on Nov 7, 2011 5:47 PM MST reply actions

Ugh, Canucks fans.

by ArtemChubarov on Nov 7, 2011 7:48 PM MST up reply actions

Do you have team numbers for this? I’d be curious to see what an average number for both stats would look like.

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by George E. Ays on Nov 7, 2011 5:51 PM MST reply actions

Overall or for forwards with 5 GP?

Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.

by Derek Zona on Nov 7, 2011 6:31 PM MST up reply actions

Overall.

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Tracking the Rangers - Numbers don't lie. They just don't agree with you.
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by George E. Ays on Nov 8, 2011 7:19 AM MST up reply actions

I kind of love Pahlsson.

Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact.
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by ryanbatty on Nov 8, 2011 9:23 AM MST reply actions

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