In The Face-Off Circle: A game-by-game look at the face-off's in the Stanley Cup Final
The Detroit Red Wings had their best face-off man, Kris Draper, back in the lineup for Game 4, and as a team they had their best showing since Game 1, winning 34 of 60 draws. While Draper won six of his 11, the biggest factor in the margin on Thursday night wasn't what any one individual Red Wing did, but what one individual Penguin didn't do.
Pittsburgh center Jordan Staal has been struggling with face-offs for much of the series, and the 20-year-old had his worst showing of the season on Thursday going just 2-for-15 against the Wings. Though, to be fair, he made it up for it in a huge way by scoring, perhaps, the biggest goal of the season for the Penguins (so far) by beating Brian Rafalski one-on-one and picking up a shorthanded goal midway through the second period, starting a five-and-a-half minute stretch where Pittsburgh beat Chris Osgood three times to take a 4-2 lead.
As for his night in the circle:
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The Red Wings had the better overall night on face-offs, but Penguins not named Staal combined to go 24-for-43 (55 percent). The number is even more concerning for Staal when you consider he was matched up against Darren Helm, the man responsible for most of his troubles this series, just two times.
Meanwhile, for Detroit, Draper has been one of the league's best face-off specialists for years now, and in last year's Stanley Cup Final against Pittsburgh he was a dominating 72-for-107. I figured going into game 4 the Wings might use him in shorthanded situations to gain possession off the draw in an effort to improve their dreadful penalty killing this postseason, but Mike Babcock didn't seem to go that way, as the veteran was responsible for just two shorthanded face-offs (and one of them was with 1:30 remaining in regulation).
Here's how he performed in his return:
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Odds and ends
-- Daniel Cleary took one draw for the Red Wings on Thursday (his first of the series, and 11th in the postseason) and it was after Darren Helm was kicked out of the face-off circle in the offensive zone midway through the first period. Cleary won it against Sidney Crosby, which led to one of the Red Wings' best shifts of the night, as they managed to get five shots on Marc-Andre Fleury in a span of just 15 seconds.
-- Helm's goal late in the first period came after one of his face-off wins against Craig Adams. Helm, who is now 35-for-53 (66 percent) in the series, stole an outlet pass from Rob Scuderi in the offensive zone and beat Fleury through a screen for his fourth goal of the postseason. After the game, Babcock mentioned that he felt Helm's line was Detroit's best unit on the night, and it's hard to disagree. Based on the way he's played this postseason, it's doubtful that he'll be stuck playing in the American Hockey League ever again.
-- During the first two games in Detroit, Crosby and Henrik Zetterberg faced off 27 times (including 23 in five-on-five situations). In the first two games in Pittsburgh they faced off just 10 times. Crosby has a slight edge in the series, going 19-for-37 (51 percent). After getting shut out in the first two games in Detroit, Crosby now has three points in his past two games. Is it because he's not matched up against Zetterberg quite as often? Perhaps, though, Zetterberg was on the ice when Chris Kunitz, Crosby, and Tyler Kennedy completed their tic-tac-toe goal in the second period.
-- Evgeni Malkin has been the Penguins' best player, and he's also, surprisingly, been one of their best face-off men in this series. For his career, he's consistently been in the low-to-mid 40 percent range. In the first four games against Detroit he's converting at a 55 percent success rate (15-for-27).
