Faceoff Breakdown – Round 1
By Ryan Pike
8 years agoOne man who is being heavily praised by Flames fans and pundits after the series’ end is Matt Stajan. Not only did Stajan score the series-clinching goal, he also was crucial in shutting down the Sedins in the six-game series.
One huge way he shut down the Sedins was his face-off dominance, as Stajan had the highest face-off winning percentage of any regular center in the series.
A full breakdown is after the jump!
THE WHOLE SERIES
| Sean Monahan | Mikael Backlund | Matt Stajan | Josh Jooris | Markus Granlund | Overall (all draws) | |
| Henrik Sedin | 34 taken 20-14 VAN | 19 taken 12-7 VAN | 60 taken 35-25 CGY | 6 taken 4-2 CGY | 2 taken 2-0 VAN | 50.4% |
| Nick Bonino | 47 taken 28-19 VAN | 12 taken 10-2 CGY | 13 taken 8-5 CGY | 3 taken 3-0 CGY | 3 taken 3-0 CGY | 47.7% |
| Bo Horvat | 17 taken 10-7 VAN | 17 taken 12-5 VAN | 11 taken 8-3 CGY | 8 taken 7-1 VAN | 3 taken 2-1 CGY | 60.9% |
| Brad Richardson | 13 taken 7-6 VAN | 12 taken 6-6 tie |
12 taken 6-6 tie | 4 taken 3-1 CGY | 2 taken 2-0 VAN | 44.9% |
| Linden Vey | 2 taken 2-0 CGY | 1 taken 1-0 VAN | n/a | 2 taken 2-0 CGY | n/a | 16.7% |
| Overall (all draws) | 43.3% | 47.6% | 61.0% | 53.3% | 50.0% |
The Good: Stajan was superb, winning (or tying) every match-up. In particular, he was the main Flame who tangled with Henrik Sedin and he won well over half their draws – a figure that is skewed mostly towards home, as the Canucks got Sedin out against Sean Monahan quite often. Josh Jooris was also quietly effective in a depth role, as he was all season long, as the team’s only consistent right-handed center.
The Bad: Sean Monahan was so-so, winning only 43% of his draws after being Calgary’s most consistent face-off guy all season. Instead, he was easily their worst and his struggles likely contributed to the tough sledding the top line faced all series. Mikael Backlund was better, but also not particularly good. He dominated Nick Bonino, but so did every Flame not named Monahan. Yes, Monahan couldn’t regularly beat Vancouver’s worst centers this series.
The Look Ahead: For the curious, Anaheim’s primary centers:
- Ryan Kesler won 63.3% of his draws
- Ryan Getzlaf won 53.3%.
- Rickard Rakell won 47.9%.
- Tomas Fleischmann won 43.8% (over 2 games).
- Andrew Cogliano won 45.4%.
Calgary has another tough series ahead of them.
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