The Canadiens have struggled in the faceoff circle this season, winning only 47.6 per cent of their faceoffs to rank 25th in the NHL heading into Tuesday’s game against the Calgary Flames at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS).
That’s a big drop from last season, when the Canadiens ranked eighth in the NHL at 51.5 per cent.
A big reason for the drop this season is the loss of Sean Monahan, who was winning 55 per cent of his faceoffs last season before being dealt to the Winnipeg Jets in February.
On Monday, the Canadiens brought in former NHL centreman Marc Bureau to work with the team’s centres for more than 30 minutes on faceoffs before the start of practice in Brossard.
Bureau played 11 seasons in the NHL, including three with the Canadiens in the mid-1990s, and was very strong on faceoffs. The NHL only kept track of faceoff winning percentages during the final four seasons of Bureau’s career, during which time he was never below 51.4 per cent. He won 56.3 per cent of his faceoffs with the Philadelphia Flyers during the 1999-2000 season.
Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis said it was general manager Kent Hughes who invited the 58-year-old Bureau to work with the team’s centres.
All of the Canadiens’ regular centres this season have won less than 50 per cent of their faceoffs. Nick Suzuki is at 49.5 per cent, Christian Dvorak is at 48.9 per cent, Jake Evans is at 48.6 per cent, Kirby Dach is at 41 per cent and Alex Newhook is at 40.9 per cent. Oliver Kapanen, who has also seen time at centre, is winning 48.9 per cent of his faceoffs.
“He has a lot of knowledge,” Suzuki said about Bureau after practice. “Worked with a lot of guys around the league, through juniors and pro guys.”
When asked what his main takeaway was from the session with Bureau, Suzuki said: “I think for me it was just the mental side of it. We’re all good centremen. We all know how to take faceoffs and win faceoffs. But when things aren’t going well you got to step in the dot and not think of anything that’s happened before. It’s a one-on-one battle and it affects your play overall if you aren’t winning faceoffs and you’re playing more D-zone and you don’t feel as good. You’re worried about your faceoff percentage.
“I think the mental side of taking faceoffs is super-important,” Suzuki added. “You can be quick, you can be strong, kind of depends who you’re going against and what they’re trying to do. It’s kind of like Rock, Paper, Scissors. Things work differently against different things. It was nice to chat with (Bureau) and hear what he had to say.”
Suzuki said he wants to become more consistent in the faceoff circle.
“Me, personally, I think some games are going really good and some games aren’t,” Suzuki said. “So I want to kind of bring that back to the middle and be over 50 per cent each night. I can’t be 30 and 60 … too inconsistent. I got to clean that up.”
Suzuki has won more than 60 per cent of his faceoffs in four of the first 12 games this season, but has been below 40 per cent in five of them.