Reflections on the TAking of Faceoffs, Redux

A couple days ago I undertook a brief analysis of some faceoffs taken by Brooks Laich on the power play in Thursday night's game against the Boston Bruins.

The main question was simply- why did Laich take a pair of offensive zone faceoffs with the Capitals on the power play, when a) center Nicklas Backstrom was on the ice, b) Backstrom performed well in the dot in the pre-season, and c) Laich quite did not.

Previously I came to the conclusion that Laich's presence in the circle was based on perceived good matchups against Boston's two primary penalty-killing centers, Marc Savard and Patrice Bergeron. Laich and Backstrom are both left-handed, so there was no advantage putting having one or the other take a faceoff depending on which side of the ice.

I was curious to see what the 1st unit PP faceoff statistics looked like Saturday night at home against the Maple Leafs, and they did not disappoint. Washington's #1 unit was on the ice for four faceoffs, all in Toronto's end. Laich took all four of them.

So obviously there isn't a specific player-matchup reason for Laich taking these faceoffs. Against Toronto he took two each against Jamal Mayers and Matt Stajan, the former who shoots right and the latter left.

Also of note is the fact that Laich has been consistently weak in the dot. If you include the one short-handed draw he took last night he was 1-5, giving him a two-game result of 2-8. An overall 25% success rate, up to 33% if you look specifically at offensive-zone draws while on the power play, is just plain bad.

That returns us again to the original question from the first post: Why?

It's not a matchup thing, and it's also not a success-rate thing. It's also definitely not an accident. Alexander Semin lines up on the left wing instead of his usual right just so he has the immediate wrist shot if Laich wins the draw directly behind/the puck is loose after the drop.

Once possession is established, Washington likes to run a type of umbrella formation on the power play, with Ovechkin and Mike Green or Brian Pothier on the blue line, Semin and Backstrom on the half-boards, and Laich or Mike Knuble in front of the net. As my friend Craig Stone (formerly of Beltway Sports Beat and DC Sports Box) suggested, the Caps positioning on the faceoff corresponds with where they'll be on the ice.

It seems too simplistic to suggest that Laich takes the draws simply because he'll be in the center anyway. A lost faceoff (and Laich loses most of them) could very quickly and easily turn into a cleared puck and a Caps breakout. Of course the simplest way to answer this question would be to ask Laich directly, but he's a hard man to get a word in with after the game when he scores a goal, adds an assist and earns the hard hat. Next Caps game I cover, if this trend continues, I'll try to get an answer from the many himself.