Face-offs: issue or non-issue?

More from Don:

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It was reported in this blog earlier that winning face offs has been an issue for the Kings this season, and in winning only 16 of 45 draws in last week’s overtime loss to Vancouver it was obvious that allowing the Canucks puck possession had the Kings on their collective heels most of the game and ultimately cost them a win.

But upon further review of the last 10 games, it appears that in at least recent history, face offs haven’t been the biggest culprit.

During the 10-game span, the Kings have won 249 of 528 face offs (47%) and have actually been on the positive side of winning draws in half of the 10 games. In fact, the Kings had a three game streak (versus Montreal, Ottawa and St. Louis) where they won more draws than their opponents unfortunately they lost two of those three games.

Perhaps an even stranger statistical oddity: In the Kings’ 4-1 victory over Nashville on Thursday, the Predators actually won 38 of the 64 face offs (the Kings winning only 41% of the draws), the Kings then won three more face offs than Minnesota in the Wilds 2-0 victory.

Forward Michal Handzus, who is called upon to take many key face offs each game is at a loss to explain exactly why the team is wildly inconsistent in the face off circle.

“It’s really strange because some games are good and others it’s just pretty bad,” Handzus said. “Personally it’s something I’m working on and hopefully things will improve. You really want to win every face off you take because puck possession is so important – just look at teams like San Jose and Detroit. We need to be winning 65-70% of our face offs.”

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