Why Bruins must find faceoff upgrade before 2024 NHL trade deadline originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Bruins were less than two minutes from one of their best wins of the season Tuesday night. They were about to become just the third team in 2023-24 to shutout the Edmonton Oilers.
But like they have so many times this season, and particularly of late, the Bruins couldn’t close out the victory in the third period. Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl got a fortunate bounce in front of the net as the puck trickled past Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark and over the goal line to tie the score at one apiece with 1:20 remaining. Draisaitl later sealed Edmonton’s 2-1 win with a goal in overtime.
One of the primary issues for the Bruins over the last month has been faceoffs.
The Bruins have won just two of their last seven games, and they have a 46.7 faceoff win percentage during that span, which ranks 25th out of 32 teams. They rank 17th with a 49.1 faceoff win percentage since the All-Star break. Boston ranks 21st with a 49.2 faceoff win percentage for the whole season.
How does that compare to previous years?
Well, the B’s were No. 2 in faceoff win percentage last season. They were No. 3 in 2021-22, No. 1 in 2020-21 and No. 7 in 2019-20. Only the Carolina Hurricanes have a better faceoff win percentage than the B’s over the last 10 years. This is one facet of the game where the Bruins really, really miss Patrice Bergeron — one of the best faceoff centers of all time.
Pavel Zacha (54.3 percent) and Charlie Coyle (51.8 percent) have been pretty good on faceoffs all season. The rest of the team? Not so much. No one else on the roster is above 46.2 percent, except John Beecher (53.9 percent), who was assigned to the AHL’s Providence Bruins in January.
Defensive-zone faceoffs, in particular, have been a problem late in games for the Bruins in recent weeks.
Oilers forward Corey Perry tied the score in the third period on Feb. 21 after an Edmonton faceoff win in the attacking zone. The B’s managed to escape with a 6-5 overtime victory.
The Vancouver Canucks erased a two-goal deficit against the Bruins in the third period on Feb. 24, and both of their tallies were the result of offensive-zone faceoff wins.
Vince Dunn tied the score 2-2 for the Seattle Kraken on Feb. 26 after a faceoff win in the Bruins’ zone during the third period. The Kraken ended up winning 4-3 in overtime.
The Oilers tied the score 1-1 late in the third period Tuesday night when Charlie Coyle lost a…