After picking through the rubble of Monday’s 5-1 loss to St. Louis, coach Jim Montgomery – with some of the bad luck that befell his team in the loss in mind, no doubt – had to remind reporters of a simple fact.
“We have 91 points,” said Montgomery. “We have a good hockey team.”
True enough. The B’s have been among the elite teams in the standings all season long, and that’s a credit to how GM Don Sweeney has filled in the roster with depth acquisitions after massive turnover and Montgomery’s utilization of those players at the right times.
But if some B’s fans have an uneasiness about this team heading into the playoffs, it’s understandable. There are certain details that have seen a drop-off from last year to this year. One of them was somewhat expected yet still the most glaring – faceoffs.
The B’s went from being second-ranked in the NHL in overall win percentage (54.5%) and defensive zone draws (55.6%) and first in offensive zone faceoffs (55.4%) to taking a precipitous drop this season. Overall, they rank 21st (49.1%). While there have been some some high-profile defensive zone faceoff losses in squandered leads since the All-Star break, they are actually a little better in the D-zone than one might have expected, ranking 11th in the league (51.9%). But when it comes to keeping the puck in the offensive zone off draws, the B’s are one of the worst teams in the league. They’re ranked 28th at 46.2%.
Now, faceoff win percentage does not always correlate to winning games. The Pittsburgh Penguins are the top faceoff team in the league and they’re currently playing out the string.
But it’s better to have the puck than not. And it would be comforting to B’s fans if they had it a little more.
“Sometimes faceoffs are weird,” said Montgomery during an optional practice at the Garden on Tuesday. “It’s just the way you match up with certain people. Your stick just seems to cover more of the dot and you end up wining more faceoffs. It’s being able to find that consistency when you go up against someone that you don’t cover the dot well and how you adjust your game. Faceoffs are game of chess. Are you going under the stick, over the stick, are you hitting the stick? There’s a lot o different ways to win faceoffs. That’s the art and you see as players age in the league, they usually get better.”
With the retirement of Patrice Bergeron, one of the league’s top faceoff men for years, it stood to reason that the B’s numbers would drop. David Krejci’s numbers weren’t as good as Bergeron’s, but it seemed that if there was a key draw, he managed to win it more often than not.
But the top six numbers have not been bad. With some tough late-game losses to Leon Draisaitl in an overtime loss to Edmonton are still fresh in the mind, Charlie Coyle has an overall win percentage of 51.8% and is better than 52% in both the offensive and defensive zones. Pavel Zacha is at 54.2% overall while he’s at 55.1% in the D-zone and 54.1% in the offensive zone.
However, one of the more underrated losses from last year’s team has been that of Tomas Nosek, who pulled them back at an even 60% overall last year and in the D-zone, where he was most utilized, he won 58.3%.
The B’s have had trouble winning draws while the bottom six have been on the ice. While both Morgan Geekie and Jesper Boqvist have been legitimate finds by Sweeney, they’ve had their struggles on the dot. Geekie is at 42.8% (37.2% in the O-zone, 47.3% in the D-zone) and Boqvist has really struggled {37.3% overall, 40.7% in D-zone, 38.5% in D-zone).
The concern has not escaped either player. Geekie has been over 50% his last two games, but his draws are a work in progress.
“I’ve been trying to mess with some stuff,” said Geekie. “Normally I’m better than I have been and I feel like I haven’t been getting bounces. But then again when that happens, you’re not very comfortable in there. I’ve been screwing around with a lot of stuff and just trying to find something that works and get my timing down a little better. I’ve found something the last few games. Obviously it’s nice to win a few draws, you start with the puck a little more. When we get O-zone draws and I win those, it’s a lot easier to make plays off those. It’s something I’m definitely working on and I just haven’t really found anything that works. So it’s nice to get something as of late.”
Boqvist has played his best hockey as a centerman, but draws have long been a bugaboo. He was under 40% the previous two seasons in New Jersey.
“That’s a part of my game that I can really improve. I’ve improved a little bit this year (from the past). I’ve got keep growing. A 50-50 puck can be a loss, so I’ve got to tell my wingers to help out, too, right?” he said with a smile. “But, no, most of it is on me so I have to keep working on and keep watching videos to see what I can do to improve. It’s something I really want to improve, for sure.”
When the playoffs start next month, the faceoff wins and losses become magnified…
The Bruins signed right-shot defenseman Drew Bavaro, a college free agent out of Notre Dame, to a one-year entry level deal. The 6-foot-3, 202-pound Bavaro recorded 10-10-20 totals in 35 games with the Fighting Irish in 2023-24. Last season, he had 6-13-19 with ND. Bavaro, spent his first two collegiate seasons at Bentley, adds to the organizational depth at the right-handed D-man, a coveted commodity. The deal that kicks in next year will carry an NHL cap hit of $867,500. He’ll report to Providence on an amateur tryout deal for the rest of this season.