In The Circle
Crosby Improving Teams' Faceoff Results
By Bob Grove

Is the worst faceoff team in the National Hockey League really getting better?

The opening weeks of the 2007-08 season seem to suggest the Penguins are getting to know their way around the faceoff circle, although the statistical sample was too small to start drawing any big conclusions. We've got all winter to watch the real answer become clear.

Pittsburgh's faceoff efficiency has been dead last in the league for two seasons running now, so even an early foray into mediocrity looks good. After eight games, the Penguins ranked 15th in the 30-team league at 50.5 percent, up from 47 percent last season and 45.9 percent two seasons ago.

The biggest reason for the jump should hardly be surprising. Sidney Crosby, who is nothing if not satisfied, has become significantly better at winning draws. He won 45.5 percent of his faceoffs as a rookie and 49.8 percent last season, but he jumped to 56.1 percent through eight games - seventh among all NHL players who had taken 145 or more faceoffs.

"I've worked on it just as much as last year. But my first year," Crosby said, "I didn't play center for the first 30 games, so I was kind of behind the eight ball. I hadn't taken faceoffs for a while, so last year was really my first full year getting involved and getting to know guys a little more. I would say it's just a combination of getting familiar with myself and with opponents."

Two games displayed just how far he has come. Crosby won a career-high 19 faceoffs Oct. 10 against Montreal, then went 16-7 against Toronto three nights later, winning seven of 10 draws against the accomplished Mats Sundin.

He doesn't get caught up in the numbers but admits that faceoffs "are something to pay attention to and work on. It's a detail of the game for sure… It's the key ones you've really got to make sure you get: power plays, defensive zone."

Not coincidentally, Crosby was winning 58.8 percent of his draws in the defensive zone. Max Talbot was also pitching in, putting together a career-high string of six straight winning nights, and another guy who's really helped is winger Adam Hall, who had won 62.9 percent of his faceoffs in the defensive zone. He wasn't taking as many faceoffs as the Penguins' regular centermen, but his ability in the circle was proving to be yet another reason to keep him in the lineup every night.

"Anything I can do to help this team win, I'm willing to do," says Hall, who proved adept at faceoffs over the years while serving as a penalty killer in Nashville. "We'll share ideas; I'm learning from guys here all the time. Even during games, we'll be talking about certain centermen, how they go in, how they take faceoffs, certain tendencies they may have that can help us.

"I go in there and just try and battle for it. You go against guys that are smaller like Todd Marchant and Kris Draper, to guys that are lot bigger, like Joe Thornton. . . it's always different depending on who you're facing. That's what makes it so much fun - you have to adapt every single time. If you're going to do the same thing every single time you're in there, they're going to figure you out. It's a fun kind of one-on-one battle every time."

Fun when you're winning them, anyhow.