Veteran centre Manny Malhotra is a big reason why the Canadiens are the NHL’s best team within the circles.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
Focus your gaze for a moment on the faceoff circle, the one place on an NHL rink where testing the maximum flexibility of rules is not only common practice but essential to success.
Players slash, they butt, they kick, they hook, they swipe early, they slide in late – participants must embrace consequentialist philosophy: The end justifies the means.
Although Montreal Canadiens centre Manny Malhotra, a virtuoso practitioner in the dark arts of the dot, prefers a more genteel description.
"Cheating is kind of an ugly word," he laughed. "Anticipation is the word I'd rather use."
Faceoffs are an under-examined facet of the game and while winning one is no guarantee of success – winning teams are often good at draws but not all great faceoff teams win – it's generally preferable to begin a sequence of play with the puck than without it.
The Habs are no one's idea of a puck-possession juggernaut, even if they're faring better in advanced statistical measures through 15 games than they did last year.
They are, however, the NHL's best team within the circles.
Winger Dale Weise observed "most of that probably has to do with Manny" – Malhotra, his frequent linemate, co-leads the league in faceoff wins with a 63.1-per-cent success rate.
He's right, but there's more to the story.
Montreal is paying particular attention to faceoffs this season; specifically, wingers are more active in supporting the centres and corralling the puck from scrambled faceoffs.
"It seems like there's a majority of 50-50 draws these days, so you have to have that pack mentality," said Malhotra, who has a vast store of mental notes on his opponents' tendencies, knowledge he can share with teammates.
An off-season rule change creating more space between the hash-marks where the wingers line up may also be playing into the speedy Habs' favour.
"You don't have the defenceman right on top you anymore, so maybe it's a tiny bit easier to go in after the puck," said winger Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau.
The former Colorado and New York Islander forward has spent the bulk of his minutes playing with David Desharnais – "he likes for his wingers to help, particularly when he's matched up against a bigger centre."
Desharnais may be diminutive, he has also been lights-out at the dot this season (11th in the league at 55.1 per cent), colleague Lars Eller is at 53 and Tomas Plekanec, who has taken the most draws, is at 51.3.
The Habs have employed gifted faceoff men before (Jeff Halpern springs to mind) but they haven't been above 50 per cent in draws as a team since 2008-09. While the sample size is still on the small side, the 54.9-per-cent ratio they've put up in their first 15 games suggests they can be on the positive side of the ledger this season.
Having one of the NHL's best faceoff takers around to provide stiff practice competition and dole out advice may have a measurable effect: In the early going almost every centre on the club has seen his numbers improve over last year (Eller is the exception, his totals are unchanged).
"After practices and morning skates we all practise taking draws, and you take pride in beating the other guys," Malhotra said.
Evidence, then, that it's still possible to alter a club in meaningful ways at low cost through free agency; Malhotra, who was among the first players signed on July 1, will make a comparatively modest $850,000 this season.
The Habs have plenty of work to do before they can contend with the puck-possession elite, but coming away with the precious object most of the time when it's dropped after a stop in play is a start.
"Chasing the puck sucks. It's not how we want to play," said Weise. "It's nice to be able to err on the side of a [faceoff] win."
Zone start statistics show the Habs are generally having success at moving the puck in the right direction following whistles.
Malhotra starts just 76.3 per cent of his shifts in the offensive zone (according to behindthenet.ca), but finishes nearly half of them (42.9 per cent) in the other team's end.
The same is broadly true of the Habs' other centres, although Desharnais' numbers are skewed by his unusually high number of offensive zone starts.
Malhotra won't win any shooting competitions or fill the net – he has 12 shots and no points yet this season.
But if it's true a rising tide floats all boats, Montreal's centres should continue riding a little higher in the faceoff waters.