For reasons that even he's not completely sure of, Dave King, a three-time coach of Canada's men's Olympic hockey team, knows there is one area of the international game in which Canada almost always holds an edge: faceoffs.
Think faceoffs don't matter? Consider that if Canada ends up playing Russia in the 2010 men's Olympic hockey final, the one sure-fire way to diminish the offensive contributions of Alex Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk and Evgeni Malkin is to deny them the puck. Philosophically, Canada's head coach Mike Babcock - a protégé of King's, who shares his Saskatchewan roots - believes in playing a puck-possession game.
There is no better way to play that style than by winning a faceoff and gaining control of the puck.
Thankfully for Babcock's squad, it looks as if Canada will hold an edge in that department over just about any opponent it faces based on faceoff stats through the first third of the NHL season,.
Many of the NHL's top faceoff men are defensive specialists (Paul Gaustad of the Buffalo Sabres, Scott Nichol of the San Jose Sharks, David Steckel of the Washington Capitals) and thus won't qualify for their respective Olympic teams.
Among those who are candidates, Canada has three of the top 12 - Jonathan Toews, Sidney Crosby and Patrick Marleau - along with a fourth, Joe Thornton, who is a highly respectable 22nd. "Faceoff percentage is a stat that's often overlooked - except by coaches," King said. "Seriously, I can remember when we used to play the Russians a lot, and we would really bear down on neutral zone faceoffs.
"People think faceoffs are only important in both end zones, but that middle zone is important too, because if you win it, it allows you to be the team initiating the attack, not the team having to defend a shoot-in and a hard fore-check. Every time you win a neutral zone faceoff, you have the chance for a good entry and the chance for a good fore-check, so it puts you in a momentum situation."
Among the NHL's top Russian players, Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings is an excellent faceoff man (57.1 per cent, tied with Crosby, through last Tuesday). But after that, it drops off. Malkin, who played for King on the Russian club team Metallurg Magnitogorsk during the 2005-06 season, is only at 37.5 per cent and Nikolai Antropov is at 43 per cent, two of the lowest totals among regular centres playing in the NHL.
King coached in Russia, Sweden and Germany in the past and found that, with a few exceptions, European teams pay far less attention to faceoff skills than their North American counterparts.
"I can remember working with European centre men and always having to address the faceoffs, telling them, you gotta bear down, they're important in our game. A lot of European centre men have not been great faceoff guys. That isn't looked upon as a high priority within the definition of their position.
"In our game, all the way up, it's stressed and stressed and stressed. Maybe it's a smaller rink - the fact that you're always closer to the net, that faceoffs become so important. Don't forget, too, we played for years and years with the bluelines in further, closer to the nets. So a puck back to the point in those days was a scoring chance. Al MacInnis would just rip it. Now you've got the extra four feet and that makes a difference."
The value of winning a faceoff is magnified even further on special teams, according to King.
"If you're talking about the Russian power play, if you can win the PK [penalty kill]faceoff and make them spend 40 seconds of the two minutes on breakouts and entries, you're way ahead of the game.
"And if you win the faceoff on your own power play, it allows you to start in control. No breakout needed, no entry needed, you're right there."
King's only concern relative to Canada's prospects in the faceoff circle is the imbalance between right- and left-handed shots.
In general, the top faceoff men want to draw the puck to their backhands, if possible.
Among serious candidates for the Olympic team, Canada's top five faceoff men (Crosby, Toews, Marleau, Thornton and Mike Richards) are all left-handed shots. On the right side, the three most prominent candidates are all below 50 per cent in the circle, led by Jeff Carter (49.8), Ryan Getzlaf (49.5) and Steve Stamkos (48.7). Jarome Iginla, normally a right winger, has taken faceoffs in the past, but this year his percentage is a mediocre 39.5.
"Balance between right- and left-handed shots is really important," King said. "I'm going to assume that of the 12 or 13 Canadian forwards, they're going to take a couple of extra centre men playing wing.
"Overall, faceoffs could be a really good stat for Canada - because when you have puck control, you're going to be the ones initiating the play and taking the game to the other team. I think that's really critical.
"The other thing is, if you're strong on faceoffs, you can be creative in the faceoff circle. You can gain a real edge by introducing some faceoff plays. It's not real hard to do, even if you don't have a lot of preparation time, because you can just put it on the board and the guys will know what to do.
"I think there could be a goal scored at the Olympics, off a faceoff play, that makes a huge difference in terms of winning and losing."
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DRAW DEMONS
Three of Canada's leading contenders for the men's 2010 Olympic team are also among the NHL's faceoff kings, as determined by the percentage of faceoffs won.
| Rank | Player | Pct. |
| 4 | Jonathan Toews | 59.8 |
| 9 | Sidney Crosby | 57.1 |
| 12 | Patrick Marleau | 55.4 |
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STOCK UP / JAROME IGINLA
After an ordinary October, the Calgary Flames captain and two-time Olympian had a November to remember, leading the NHL in goals for the month (13) and finishing in a tie in points (20) with fellow Olympic hopeful Joe Thornton of the San Jose Sharks. Just where Iginla fits into the mix for coach Mike Babcock's team is a delicious guessing game right now. He had clanky chemistry with Sidney Crosby at the August orientation camp. The temptation to play him on a grinding line with the Philadelphia Flyers' Mike Richards might just be too hard to resist.
STOCK DOWN / ERIC STAAL
The Carolina Hurricanes centre, a candidate to play on Crosby's left side, was off to a slow start (five points in 13 games) even before he suffered an upper-body injury that sidelined him for 10 games. Now back in the Carolina line-up, Staal needs an exceptional December to play himself back in the mix. It doesn't help his cause that in the position he's after - versatile forward, someone able to shift between centre and the wing - his work in the face-off circle has been below average (42.2 per cent) and that in his first four games back, he didn't score a goal.
Eric Duhatschek
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Foreign affairs Russia
Pavel Bure arrived in Vancouver in the fall of 1991, riding to town in a car driven up from California by Canucks general manager Brian Burke, who'd stolen him 30 months earlier in the sixth round of the 1989 draft.
Not only did Bure capture rookie-of-the-year honours playing just the final 65 games for the Canucks, he went on to score 60 goals twice for the team and helped them get to within one game of winning 1994 Stanley Cup.
After being part of the three previous Russian Olympic efforts - twice as a player, once as the team's manager - Bure will be a spectator this time around, even though the 2010 Games are being played in his first NHL backyard.
Recently, in an interview with Chris Johnston of The Canadian Press, Bure confirmed that while he is an adviser to the president of the Russian Olympic committee, he has no hands-on role with the men's Olympic team.
Bure settled in Miami after his career ended - the Florida Panthers were his second NHL stop - and said he was unwilling to make an Olympic prediction, even if Russia goes in as one of the favourites, along with Canada.
"There's probably going to be like six or eight teams that can go all the way. Eight teams will be in the quarter-finals. Anything can happen. There's possibly going to be some huge upsets. You never know, that's why it's interesting."
Sochi, Russia will host the 2014 Olympics and Bure will, among others, be part of the lobbying process to get the NHL involved in that competition. According to commissioner Gary Bettman, the NHL will not make a commitment to Sochi until after a full review of the league's 2010 participation.
Russia came up short in 2006, failing to win a medal, and even though Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and others vow to play in Sochi, with or without NHL permission, Bure advised they make the most of their opportunity in Vancouver.
"You never know what's going to happen in the future. Maybe the NHL won't let the players go to Olympic Games. That's why it's the opportunity of your life."
Eric Duhatschek