Suzuki Needs To Be Much Better On Faceoffs

There are still nights when Suzuki’s faceoff struggles haven’t affected the results much, such as the 4-2 victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins last Thursday, where he went an abysmal 5-for-24 on draws, but it didn’t end up leading to any issues thanks to the team’s defence and ability to grab the puck quickly.

Nonetheless, there are nights when going under 50% can really hurt the team, like it did a bit against the Rangers. In that game, Suzuki played a very solid game with the puck and started the game doing well on the faceoff, but as it came down to the wire, he wasn’t able to win important draws late in a tie game, which included the faceoff on the game-winning goal in overtime.

Now, it was a 4-on-3 penalty kill that he was out there for, so maybe even if he won that draw, it wouldn’t have mattered, given the space that the Rangers had on their man advantage, but Suzuki failing to come up big on yet another faceoff seems to be happening too often.

Over the last 4 games, Suzuki has won just an insanely low 35.8% of his faceoffs, and as a result, has often found himself chasing the puck at even strength. He is now 49% on faceoffs for the season, which isn’t awful, but it certainly isn’t good enough for what the Habs need from him. His faceoff percentage keeps plummeting game in and game out, and it’s now a cause for concern, which has been hurting a prime chance for him to be a centre for Team Canada but also a shot at winning a major NHL award.

Winning faceoffs is a very key part of being one of the best 2-way centres in the game, and when he can’t win his draws, it really hurts his credibility as being among those guys.

Earlier in the season, Suzuki was among the favourites to win the Selke, thanks to Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov being out for the season with an ACL and MCL injury. With that being said, his performances lately are only hurting his chances right now.

In reality, his faceoff struggles have really hurt his production at even strength this season, considering he is having to chase the puck at the beginning of most of his shifts. When your best centre struggles to get the puck to start a shift, it can lead to the whole team chasing the game shift after shift.

It’s uncertain how often Canadiens’ faceoff specialist Marc Bureau has been working with the team this season with the condensed schedule giving less practice time, but the Habs captain could really use some help finding that part of his game. Suzuki has never been a great faceoff guy, but he’s usually a lot better than he has been in recent games. Usually, he has won a little more than 50% of his faceoffs over the past two seasons, so this drop is not a very good sign as his faceoff percentage keeps plummeting.

Right now, with the way he’s losing faceoffs, it’s hard to imagine him making Team Canada for the Olympics. They could play him on the wing, but the plan always seemed that they’d use him as a bottom six centre. It will be interesting to see how Team Canada turns out and also whether Suzuki can get out of his massive slump soon.

What are your thoughts on Suzuki’s chances of making Team Canada with his faceoff struggles?