NoVa Caps presents part four of a season-long review of the Capitals’ face-off successes (or lack thereof).  To recap, the initial goal of this assessment was to track the team’s loss of key face-off players over the summer, and to follow the progress of the team as we proceed through the 2015-2016 season.  Part one of the analysis can be found here: Part two can be found here: Part three can be found here: Data is provided by Faceoffs.net.

League Stats Summary
After 58 games, the Capitals currently reside in the bottom third of the pack (in a three-way tie for 20th) with regards to team face-off stats, with an overall face-off winning percentage of 49.6 %.

The Caps are 20th overall in offensive zone face-off winning percentage (50.4%) and 18th overall in defensive zone face-off winning percentage (48.7%).  As a team, the Caps are 23rd in home game face-off winning percentages, and 13th overall on the road.

To recap, for a frame of reference, the Capitals ended the 2014-2015 regular season with a team face-off win percentage of 51.2%, for 12th in the league.  The leagues’ leader last season was the Boston Bruins at 53.6%.  The leagues’ worst was the Buffalo Sabres at 44.9%.

Capitals Player Stats Summary

Trends (Since Last Update)
The Capitals continue to slide towards the bottom third of the league in overall face-off success rates.  One quick, simple potential reason for the steady decline is the absence of Jay Beagle, but there are other pieces to the puzzle. Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov have continued to dip (since Update #3).  Barry Trotz stated after practice on Tuesday, 2/23 that the Caps might be looking to bolster the penalty-kill and face-off position before the trade deadline.

Mike Richards continues to bolster he Caps face-off success rates. T.J. Oshie and Marcus Johansson continue to improve their personal face-off success rates, since the previous review.

Summary
The Capitals as a team have continued to dip with regards to overall progress and improvement at the face-off dot.  The overall team splits are provided in the following graphic for all face-offs through the Caps first 58 games.

By Jon Sorensen