Vegas Golden Knights: Three kinks to iron out for Western Conference Finals

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Linesman Jonny Murray #95 drops the puck between Chandler Stephenson #20 of the Vegas Golden Knights and Brandon Sutter #20 of the Vancouver Canucks in Game One of the Western Conference Second Round. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images) /

2. The Faceoff Circle

The Golden Knights have struggled in the faceoff circle so far in the postseason.

There is no other way to put it.

They are ranked 23rd in that department, winning just 43:75 of their draws and they also struggled in the dot in the regular season, winning 50.0 percent of their draws.

Now, while you can have an argument over whether success in the faceoff circle translates to wins or not, you would expect an elite team such as the Golden Knights to be winning more than 43:75 percent of their draws.

Again, the Pittsburgh Penguins won more games than any other team between 2010 and 2017, putting up an impressive .659 points percentage yet they lost more face-offs than they had won.

But, on the flip side, winning face-offs correlates to puck possession and we know Vegas is one of the best in that department.

Their whole game is built on puck possession but, eventually, losing draws will have a negative impact on their ability to control play and keep hold of the puck.

Judging faceoff wins and losses is not a perfect art no matter the swathes of data available to dissect, but it is obvious that the Golden Knights need to tighten up in that area if they are to keep getting success from controlling the play.

Vegas only has two players with a faceoff win percentage over 50.0% (William Carrier and Max Pacioretty), with draw specialist William Karlsson struggling in the dot with a win percentage of 40.64 percent.

Compare that to the Stars who have six players recording a win percentage of 50.0 percent or better inside the faceoff circle.

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