Boyle, Rangers improving on faceoffs
Tim Connolly of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates away as the Rangers' Brian Boyle celebrates his goal. (Jan. 14, 2012) Credit: Getty Images
PITTSBURGH -- Losing a faceoff in his own zone, a play that led to Columbus winger Rick Nash's tying goal with 1:33 left in the third period Sunday night, haunted Brian Boyle. "I didn't sleep at all last night," he said Monday.
It was a tough draw, but Boyle, who won 11 of 18 faceoffs against the Blue Jackets, has steadily improved, and coach John Tortorella told him not to lose any shut-eye over it.
"I talked to Brian after practice and he is upset by it," Tortorella said. "But just from the conversation, you can tell he was thinking throughout the game about who he's going up against and not just going in to try to win. What we try to stress is not always about a clean win, but everybody joins in and tries to win it. That's what frustrated Brian; he didn't even get a tie. I told him, 'You're doing much better; just continue to work at it.' I've been using him quite a bit in our own zone because he's done a really good job."
The Rangers have won the majority of faceoffs in six of their last eight games, ranging from 62 percent against the Capitals to 52 percent against the Flyers. Boyle won at least 59 percent of his draws in five of those games.
The recent success, when Boyle uses his 6-7 frame for leverage, has vaulted him to 51.9 percent for the season, higher than Evgeni Malkin (46.4) and Jordan Staal (49.9) of the Penguins, whom the Eastern Conference-leading Rangers (38-14-5, 81 points) face Tuesday night at Consol Energy Center.
"They're really strong at center. And now they have Joe Vitale. He's one of the best guys out there. I played against him at Northeastern," said Boyle, who attended Boston College. Indeed, Vitale wins 55.9 percent of his draws.
"We're getting better," Tortorella said. "[Brad Richards] talked to me after [Sunday's] game and said he thinks he's doing better on the offensive draws versus the defensive draws."
Richards has taken the most draws on the team (902) and is at 51.7 percent. The team ranks 13th with a 50.3 percentage. The Bruins lead the NHL at 55.2.
"What I like is that there's some constructive thinking about what I'm going to do here" in the discussions, Tortorella said, but he warned that there's a flow to the game that he doesn't want to inhibit. "There's a fine line. You don't want to paralyze yourself . . . You can't overthink."
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