One of the often most overlooked part of the game is the face-off. Gaining control of the puck from the start is always a good thing and the Preds have been doing a great job of that this season.
The Preds have won the majority of face-offs this season through 13 games, having only lost the battle in four games. Their worse performance came this past Sunday against the Blackhawks when they only won 39% of them, while their best performance came in the second game against the Blues when they won a dominating 67%.
Leading the way for the Preds in face-offs is Paul Gaustad. He has taken 205 face-offs this season winning 128 of them for a 62.4% win percentage. That puts him as the third best in the league amongst players who have taken at least 100 faceoffs thus far. He only trails Patrice Bergeron (64.4% over 212 face-offs) and Joe Vitale (63% over 100 face-offs).
