Cliché Check

Win faceoffs, win games

Winning the faceoff battle barely moves the needle on the result.

Data through 2025/26

Myth

NL Data through 2025/26 · NL

Won more faceoffs → won game

52.2%

Coin flip

50%

What the data says

NL 2023/24–2025/26 (1,092 games): the team winning more faceoffs won 52.2% of games (1,044 of them had a faceoff winner).
Correlation between faceoff % and points per game: 0.11. The best faceoff team finished 10th, 4th and 11th in those seasons.

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