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Flyers need to address faceoff-dot issues

Forgetting the back line for a moment, one of the Flyers’ most glaring weaknesses is in those eight little circles found throughout the ice surface…the faceoff dots. While Claude Giroux continued to improve in that department, to the tune of 54.5 percent this past season — good for 19th in the league — he was pretty much the only option the club had when they needed to win a draw. Subsequently, nobody in the entire league took more faceoffs than Giroux. Sean Couturier and Brayden Schenn took the second and third most draws on the team, but only won them …

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Analyzing Giroux’s faceoff opponents; is he just cleaning up on weak competition?

Through 20 games in the 2013 season, Claude Giroux has been winning faceoffs at a clip of 55 percent. That places him at 18th in the league in faceoff percentage for anyone playing at least 10 games (as of Sunday 2/24). Last Wednesday against Pittsburgh, Giroux struggled winning only 12 of 31 for 38.7 percent, while Sidney Crosby–who many of those draws were against, who ranks 10th at 57 percent–was 21 of 28 for 75 percent. It got me thinking, is Giroux just not good enough to hang with the big boys? As our only good faceoff man, is Giroux …