NHL centers walk a fine line at faceoff circle

It’s the most frustrating part of watching a hockey game: the wave. No, not the sequential act of fans popping out of their seats section by section to create momentum in the stands (allegedly) and on the ice (maybe).

This wave is the one that comes from linesmen tossing players out of the faceoff circle willy-nilly.

“Drop the puck!” is one of the most familiar refrains bellowed across NHL barns as fans, often mixing in an expletive here and there, try to remind officials they came to see the guys with the sticks, not the fellas with the whistles.

It’s not just the fans who are irked by the rhythm-busting officials. Players and coaches alike often appear bewildered by the banishment. So, why does it happen?

It turns out the reasons are multiple and varied.

Players can get kicked out for bad stick placement, moving their stick prior to the drop, improper body angles, or if a winger creeps too close to the dot.

There are other variables, as well. For instance, every official is different, so learning their tendencies and idiosyncrasies is vital to winning battles in the circles. So is cheating.

Figuring out and then perfecting ways to get the advantage in what amounts to hockey’s version of the jump ball can give your team a huge advantage and also prolong your career.

“I try to be a guy who doesn’t cheat the game, but you have to ride that line because a lot of times it’s different with refs, how they drop the puck in the way they do it, in the manner they do it,” said Bruins center Charlie Coyle. “So, sometimes you’re jumping, you see sometimes in games a lot of guys get kicked out; maybe they’re used to the ref from their previous game or whatever. Now this ref drops a little differently and it’s all minuscule, right? But just that timing, that little timing and some guys will kick you out right away. So, if you jump too quick, usually that’s kind of what it is now they crack down. So, if your wingers are just over in the circle, say it’s a diesel and draw and they’re kind of in a circle, their skates are across, they’ll just kick you right out. They won’t give you a warning.”

Coyle said he’ll often collaborate with his fellow centers in-game when they can’t quite get a handle on that day’s puck-droppers.

“Yeah, we’ll talk in between periods or even on the bench like, ‘Hey, is it me, is my timing off or is it this ref ?,’ ” said Coyle. “And then I’ll talk to [Morgan Geekie ]or[ Pavel Zacha], and they’re like, ‘No, I’m having trouble, too. My timing’s off. He is holding the puck higher or lower.’ So, it’s things like that we’ll talk about and it’s so hard for refs to replicate exactly what everyone does, right? Everyone’s different.”

While it’s human nature to bark at the linesman when he tosses you out, Coyle and his fellow Bruins middlemen follow a more effective strategy: “You get more with honey than you do with vinegar.”

“You know what, I’m pretty good about staying levelheaded,” said Coyle. “A ref kicks you out, he kicks you out. I’m not a guy to kind of yell at him. He’s doing his job. If I budge, I budge, but sometimes it’s hard. It’s split-seconds. They have to make decisions on who budged and who didn’t.”

With the amount of grief the guys in the stripes get over the course of a game, Coyle doesn’t think the faceoff circle is a place to pile on.

“You want to stay on the good side too, right? They’re just doing a job,” he said. “They get yelled at enough by everyone. It’s a tough job.”

Geekie takes the same tact.

“I think those guys, to me, are my friends out there, especially as a centerman,” he said. “So, I don’t ever want to be rude to them. They’re just trying to do their job. And I think for me, the better the relationship you can have with those guys, the more leeway you’re going to get toward the end of the game and as the year goes on. So, I think you see that, especially with me, kind of a silence-is-golden type of thing for sure.”

Communication is important, too, especially when you’re trying to gather intel.

“I just kind of right away, I just kind of tap him and say, ‘Hey, did I jump too early? Just let me know,’ " said Coyle. “So now I kind of know what to expect.”

Geekie believes the linesmen are just trying to be fair and equitable before dropping the puck.

“I think the league’s just trying to make it even for everyone would be my biggest guess. Cheating’s always been a big part of winning faceoffs and the best guys get away with the most, and that’s just how it’s always going to be,” said Geekie. “But figuring out a way to do that without getting kicked out is definitely part of the art of the faceoff, the reason for being kicked out, I think they’re just trying to make it fair for everyone. I think that’s the easiest way to do it. In that way, there’s no complaining from either side other than getting kicked out, obviously, but you can’t complain that somebody’s cheating if they’re not taking the faceoff.”

Zacha said he’ll sometimes approach a linesman during a TV timeout to get the lowdown on why he got tossed, though he usually has a pretty good idea why.

“It depends on the timing. Sometimes when you’re playing a defensive role, I feel like you’re trying to cheat a little bit so you can win the faceoff cleaner and have a better chance of breaking out the puck,” said Zacha. “So, sometimes you know that you got caught trying to jump the puck and stuff, but sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes you get kicked out for getting blocked on your own stick, so you’re kind of surprised, but because you did the first move, you get kicked out. So, I think the conversation there is sometimes I talk to the referee about it, what they want me to do so I’m not kicked out.”

Johnny Beecher, who has excelled at the dot in his first season, said complaining about getting tossed isn’t in his repertoire.

“I try not to say too much. Being a rookie still in the league, I don’t really have much leash,” he said. “But yeah, I mean it’s just simple conversations as to what’s going on. Sometimes it’s even if your wingers are inside the circle or something. It can be a number of things. So, just figuring out what to do differently the next time so you can take the draw yourself.”