Film Study: Evaluating Chrome’s Faceoff Strategy

Life without Farrell?

During the post-game press conference, Chrome Head Coach Tim Soudan hinted at trying new approaches moving forward. The faceoff strategy would likely be determined by the opponent.

“Well if you noticed tonight we did kind of experiment with a couple of guys that we think can take the draws for us and we’re gonna have to evaluate what that looked like based on watching film and see what we do moving forward,” said Soudan.

This statement allows for speculation that the Chrome may be considering options at the stripe other than Connor Farrell. Yes he can win the clamp, but everything after that isn’t as clear. 24.5% of his touches have resulted in a turnover (most among players with 50+ touches).

The most obvious option is to use Mike Messenger more at the strip. He is a two-way threat; win or lose, he doesn’t need to sub off. He can win clamps cleanly against LSMs and SSDMs and would still be competitive against true faceoff specialists.