Surprising edge? - 5-23-09
We don't know about you, but the fact that the Penguins have a slight edge in faceoff wins two games into this series is a little bit surprising. The Hurricanes were the eighth best faceoff team in the league in the regular season at 51.3 percent and have some pretty reliable faceoff specialists in Rod Brind'Amour (above), who had a success rate of 61.0 percent in the regular season, and Matt Cullen (51.7 percent). And after the Penguins were pretty much trounced in the faceoff circle by the Capitals in the second round, this series seemed pretty one-sided in favor of the Hurricanes.
A look at the numbers for each team this series:
PENGUINS
| Player | Game 1 | Game 2 | Total |
| Miroslav Satan | - | 1-1 | 1-1 (100.0 %) |
| Tyler Kennedy | 2-3 | 1-1 | 3-4 (75.0 %) |
| Chris Kunitz | - | 2-3 | 2-3 (66.7 %) |
| Sidney Crosby | 12-22 | 16-26 | 28-48 (58.3 %) |
| Evgeni Malkin | 2-3 | 4-8 | 6-11 (54.5 %) |
| Jordan Staal | 6-14 | 9-15 | 15-29 (51.7 %) |
| Matt Cooke | - | 1-2 | 1-2 (50.0 %) |
| Craig Adams | 4-7 | 2-8 | 6-15 (40.0 %) |
| Maxime Talbot | 2-7 | 2-7 | 4-14 (28.6 %) |
| Totals | 28-56 | 38-71 | 66-127 (51.9 %) |
HURRICANES
| Player | Game 1 | Game 2 | Total |
| Jussi Jokinen | 3-5 | 1-2 | 4-7 (57.1 %) |
| Rod Brind’Amour | 7-14 | 14-24 | 21-38 (55.3 %) |
| Eric Staal | 14-22 | 8-23 | 22-45 (48.9 %) |
| Matt Cullen | 4-14 | 9-19 | 13-33 (39.3 %) |
| Pat Dwyer | - | 1-3 | 1-3 (33.3 %) |
| Scott Walker | 0-1 | - | 0-1 (00.0 %) |
| Totals | 28-56 | 33-71 | 61-127 (48.0 %) |
(Photo: Grant Halverson/Getty Images)