There’s a football tradition that dictates the starting quarterback buys a big steak dinner for the offensive line the night before the game. A happy offensive line means a safe quarterback.

Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock thinks his centres should try something like that with their wingers. The centres, after all, get the individual statistical credit for won and lost faceoffs. But so often, it’s the wingers that do the work in winning the draw.

“Faceoffs are very important. If I’m the centre, bribe the wingers,” said Babcock. “You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. You want to win the 50-50 pucks. You want to win the 60-40 pucks. Your wingers are a big part of that.”

The Leafs were off on Thursday and will be back on the ice Friday to practise for Saturday’s game at home to Washington. When they do, they’ll also practise their faceoffs, where a team effort results in credit or blame for a centre.

“It’s all guys on the ice, holding guys up, helping out on 50-50 pucks,” centre Nazem Kadri said. “Maybe I’ll have to bribe the wingers a little bit.”

David Krejci of the Boston Bruins is losing more than half of his draws this year at 48.48 per cent.

“I’m not going to buy him (a winger) dinner if he wins one faceoff for me,” said Krejci. “But if he wins five, I’ll get him dinner.”

The Leafs have won slightly more than half of their draws — 50.5 per cent — tied with Buffalo for 12th of the 30 teams in that category. Chicago’s Jonathan Toews is the gold-standard right now among centres, winning 60.66 per cent of his draws.

Tyler Bozak is the top Leaf (53.26 per cent) followed by Byron Froese (51.19), Kadri (50.12), Nick Spaling (48.97) and Peter Holland (43.75). Holland’s lack of success is one of the reasons he has spent time as a healthy scratch and been sent to play wing more often.

“It’s a little bit of everything,” said Kadri. “It’s a skill. It’s a chess match. You’ve got a few different moves in your arsenal. Guys do their scouting reports. We watch video on centremen regularly. We know what guys are going to do. It’s something you’ve got to strategize with.

“If a centreman is having a tough time snapping pucks back, he’ll try to tie up the other guy’s stick and he’ll tell his wingers, so the wingers know the puck might end up sitting on the dot because all you’re doing is taking away the ability of the other guy to move his stick one way or the other.”

Sometimes the draws are read-and-react. Sometimes they are set plays. Often, even the linesmen are pawns, inadvertently drawn in to the battle for puck possession.

“In the defensive zone, the defenceman on the wall try to run that winger into the linesman so he gets picked by the linesman and the defenceman can pick up the puck,” said Holland. “It’s jockeying for position. You compete as hard as you can. Some guys, it’s tough. When you’re standing next to (Bruins defenceman Zdeno) Chara on the boards, you can try as hard as you want, he’s still going to win that battle.”

All agree that Babcock is right, that the wingers are essential to the outcome of the faceoff.

“Sometimes you win them clean or lose them clean,” said winger Joffrey Lupul. “But probably 50 per cent of the time, it’s up for grabs and you can help your centreman.

“It’s timing. You’ve got to jump in quick and get inside guys. They don’t call the holdups anymore, so every guy is going to hold you up every faceoff. You get a little window where you can get in there.”

Babcock preaches possession hockey. In terms of their enhanced stats regarding all shot attempts (made, wide and blocked), which many believe is the best indicator of puck possession, the Leafs are 20th in the league at 48.54 per cent.

“If you don’t win any faceoffs in the first period, you won’t have the puck,” said Babcock. “The other team is going to be better than you. I think it’s the easiest 50-50 battle in the game. You have to have your wingers dig in.

“If you don’t have the puck, you spend all your time chasing it. When you lose a faceoff, it doesn’t matter who you are, you think, ‘OK we’ll play in the defensive zone and we’ll milk our shift a little bit longer, because we’ll stay out too long, because we want to create some offence.’

“It just becomes a bad deal for your team.”

Comparing the Leafs’ centres

Tyler Bozak

Faceoffs Won: 180

Faceoffs lost: 153

Percentage: 53.26

Last year: 53.04

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Byron Froese

Faceoffs Won: 121

Faceoffs lost: 111

Percentage: 51.19

Last year: N/A (minors)

Nazem Kadri

Faceoffs Won: 193

Faceoffs lost: 188

Percentage: 50.12

Last year: 46.05

Nick Spaling

Faceoffs Won: 134

Faceoffs lost: 136

Percentage: 48.97

Last year: 46.94

Peter Holland

Faceoffs Won: 55

Faceoffs lost: 69

Percentage: 43.75

Last year: 45:39

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