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[QUOTE="ohmilax34, post: 3829098, member: 6339"]
I watched the Albany game, but I haven't seen the Duke or Notre Dame games.  I don't get to (or choose to) watch games live, but I watch them when they show up on youtube a day or so later.  However, I don't fully watch the games SU loses.

I know the story of the Duke game.  Face off struggles, efficient offense, defense tightening up, but the team coming up short in the end.  I know the story of the Notre Dame game.  Face off struggles, huge possession disadvantage that can't be overcome.  I don't have a good sense of how the coaches approached face offs during those games.  I did see that Savage took some vs. ND and had the best % of any of the SU fogos.

What I saw vs. Albany looked like Phaup taking the draws at the beginning of the game, and winning the majority of them.  Then, in the middle of the game, Varello took some and did well, then Savage took some and did pretty well.  Then in the second half, Phaup came back in to take some draws.  This seemed like a new strategy by the coaches, and I liked it when I saw it.  I wonder if Phaup is spending that time, when Varello and Savage are taking the draws, reviewing film of the draws he took and what the Albany fogo and wing guys were doing.  This seems smart in many ways.  It keeps Phaup fresh, it gives other guys some reps to help in the future and it's important to win draws at the end of games, so being able to make adjustments to help win those draws is critical.

I don't know if this is what's happening, but I hope it is.  My biggest fear for this team is that they lose in the playoffs because of a big possession disadvantage.  I think it's critical that they are competitive on face offs with the very best teams.  The UNC will be interesting.  I think they're pretty good on face offs, and they ride very hard to create more of a possession disadvantage.
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