Islanders’ Jean-Gabriel Pageau imparting faceoff wisdom to Cal Ritchie

When Cal Ritchie got to the Islanders, he quickly noticed something different about how Jean-Gabriel Pageau readies himself for games. 

“The way he thinks, I’ve never really thought that way before on faceoffs,” Ritchie said this week. “You’re always focusing on what you’re doing. He knows exactly what the other guys are gonna do before he does it.” 

Pageau, a 14-year veteran, has been one of the NHL’s best faceoff men for a while now, with five straight seasons over 55 percent at the dots, 10 straight over 50 percent and a career-high 59.6 percent in 2024-25. He’s on pace to do even better this year at 61.4 percent. 

The hard-won knowledge by which he slowly but surely honed the skill is now being passed down to Ritchie. 

“You need to know who you’re going against. You need to know their tendencies,” Pageau told The Post before the Islanders faced Minnesota on Friday. “Then you know what you’re going to do. Personally, I like to get in the faceoffs and tell my wingers, my D-men where the puck’s likely gonna go against this guy, so they’re gonna help you. 

“… I love to look at the other guy’s stick positioning, most likely what he’s gonna do to me, and then I adjust to it right away. It’s very quick. It’s a fraction of time. It’s something you pick up over the years. I was very impressed with Cal. He might not have got the numbers or the results, but just his commitment to asking questions, trying to get better.” 

Indeed, through his first three games, faceoffs have been a noticeable weak spot of Ritchie’s game, as he was just 7-for-24 in the circle. 

---

---

The Islanders, though, have a strong track record in faceoffs.

With assistant coach Benoit Desrosiers running that part of the game and Pageau and Bo Horvat perennially among the league leaders in the statistic, the Islanders led the league in faceoff percentage last season. 

Pageau said much of it comes through experience. By now, he even knows the tendencies of certain referees. 

“I’ve always thought you need to cheat and be a good cheater in the dot and find a way,” Pageau said. “Take as much as you can. … There are some guys, you can get away with a little more. There’s some guys that are dropping the puck a little faster. There are some little tricks here and there. I don’t want to tell everything, but that’s something we talk [about] in between centers before a game.” 

That part of things, Pageau said, is rarely noticeable on film. And though faceoffs are part of the pre-scout the Islanders go through before every game, Pageau said he would spend roughly five minutes going over the tendencies of Minnesota’s centers before Friday’s game. 

That is because he’s gone against all four of them before, and two — Ryan Hartman and Joel Eriksson Ek — have been in the league for 10 years or more, so there’s not much left for Pageau to learn from studying tape. 

“The hard ones are the new centers that come in the league and you don’t know what they’re doing,” Pageau said. “So you need to adjust really quick in game.” 

Ritchie, who played just his 11th NHL game Friday, may have that advantage, although the tradeoff is that he lacks the institutional knowledge someone like Pageau has built over years. 

“I’m impressed with where Cal is right now,” Pageau said. “… His commitment, his improvement, the way he wants to learn and pick up tips. Sometimes it’s a process. You get your stick going through your hand and do it. It’s different things, but he’s really good so far.”