Minnesota Wild center Mikko Koivu has been one of the league's best faceoff men this season.
Over his last two games Koivu has taken 48 faceoffs, while winning a whopping 36 of them.
Despite averaging 19:43 minutes of ice time per game -- good enough for just 14th among all NHL centers -- Koivu ranks No. 4 in faceoffs won, as well as No. 3 in faceoffs won in the offensive zone, a crucial metric for generating goals.
Who's he beating?
Just some of the league's elite.
Total faceoff wins
And while Koivu is winning faceoffs all over the ice, he's winning them at a particularly notable clip in the offensive zone, where the Finnish center is being outpaced by only Buffalo's Ryan O'Reilly and Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby.
Offensive zone faceoff wins
However, while Koivu's numbers have been strong this season he'll have to contend with a significant threat in Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom.
Backstrom has had Koivu's number over the last few seasons, and currently owns a 62.2 winning percentage against the Wild's top faceoff option since the 2010-11 season.
Faceoff winning percentage vs. Koivu (since 2010-11)
Other Notes:
-- Koivu has been solid at home recently, and has 12 points (six goals and six assists) in his last 12 games at Xcel Energy Center.
-- The Wild have scored a power-play goal in four straight games, a season high and their longest such streak since February of last year.
-- Minnesota's power-play has been impressive against Washington. The Wild are converting on 27.6 percent of their power-play chances against the Capitals, better than all but one other team since 2008-09.
-- The Wild rank No. 2 in the NHL in goal differential in the first period at home, at plus-10.
-- The Capitals have scored five or more goals a league-high 13 times this season.
Statistics courtesy STATS Inc.
