Being good in the faceoff circle is an acquired skill and going head-to-head against four younger brothers was great practice for J.J. Hunter.
Those battles, whether they took place on the ice, during street hockey or in the comfort of home, helped make Hunter one of the top draw men in the American Hockey League.
"It's the same as shooting pucks, it takes a lot of practice," said Hunter, who signed a pro tryout offer with the Manitoba Moose last month. "I got good practice going against my brothers and that's good because it's a game within the game.
"I can remember in one of my first years as a pro at Edmonton Oilers camp, (head coach) Craig MacTavish said 'if we have a guy who can win 60% of his faceoffs, he's going to get an opportunity.' That was something that stuck with me because puck possession is so vital to the game."
Faceoff percentage might not be an important statistic for the casual fan to follow religiously, but coaches surely take notice of who is doing well in the circle on a particular evening.
"Any coach will tell you, if you have puck possession your chances of success go way up because obviously you're putting the other team in defensive mode," said Moose head coach Scott Arniel. "Any time you can win faceoffs, it adds to your offensive game because you have the puck."
Hunter prides himself on his work ethic and is known as a strong penalty-killer with good speed. But his best trait is how he uses his stick and his skates -- to beat his opponents on draws.
"I keep (track) mostly in my head, but I try and watch the other faceoff men from my team and the other team from the bench so I can see their tendencies," said Hunter. "It depends on the score in the game, what side is the faceoff on. You know who is going to be out there and what their strengths are."
Strong mechanics are obviously important to wining draws, but there's a large mental component to the skill as well.
"If you beat a guy one way one time, he's going to try to counter that the next time," said Hunter. "If you have success one way, you better be able to beat him a different way because he's going to change what he is doing. It's a bit of a mind game between the two centremen. You can't just use power or speed.
"Being a faceoff man, you don't want to lose more than one in a row so if all of a sudden you lose two or three in a row, you're thinking 'I've got to win this next one.' You have to be on your toes and ready. It's funny because there's some games where you find you're dominating a guy and the next game he has the edge. The other thing is that your wingers play a big part of it."
