You won't find any glue guns or knitting needles stuffed into the backs of lockers, but Canuck centers are definitely into their crafts.

Not that foo foo Christmas decoration stuff with cotton balls and pipe cleaners, but drawing; winning pucks back to defensemen with speed, strength, and truck loads of determination.

Taking faceoffs is definitely an art, and like toll painting, it's not as easy as it looks.

"It's tough," says Vancouver's Henrik Sedin. "You've got to work really hard at it. There's a lot of practice behind it to be stronger."

And there's no shortage of that. It's not uncommon to see associate coaches Mike Johnston and Jack McIlhargey dropping dozens of pucks for Canuck centers at the end of practice. Through 18 games, the Canucks were ranked third in the NHL with a 52.3 winning percentage on faceoffs.

The Canucks haven't traditionally been a juggernaut in the faceoff circle, but are steadily improving. While it would be a Yao Ming stretch to say the extra possessions off the draw are the reason Vancouver is on pace for a stellar 104-point season, they certainly don't hurt any.

"Faceoffs are a really big part of the game," says Henrik Sedin, one of the Canuck centers who has pulled his average up this year. "To start with the puck after every faceoff is huge in this League. To be able to create chances and not have to spend 20 or 30 seconds every shift trying to get it back is really big."

When Henrik first came into the League in the 2000-01 season, Vancouver was struggling to win draws and he turned in a lowly 44.1 faceoff percentage. A little tutoring from the likes of Trevor Linden and Johnston have brought his average up. After winning 47.4 percent of his draws last season, Hank is now winning 48 percent.

"It's so up and down," says Henrik, hanging around in the locker room after a vigorous mid-week practice. "Some nights you're nine out of 11 and you think you're pretty good, and the next night you lose nine out of 11. But a lot of it is experience too. You need to know what other guys are doing ,and some teams you're playing once a year, so it's pretty tough to know."

Sedin's still the lowest ranked of all Canuck centers, but that speaks more about Vancouver's improving fortune in faceoffs than it does about Henrik's prowess in the circle.

Every player has their own special approach, but there are three main techniques when taking a draw.

Smaller, faster players will try to snap the puck back before it bounces on the ice and the other guy can get his tape on it.

"It's a lot of quickness and a lot of timing," says Sedin. "You've got to see the puck when it drops. A lot of time it's knowing how hard the ref drops it. Some refs just throw it down there and some refs just like, leaves it, so if you're too quick you miss the puck and the other guy takes it."

Stronger players, especially when they're on their backhand and can exert more downward force on their stick, will try to out-muscle the opposition by putting their stick over the top and yanking back hard.

"Adam Oates is probably the toughest," explains Sedin when asked about the power draw. "He's not a big guy, but he's got great down weight and is really strong on his stick. He's got a big blade too so it's really tough to get the puck from him."

When both methods fail, the only other option is to tangle the opposing player up and kick the puck back with a skate, or pray that a winger jumps in a bails you out. At worst, it turns into a scrum and then it's anybody's puck -- which is far better than a clean loss.

Johnston, who coaches Vancouver centers on taking faceoffs and running set plays off the draws, says it can easily be the difference between a win and a loss.

"One thing you don't want to do, is give up the advantage of the faceoff. As much as anything else in the game, you want to come out ahead. If you want to be an elite team, faceoffs is a key area."

Johnston points to a 3-0 loss to San Jose earlier in the season as a prime example.

"We gave one up the other night in San Jose and it probably cost us the hockey game," says Johnston.

With San Jose already ahead by a goal late in the second, center Patrick Marleau slid back to the point while defender Jeff Fahey slid up to a spot on the wing. The alignment confused Vancouver's coverage, and then Todd Harvey beat Mats Lindgren on the draw.

Marleau beat down the right wing and took a return feed from Fahey before snapping it high for a 2-0 lead. It created a sinkhole that Vancouver couldn't climb out of.

"We set up on the draw and missed our coverage," says Johnston. "And they got a goal off the side, right off the draw. It was a faceoff goal against. It's a little part of the game, but people say the little things make the difference, especially in the key games."

It's a small part, but one that helped Vancouver enjoy success during the last couple seasons.

"If you assume (faceoffs are) evenly divided, we get 20 chances offensively to gain possession of the puck and do something with it in their zone. And that's really valuable." -- Canucks associate coach Mike Johnston

"Our faceoff percentage over the last two years has really come up," Johnston said. "Our centermen have become much better on draws. They've worked really hard and taken more of a focus on it."

The Canuck coaching staff meticulously tracks faceoff stats throughout a game; how many chances were generated from the draw, which players are doing well against which other players, and under which circumstance. It's an entire series within the game.

Late in a contest, and mulling over a key draw deep, head coach Marc Crawford can phone assistant Barry Smith up in the press box and ask which center has done the best against say, Mike Ricci on his backhand in the offensive zone. That information can be key in holding a lead or getting the game-tying goal.

"There are probably 60 faceoffs in a game," Johnston said. "If you assume they're evenly divided, we get 20 chances offensively to gain possession of the puck and do something with it in their zone. And that's really valuable. Conversely, in your own zone, you don't want to lose possession and allow the opposition a scoring chance."

As much as anyone, Linden has sparked the turnaround for Vancouver centermen. He's been in the League long enough to have a pretty good book on opposition centers and is a deep well of information. He's like the NHL encyclopedia of the faceoff men.

Linden knows who relies on quickness or power, and who has specific tendencies that might be exploited. And it's not just pre-game chatter. The centers share information along the bench during the game.

"We talk a little bit," Linden said. "Sometimes if a guy's doing well, you ask what's he doing to you, or maybe, what you're doing to him and how you're beating him.

"It's hard to tell what makes a good face-off guy," Linden said. "Because you think a big strong guy would make a good faceoff guy, and then you see a little guy that's got good quick hands. Adam Oates is an extremely good faceoff guy just because he's got strong wrists. He can snap your wrists off he's so strong. So sometimes the big strong guys aren't necessarily the best guys."

The top two faceoff men in the NHL are 5-foot-11, 185-pound Yanic Perreault of the Montreal Canadiens and 5-11, 191-pound Jason Krog of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. They clearly aren't out-muscling the likes of Dave Andreychuk and Keith Primeau. They're speed guys with exceptional timing and a little luck.

Vancouver's Lindgren is a bit of a hybrid. He's the team's best faceoff center. He's quick, and at 6-2, 202-pounds, he's strong enough to overpower for the puck when he needs to.

"It's about timing and a little bit of confidence," says Lindgren. "It's a weird thing, I mean, if you think you're good on faceoffs, you're good on faceoffs. You know what I mean? But you have your good days and your bad days. There really are so many different techniques, and everybody is so different. That's what makes it so hard."

Lindgren uses a stick with a big blade. It's kind of like using a drift net in the ocean. You just wave it out over the red circle and then yank it back in. Anything in its way -- including a loose puck -- usually ends up coming back with it. At least according to Sedin, who begrudgingly admits his countryman is the best faceoff man on the team.

"If you talk to him, you can say it's just because he's got a big blade," jokes Sedin. "That thing is just huge."

In addition to the giant blade, Lindgren says the other key to a good percentage is mixing it up so other centers can't easily predict your strategy. Using the same technique time after time makes your gambit too easy to counter.

"Faceoffs really matter when they're important faceoffs," says Brendan Morrison. "Faceoffs in your own zone and power-play faceoffs in the offensive zone are really important. A lot of neutral-zone faceoffs are important, too, but not as important as the defensive-zone ones."

There's a old story about Pittsburgh's Mario Lemieux and taking draws. An ex-teammate once said Mario would intentionally concede neutral-zone draws throughout a game to soften his opponent up. Thinking Mario was an easy draw, they would let their guard down or go into the faceoff expecting the same old weak-wristed tactic he'd been using all game. But when it counted -- like an offensive-zone draw on a late power play -- he would stiffen and switch up his strike at the puck taking his opponent by surprise. Not great for the stat sheet, but good for the two points.

Like Lemieux, Morrison stats don't tell the whole story, but not because he's intentionally duffing draws. He lines up between Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi, and because of it, Morrison has the unenviable task of going head-to-head with the opposition's best checking centers every night.

"It would be nice to be consistently good, but that's the way matchups go sometimes," explains Morrison, lounging in the hallway just outside the Canuck dressing room. "Some guys match up better against other guys, and it's just a matter of who you're going against that night. That makes all the difference in the world."

And unlike Mario, the puck doesn't follow Canuck players around the ice like a well-trained Golden Retriever. Lost possession off a draw means energy wasted trying to get it back.

"Puck possession is a big thing," says Morrison. "You don't want to be chasing the puck all night if you can have it. I think if you look over the course of a game, almost every game a goal is a direct result of a faceoff. You can make a difference night in night out on draws."

While the Canucks are striding through a bit of a faceoff renaissance as of late, the real test will come during the Stanley Cup Playoffs when the other Western Conference powerhouses load up on veteran faceoff aces. Vancouver centermen might want to dust off those knitting needle and glue guns after all. Heck, a crocheted stick cozy and ultra-tacky blade might just be the extra edge they need to find the bouncing puck.

It's all about whatever works.