EDMONTON - Edmonton Oilers centre Anton Lander is somewhat of a stickler when it comes to his game.

Back when his Timra teammate Magnus Paajarvi left the Swedish Elite League to play with the Oilers, Lander elected to stay one more season to work on his game.

When Lander found his game wanting at the start of the American Hockey League season, he decided he was over-thinking matters and proceeded to set things right while he was with the Oklahoma City Barons, the Oilers’ AHL affiliate.

So when he was asked on Tuesday about the Oilers’ floundering faceoff percentages, he looked no further than his work in the circle.

The Oilers will be without captain Shawn Horcoff, who was winning 52 per cent of his draws this season, for at least a month as he waits for a broken knuckle to heal. He broke the knuckle during Monday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks.

And it will be another game or two before Eric Belanger is able to get his right foot back into a skate after he broke a couple of toes when he blocked a shot on Saturday in a 3-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche in Denver.

Belanger, who has taken 112 of the team’s faceoffs, was clicking at 52.7 per cent.

“That’s one of the biggest things I need to work on,” said Lander, who was called up on Jan. 31 and has since played three games for the Oilers at centre.

The Oilers were in 29th place in the faceoffs department when the NHL’s statistics were tallied after Monday night’s game, marginally better than the Buffalo Sabres (42.5), but well back of the first-place Boston Bruins (59.4).

“We have guys in here — myself included — who should be able to win draws,” said Sam Gagner, who has been struggling on the dot, to the point where he’s currently sitting at 37.5 per cent.

“It’s something I take pride in and it’s not working for me right now and I just have to be better. It’s that simple.”

The AHL doesn’t dish out faceoff stats, but Lander said he’s been pretty good in the minors. However, he added that those opponents aren’t quite as adept as Western Conference foes like Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin or Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks.

“I need to find a way to win more faceoffs,” Lander said. “I talked a lot to Horcoff last year about draws and got some tips but ... I need to step up. I haven’t been good enough on the draws, especially now with those two guys out.

“Every faceoff guy is different. There are a lot of things that go into it,” continued Lander. “A lot of it is mental, too. If you win the first couple of draws, you may try something else and that makes your opponent react and you’re in his head.”

Lander has won seven of the 18 faceoffs he has taken since he arrived; Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is at 41.9 per cent, which is an improvement over the 37.5 per cent he finished with last season, but not yet at the 45-per-cent efficiency Oilers head coach Ralph Krueger wants to see from his top two centres.

“That’s a big hole we have to fill,” said Ryan Smyth, the one seasoned winger who can spell off the Oilers centres since he has played the position for a stretch. He’s won 12 of the 24 draws he’s taken.

“For us, being a puck-possession team, we have to make sure everyone is helping out.”

jireland@edmontonjournal.com

Twitter.com/jirelandEJ