I always wondered if the way the linesman drops the puck has anything to do with who wins the faceoff. Maybe there was a pattern that some guys could pick up on and use to their advantage. Maybe some linesman allow some guys to cheat more and gain an advantage.
Despite the fact that we're talking about a very small percentage difference between average (50%) and very good (Sid won about 56%), the sheer volume of draws makes any small advantage significant. Sid took almost 1800 draws. The difference of a percentage point would be 18 more wins, so for Sid, he won 108 draws more than average. Since the Pens play a puck possession style, that number is significant.
So, in looking at the linesman, there is no way to identify who is dropping the puck. There are two linesman working each game and the data doesn't specific who drops each puck.
What we can do, however, is to "associate" the linesman with the faceoffs, so that in games worked by Marc Pare, we know that Sid has a specific success rate (53.7%).
Here are the top 10 linesmen Sid was most successful against:
| Linesman | Total # | Win % |
| #97 Jean Morin | 107 | 66.36% |
| #70 Derek Nansen | 70 | 62.86% |
| #47 Dan Schachte | 53 | 62.26% |
| #68 Scott Driscoll | 93 | 61.29% |
| #59 Steve Barton | 85 | 61.18% |
| #75 Derek Amell | 231 | 58.87% |
| #50 Scott Cherrey | 89 | 58.43% |
| #57 Jay Sharrers | 86 | 58.14% |
| #66 Darren Gibbs | 43 | 58.14% |
| #96 David Brisebois | 156 | 57.69% |
If any of these guys are announced as the linesman for a game, Sid is likely to have a good night.
On the flip side, here are the guys he has the least success against:
| Linesman | Total # | Win % |
| #73 Vaughan Rody | 62 | 46.77% |
| #88 Mike Cvik | 49 | 48.98% |
| #55 Shane Heyer | 42 | 50.00% |
| #54 Greg Devorski | 159 | 50.31% |
| #90 Andy McElman | 129 | 50.39% |
| #77 Tim Nowak | 68 | 51.47% |
| #65 Pierre Racicot | 33 | 51.52% |
| #92 Mark Shewchyk | 64 | 51.56% |
| #61 Lyle Seitz | 44 | 52.27% |
| #86 Brad Lazarowich | 17 | 52.94% |
You only really need to worry about linesman he faced more than 100 times on this list. I'd say the other numbers are insignificant due to small data size.
The last piece of information I tried to get is how many times Sid was kicked out of the faceoff. This data is not recorded anywhere, but I looked at any faceoff where Sid was on the ice but did not take the draw. I think in those situations, it is normally safe to assume that he had been kicked out of the draw.
According to that methodology, Sid was kicked out 63 times during the 2009-2010 season. Here are the top 5 guys that kicked him out of the draw:
| Linesman | Faceoffs | Waved Out% | Win % |
| #66 Darren Gibbs | 43 | 8.51% | 58.14% |
| #57 Jay Sharrers | 86 | 7.53% | 58.14% |
| #79 Mark Pare | 149 | 7.45% | 53.69% |
| #71 Brad Kovachik | 148 | 6.92% | 56.76% |
| #78 Brian Mach | 179 | 6.77% | 57.54% |
You can see it didn't appear to have any impact on the win % as Sid was above his season average on all but one of those guys.
On the other end of things, Sid was waved out a grand total of once all year against these five guys (though the volume is low)
| Linesman | Faceoffs | Waved Out% | Win % |
| #47 Dan Schachte | 53 | 0.00% | 62.26% |
| #68 Scott Driscoll | 93 | 0.00% | 61.29% |
| #61 Lyle Seitz | 44 | 0.00% | 52.27% |
| #65 Pierre Racicot | 33 | 0.00% | 51.52% |
| #96 David Brisebois | 156 | 0.64% | 57.69% |
I think the Driscoll number is significant. Sid is well above average against him with a decent number of faceoffs.
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