Practice Notes 3/5/22

[North Buffalo]

So off hand on forward it is easier to cut the middle of the ice for a good shot... it is harder to shoot a dump in coming off the boards but only a minor inconvenience... also it is easier to open up for a one time with better angles towards the goal... On D you are able to control board play and be able to rip it up the ice on correct side and handedness becomes more important because there is less if not any pivoting to get on your forehand in order to clear the zone...

Edited March 6, 2022 by North Buffalo

[JohnC]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

Playing on your off-hand in the forward ranks and playing your off-hand as a d-man (particularly in the top 4) aren’t one and the same, though, and the discrepancy is borne out statistically - in that way it is not overrated, it’s demonstrable. 

I posted the findings of the common D pairings throughout league for the second or third time a little bit ago and, the simple fact remains that’s while it’s common for forwards to play on their off-hand side, and relatively common for d-men or your last pairing to do so, it is uncommon on pair two and very rare on a top pair. 

If a defenseman who is playing on his offside is better than a player who is playing on his appropriate hand side, which player would you prefer? I understand on why you would prefer to have a balance on defense. But if the staffing isn't there you make the adjustment and accommodation for the situation. If it is more of an imperative for the top pairing to have that balance that doesn't mean that the lower pairings have to do so if the staffing isn't sufficient.   

[Thorny]

41 minutes ago, JohnC said:

If a defenseman who is playing on his offside is better than a player who is playing on his appropriate hand side, which player would you prefer? I understand on why you would prefer to have a balance on defense. But if the staffing isn't there you make the adjustment and accommodation for the situation. If it is more of an imperative for the top pairing to have that balance that doesn't mean that the lower pairings have to do so if the staffing isn't sufficient.   

I’m not saying to play someone who will lead to inferior play purely to dogmatically stick to a theory, man

That’s the tail wagging the dog. I’m merely saying the prevalence of d-men playing their proper side is revelatory. 

[inkman]

41 minutes ago, Thorny said:

I’m not saying to play someone who will lead to inferior play purely to dogmatically stick to a theory, man

That’s the tail wagging the dog. I’m merely saying the prevalence of d-men playing their proper side is revelatory. 

Dumb it down a little for us plebes, I might have to google 3 of these words 

[Thorny]

3 minutes ago, inkman said:

Dumb it down a little for us plebes, I might have to google 3 of these words 

It’s much easier to maximize a defenseman’s abilities on their proper hand - it’s much less important when considering forwards and that’s why you so often see F playing on their off-hand. 

We don’t see that many top 4 D (and very rarely on the top pair) playing on their off-hand because of this - and a d-man needing to find a way, on their off-hand, to outplay a d-man, on their proper hand, is only part of the equation for why we don’t see it much. I believe we see it so little on a top pair particularly because the other half of the equation is you’d generally be “losing something” by playing your best guys with the added off-hand difficulty. 

At the NHL level, we can’t afford to sacrifice even a little bit of Dahlin’s acumen by handicapping him with a right side deployment - and this is a player who played Right fairly often pre-NHL. The proof is in the pudding - if Dahlin excelled on the right we’d see him there more than not-at-all. A trend borne out across the league. 

There are exceptions, guys who excel/play best on their offhand and do so on a top pair - but they can be counted on a shop teacher’s one hand