Quote:
Originally Posted by 868904
I know it is absurd to many people, but I think Brodie really is better on the right side. If you watch tape of him, you notice a few things:
- while carrying the puck, he turns to his left much sharper than to his right, this allows him to elude forecheckers much quicker when playing the right side;
- while playing the right side, one of his favourite moves to evade a forechecker is to bounce the puck behind him on the boards and pick it up on his forehand while moving forward into the offensive zone; he can't do this when playing the left side, cause then he goes in to the opposite direction back into the defensive end;
- he just sees the ice better from the right side, could simply be his peripheral vision in his left eye is better than his right eye.
- this will also be mocked, but his right crossovers seem to have more power than his left crossover; which is why he seems to be better able to evade forecheckers while turning left and crossing over with his right. He also looks a lot slower while playing the left side for this reason, I believe.
I know this seems stupid to many, but when I played, I always had stronger sides. It's not just as simple as being left shot - right shot. If you have stronger mechanics on one side of your body or if you have better peripheral vision one eye, that will affect how you play.
Having said all this, I think the Flames really have 4 "right shot" defensemen because that is where Brodie belongs. However, Brodie is also able to play the "left side", though he is considerably weaker doing it. The Flames don't have any other "left shot" defensemen after Gio who can play in the top 4. Kulak hasn't proven he is ready and Valimaki and Kylington are at least a year or two away.
I just don't think you trade Brodie unless you have a second pairing "left shot" defensemen ready.
You can trade a "right shot" defensemen because you really have 4 of them. Actually you have 5 of them, because Anderson appears NHL ready.
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I agree with you that Brodie is stronger on the right side. I think the insistence on left shot/right shot pairings was and is overemphasized and misplaced. Classic Sniper brought up the Ovechkin example and that is really what we're talking about. Remember the year when they decided he should be right wing and his production was halved?
What I don't agree with is trading Brodie because of this issue. He is being misused and his stock has fallen as a result. if you trade him you don't get full value. He needs to be used properly but I think Treliving played all his cards already and Brodie is the guy most likely to eventually be dealt (in another season or two). The problem is that Treliving invested so much in getting Hamilton and Hamonic as top 4 right shot defensemen - and then re-signed Stone for 3.5M, It's hard to understand the plan for Andersson who I think could play at least as well as Stone right now for a quarter of the salary and there's really no flexibility to move Brodie back to the right. It's a conundrum.