Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
I would say a strong majority of NHL coaches would prefer to have defenseman playing on their natural side, there are just too many dangerous areas of the ice for a dman where taking the puck on the backhand is ill advised.
At the end of the season they moved Stone to the left to play with Andersson. The two areas that almost nuked him here were;
a) D to D pass in his own zone where he had to move the puck from his backhand to his forehand with oncoming forecheckers all over hime
b) every time he had to handle either a pass back to the point on the wall, or a cross blueline pass.
Both instances almost turned into turnovers often
Brodie is a bit different in that he's found a way to use that inside body position on his off side to see the ice better on the reverse behind his own net or in his corner that became a strength.
But that doesn't take away from his exposure in the other areas.
If a coach has the option you go correct sided every time.
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People that want Brodie (or sometimes Johnny) to play on the opposite side almost always focus on one aspect (Brodie's stretch backhand pass or a better shooting angle for Johnny) but ignore all the other aspects of the position, like receiving passes on the wall on D or pinching at the offensive blue line, or protecting the puck while skating up ice as a winger, or shooting short side (and making the goalie travel further).