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Its absolutely true. This is something coaches and players speak of regularly.
ive known this since my playing days, but fortunately they did a big article on it recently.
“As a leftie playing the right side, it’s definitely a harder game than having a puck-moving, right-handed guy there,” Theodore said. “There’s a lot that goes into it that people don’t notice. I don’t know if I’ve completely figured it out.”
There’s an ease that comes with defensemen playing their natural side that allows for quicker decision-making. There are more one-timers for the taking, according to multiple defensemen who have played the right side.
The benefits don’t end there.
“As a righty, you always know you’re going to have that safety outlet along the wall,” Winnipeg Jets right-shot defenseman Dylan DeMelo said. “When you’re on your off-side, you have to come across your body with the puck.”
If NHL coaches had their way, they would prefer lining up with left-handed shot defensemen on the left side, and right-handed shot defensemen on the right side.
“When you’re on your off wing sometimes you grab a puck on your backhand and bring it to your forehand at the lower level, you think ‘It’s a split second.’ The only thing you need in the NHL is a split second,” Arizona Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. “If you can have the privilege of having three righties and three lefties, that’s pretty good.”
“On (passes between defensemen) in the neutral zone, if you take a good angle, you can limit where they go with the puck or force a quicker play,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “When the puck is coming around the boards in the offensive zone, you recognize that you can get on top of them a little quicker, so you have to take it backhand to forehand.”
But coaches like Keefe sometimes have to get creative. Enter TJ Brodie, who is both a rare bird in the NHL and also means to an end. He is a left-shot defenseman who can, and has, played right side through the majority of his NHL career. Early on in his junior career with the Saginaw Spirit, he realized the majority of the blue line shot left. So he tried to learn to play right to have that flexibility.
“That’s been the way it’s gone my whole career,” he said.
There was a time when Brodie was considered one of the most stable and reliable defensively-minded right-sided NHL defensemen. But through the first half of this season, the 33-year-old took a noticeable step back. With injuries, suspensions and the emergence of different blueliners, Brodie moved back to the left side. This illustrates how the window for left-shot defensemen to play the right side can be small: It requires players to be at their peak both mentally and physically.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the smoothness and quickness in Brodie’s game flourished when he went back to his natural side.
That’s because, as many NHL defensemen will tell you in great detail, playing a different side creates differences that inhibit their ability to play the game they want to. Opposition teams can capitalize on defensemen forced to play their weak side, which only increases the demand for players like Lyubushkin and Tanev.
“You’re always on your blind side,” left-shot Leafs defenseman Simon Benoit said of playing the right side, which he has done in the AHL and NHL. “When you’re on your strong side and you get the puck on (your) forehand, you see the play right away. But on the right side, you have to turn all the way around.”
“It’s hard to shoulder check,” Theodore said of playing the right side. “A lot of times when you get the puck, you’re forced to make plays on your backhand. Whereas if you’re a righty, it’s a simple forehand pass to get to the center. Under pressure when you default to the boards, you’re going to have to backhand to get it off the glass because sometimes you don’t have the angles.”
“In the neutral zone you’re on your backhand so it’s a lot harder to go across the ice with the puck,” Brodie said. “The positive is when you’re going back for pucks on your forehand and then going defense to defense.”
“On defensive faceoffs, if you’re a lefty playing your off-side, if your partner bumps it to you behind the net, you’re on your backhand automatically,” Giordano said, listing out reasons, coincidentally, on his left hand. “And in the offensive zone, it’s a lot easier to rip the puck across the blue line left to right than it is to rip to a guy on his backhand.”
Agreed. plenty of time to revisit closer to draft day
