Staal, Del Zotto, and McDonagh are lefties, and will play on the left side.
Girardi, Rozsival, and Gilroy are righties and will play the right side.
You CAN NOT start effing with defensemen on their wrong sides.
I don't see why people are so adamant about this issue... the best we ever saw of redden and rozsival. Was when they were both facing each other and had a nice back and forth slap pass sequence.
From what I understand Mitchell has been having major problems with this concussion. But that was a while ago. Maybe he's made great strided in improvement since then.
From what I hear, it was pretty severe and he had severe post concussion syndrome.
Because 5v5 is completely different from 5v4 or 5v3.
You can't have puck defensemen handling the puck toward the middle. They need to be able to use their bodies as puck protection.
First fundamental of being a defenseman is to always be between the puck and your own goal. Being a left handed shot on the right side completely negates that.
Its a small thing, that could also mean the difference in a big turn over in a crucial game.
Also, at the point in the offensive zone, its A LOT easier to keep the puck in the zone if you have your forehand on the boards when the puck comes up the side boards.
Also, if you're a righty for example, when skating backward in a 2v1 situation your stick is automatically in the passing lane when you're on the right side.
worst case is he fights for a job with McD in camp and whoever loses out goes to the AHL for depth
Girlroy, Valatenko, Sauer in the minors ready for call up is not a bad thing
except matty boy has to go through re-entry waivers and would probably be pouting about playing in Hartford. though a pairing of Gilroy-Redden in Hartford could certainly vie for second pairing minutes down there
except matty boy has to go through re-entry waivers and would probably be pouting about playing in Hartford. though a pairing of Gilroy-Redden in Hartford could certainly vie for second pairing minutes down there
are you sure about Gilroy? He didn't have to go through waivers last season.
Staal, Del Zotto, and McDonagh are lefties, and will play on the left side.
Girardi, Rozsival, and Gilroy are righties and will play the right side.
You CAN NOT start effing with defensemen on their wrong sides.
Yeah, this is just not at all automatically correct. Plenty of defensemen and wingers play on their offsides. It's not actually terribly important and in four years of college hockey I played LW/RW and occasionally D, and played both sides. Sure, it's college, but DI hockey is still closer than most people get and I'm pretty confident in saying that if it REALLY doesn't matter at that level, it doesn't very much in the NHL either.
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Brandon Dubinsky ($1.850m) / Marc Savard ($4.007m) / Marian Gaborik ($7.500m)
Vaclav Prospal ($2.100m) / Artem Anisimov ($0.821m) / Mats Zuccarello-Aasen ($1.750m)
Sean Avery ($1.937m) / Chris Drury ($7.050m) / Ryan Callahan ($2.300m)
Derek Boogaard ($1.625m) / Erik Christensen ($0.925m) / Brandon Prust ($0.800m)
Brian Boyle ($0.525m) / Donald Brashear ($1.300m)
DEFENSEMEN
Marc Staal ($4.000m) / Michal Rozsival ($5.000m)
Michael Del Zotto ($1.087m) / Daniel Girardi ($3.325m)
Willie Mitchell ($2.000m) / Ryan McDonagh ($1.300m)
Steve Eminger ($1.125m)
GOALTENDERS
Henrik Lundqvist ($6.875m) /Martin Biron ($0.875m)
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That's fine you played college hockey, and because I didn't means I don't know what I'm talking about?
I played varsity HS hockey and played D since is was 11 years old. And every coach I ever had made a point of it. My HS coach played for Maine University.
So I would say, on the contrary, if it mattered at that level, then it certainly matters at the NHL level.
There are a handful of reasons that it matters. And for those handful of reasons, you mostly will find defensemen on their strong side.
You don't throw guys together just because. Its not how it works.
Body position with the puck, keeping the puck in at the point, forehand clearing the puck off the boards, stick position in the defensive zone...
On the power play it doesn't matter.
5v5, 4v4, and PK it matters.
I mean, the Rangers scouting staff even made a point of this when they drafted McIlrath. They made a point that he's a right handed shot, stay at home guy... Most definitely because Del Zotto is a left handed shot, offensively gifted guy. And they're a match.
Its the reason Staal has been paired with Girardi and Rozsival, and not Redden or Del Zotto.
This same concept is why the Rangers were and still are so adamant about Gaborik having a left handed playmaking center. Because its easier to make a forehanded pass off the rush to your RW. Its more difficult to reposition your body or make a backhanded pass to your RW as a right handed shot.
Little things like this matter when putting a lineup together.
They matter in all spots.
It might not matter as much for guys who don't often handle the puck or look to do too much with it. But certainly for puck movers and guys who hande the puck and skate with it, and especially guys not that great defensively, it matters.
You want Del Zotto looking up the ice and losing the puck to the middle of the ice? Or lose it on the boards to the outside?
As i have made known if Mitchell can be had in the 3 million range for no more than 2 years I would love to have him provided he passes a physical and is ready to play, can you imagine a Mitchell and McDonagh as a shutdown pair and MDZ and Girardi as the 3rd pair... This would signal the end of Redden. Again this all depends on the deal and Sather has not signed a single UFA that i was hoping he would or was a first choice, so until this happens i"m not holding my breath
There will be a lot of teams interested in Mitchell once he gets a green light from his doctors. Phoenix is interested but they've been floating a one year $2MM offer. That probably won't get it done. Willie's an excellent player but he will remind a lot of people in Malik. He's not overly physical. When I lived in Minnesota he was getting booed even though he was a +16 at the time and no one else on the team was any better than a +1. If he should come, that means there's more than a little tinkering left on the back end. Enjoy Europe, Wade.
Staal, Del Zotto, and McDonagh are lefties, and will play on the left side.
Girardi, Rozsival, and Gilroy are righties and will play the right side.
You CAN NOT start effing with defensemen on their wrong sides.
Lefties play on the right side all the time. 80% of the players in the league shoot left handed. Euros play both sides. Not nearly as big an issue as you seem to think.
I know we're talking about defensemen, but from an offensive standpoint it's better to have a lefty shooter on the right side--good for one-timers from the point.
Lefties play on the right side all the time. 80% of the players in the league shoot left handed. Euros play both sides. Not nearly as big an issue as you seem to think.
Exactly. Sometimes this matters for big time shooters and such, but otherwise it's not a big deal. I played pretty high level travel hockey before I hurt myself and, essentially, retired. I played D and W most of my time. Played hockey since I was about 5 to about when I was 17 or 18. I had aspirations of playing college hockey but it never came to be. Now I'm fat and "retired" hahahaha. Either way, it definitely doesn't matter what side a guy plays on. Strictly offensive d-men will likely have a particular side they like, but that's about it.
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I know we're talking about defensemen, but from an offensive standpoint it's better to have a lefty shooter on the right side--good for one-timers from the point.
On the Power Play it's fine.
5v5 you're going to get a ton of turn overs.
A defenseman's first priority is to be effective defensively.
To me, it matters.
Having your body between the puck and the goal is a big deal, IMO.
It's really not as important as you think it is. It's nice that your coaches stressed it, but that's likely only because, as a guideline for players who don't have a preference, it makes sense to start out playing a righty on the right, etc. Some players PREFER to play on the opposite side and many players can and will play both. Some players prefer to play on the side of their handedness and you could argue that for those players it's important, but otherwise it's much more flexible than you're making it out to be.
And yeah, I didn't write it to be arrogant in any way, but yes, I do think that having played DI hockey for my entire college career, and witnessing first hand guys who went as far as to be drafted or had already been by the time they came to college and were playing in our conference - not necessarily guys who made the show, but still - play on their opposite sides consistently and without it being at all noteworthy is first hand knowledge that is worth more than the opinion of a guy who played high school hockey. The high school I went to didn't even have tryouts for their hockey team; the better kids made varsity and the rest played JV... high school hockey and DI hockey are really not even close.
I understand your argument about stick position and playing the puck to the outside but its at a level where it's just not as significant as you believe. These guys will make the right play the majority of the time regardless. Gaborik also played on the left at times this year and was absolutely fine there, so it's not as imperative as you think for him to have a LH center either, although that situation is slightly more relevant because when you're going to have a premium sniper on your team you want to give him the ideal setup man, of course, and that means someone who won't have to be passing off their backhand a good deal of the time.
