brwi wrote:FLPensFan wrote:- You also have to remember that, while some guys are ok doing it, traditionally, a players handedness dictates what wing they play. RH players typically RW, and LH players LW. There are some exceptions like David Perron, Kovalev back in the day.....but I'd guess maybe only about 10-15% of the wingers in the league, at best, play their "off-wing."
This is of course very true, and it's also true that a righty playing LW is much rarer than vice-versa, especially in North American hockey. There are some real studs that were lefties and played RW: Jagr, Bure, Hossa, Bondra, Bellows, Kovy, St.Louis, even Recchi, etc. The opposite? Not too damn many. Kovalchuk spent some time as a LW. Besides Ovi and Perron, much to mention. Real rare to see a righty playing LW.
- The other thing with LW.....it is traditionally the more "defensive" wing position in terms of coverage responsibilities. That's why when you look around the league, traditionally, your high scoring wingers are more often RWs. There are obviously players that put up points on the LW, and if you really dig into those players, more often than not you are going to find that those players are defensively responsible.
Benn would be pretty much the standard these days of what you dream of having in a LW.
Here's an article I found on ESPN Insider written in 2011. Yes, I have ESPN Insider, as I follow other sports as well. Regardless of who wrote it, it's interesting, especially the differences depending on where you were trained. It addresses the whole right shot vs left shot phenomenon. It's dated, but I thought it gave a lot of insight.
http://www.espn.com/blog/nhl-draft/insi ... t/_/id/143In many hockey cultures, parents and coaches will encourage kids to use their weak hand on the bottom of the stick. Why? Because, as Christiansen says, "If a right-hand dominant guy becomes a right-hand shot, he's not going to do things with his back hand." In other words, it pushes ambidexterity, which is crucial in hockey.
Christiansen, who now runs a hockey school, has taken a special interest in the way athletes move. And he's thought a lot about handedness in hockey, including the importance of pushing kids to use their weak hand by putting it on the bottom.
But not everyone does this. In fact, a recent New York Times piece shows that the majority of American people shoot right-handed while a majority of Canadian people shoot left-handed. Both countries have a similar percentage of left-handed people, so this indicates that Canadians are correcting this natural inclination more often than Americans. And this effect passes all the way to the NHL:
Even though about 60 percent of American people shoot right, that percentage drops to 46 percent among NHL draftees. This might partially be because shooting with your weak hand gives you an advantage. But chances are, if you grow up in a place that encourages you to shoot with your weak hand, you're in a much more hockey-centric environment, which certainly helps you reach the NHL.
Another interesting finding is that international players are left shots 75 percent of the time, which is far and away the highest ratio. Christiansen thinks ambidexterity might be encouraged more in Europe. But in addition, only the elite international players are drafted in the NHL, and those guys tend to shoot with their weak hand, which also skews the numbers.
As a whole, about 64 percent of NHL players shoot left and 36 percent shoot right -- and both groups are creepily identical: They are 6-foot-1, 196 pounds. They are drafted, on averaged, 127th overall. And their statistical performance is nearly identical as well.
In the NHL, though, we don't really notice handedness. At some point, both Christiansen and I were left stumped when trying to figure out which way Mario Lemieux shot. (Right.) But it can have a huge effect on not just who makes it to the league, but how well these players do. And the biggest advantage can be found when we look at guys who play "off wing."
My first question to Christiansen and former NHL scout Grant Sonier was: If there is this huge advantage, why don't more players play off wing?
The basic answer: It's really hard.
Going down the ice, it's easier to handle the puck on the forehand side. Defensemen will likely be coming from the middle of the ice -- not from the boards, along which you are handling the puck. In addition, when you're puckhandling in the offensive zone, it's much easier on your strong side because the puck glides into the inside of the hockey stick's curve, not the outside. So to play the off wing, guys not only need to be ambidextrous, but they have to have great touch to handle the puck on the outside of the curve.
As Christiansen says, "They are really talented, skilled people."
But why is it better to play on the off wing? It gives you more options.
A left-shot player on the right wing can skate down the ice and, depending on the defenseman's position, he can choose to go wide toward the boards or he can cut back to the center of the ice. Now, anybody can cut back to the center -- but when you're playing your strong wing, it means you can't put a forehand shot on goal. However, on the off wing, you have that forehand shot. In addition, you're head is looking up-ice and you have the puck in the middle of the rink, which makes you a dangerous player.
"When it comes to attacking the offensive blueline," Christiansen says, "and you're trying to create offense, how can you argue not being on your weak side?"
Both Sonier and Christiansen said this was a very European phenomenon, and they're right: only about 2.5 percent of domestic skaters play on their off wing, compared to about 15 percent of international players. But players don't always stay in their lanes, so Christiansen wondered how many times players subconsciously took advantage of this situation by shifting to their off wing. While it's tougher for a winger to get to the other side of the ice, there are certainly centers who may shift to their off wing to gain an advantage; Pavel Datsyuk comes to mind.
