Leafs Acquire Jake Muzzin

[cabber24]

Yes, that is exactly what I said. My point is let's have one of these two on the ice as much as possible. Together it's harder to do that.

Yes, and personally I'm inclined to give Babcock at least one second of ice time before calling out his strategy as the wrong one.

Weber's most used even-strength pairing is Mete at just 35% frequency. Good defensemen on the ice is never a bad thing.

 

[Kin]

Weber's most used even-strength pairing is Mete at just 35% frequency. Good defensemen on the ice is never a bad thing.

Yes, fair point. Never in history has a team found success with their two best defensemen on the top pairing.

 

[herman]

The effect of playing Rielly on the right side could potentially be huge. We've all pretty much assumed other coaches' tell their teams to focus on the left side when the Leafs are breaking out because that's where all their puck-movers are. Now the Leafs won't be quite as predictable in that sense.

It's more fun in the OZ too. Remember all those pot shots that Hainsey took on the low to high cycles that basically turned into whistles? Now they're going to Rielly who can actually hold it for more options, send a tipper on net, or go for a net drive himself while a forward was already coming back up top into coverage position. Look for a bunch of net-side tap-ins for Tavares/Matthews when that last option happens.

 

[cabber24]

Weber's most used even-strength pairing is Mete at just 35% frequency. Good defensemen on the ice is never a bad thing.

Yes, fair point. Never in history has a team found success with their two best defensemen on the top pairing.

Not likely with a bottom 4 with the Leafs skill set.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Weber's most used even-strength pairing is Mete at just 35% frequency. Good defensemen on the ice is never a bad thing.

I'm not really sure what the connection to the Leafs' situation here is.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Weber's most used even-strength pairing is Mete at just 35% frequency. Good defensemen on the ice is never a bad thing.

I'm not really sure what the connection to the Leafs' situation here is.

Well regardless of what it was, according to NST Weber has been paired with Mete for about 70% of the 5-on-5 minutes he's played when both defencemen are in the line-up.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

https://twitter.com/koshtorontosun/status/1091070383539679232

Hainsey sucks.

 

[Bender]

No just Googled it and only 10% of us are Left handed. So the ratio in the NHL is different for other reasons.  Perhaps left handed people have to adapt in so many ways to a right handed world that their brains are more adept at certain skills. I would have thought it was more like 70-30 or even 80-20... Interesting.

I think it's more to do with the debate over whether it's better (or rather preferable) to have your dominant hand at the top or bottom.

I'm right-handed and shoot left. I can't fathom having my right hand at the lower end and shooting right. It feels as awkward as writing with my left hand.

Yeah, it depends on the coaching (philosophy) you received and training mixed with your natural preference (which exists on a spectrum). The 10% ball park lefty number is probably fuzzed with many schools before the 90s forcing kids to operate right handed. The world is slightly more inclusive now to lefties, hence the growing numbers.

With enough time and motivation, a young person can build the neural pathways to going against their natural handedness. Handedness with writing/eating doesn't necessarily directly translate to stick sports (hockey, golf, lacrosse, baseball) but there was a prevalent school of thought in hockey circles to start kids with their dominant hand at the top, which enabled stronger control when playing one-handed and driving more leverage on shots. I don't know for certain, but I'm guessing there's a mix now of letting kids play the way that feels right and some parents/coaches seeing the opportunity on the right side forcing kids to shoot that way pushing the numbers in that direction.

A good number of the current top tier 1D in the NHL we yearn for are righties:
Karlsson, Hedman, Letang, Subban, Doughty, Weber, Burns, Byfuglien, Klingberg, Ekman-Larsson, Carlson, Pietrangelo, Jones, Trouba, Fowler

Just from a cursory image search, they're not all left-handed. Hedman, Subban, Weber, Doughty, Klingberg are right writers. Karlsson, Jones, Letang are lefties.

Is there any advantage to having your dominants hand on the bottom? I'm right handed and shoot right and throw right, but I can see how it would make sense to shoot the other way (especially for goalies who wouldn't have to switch handedness of their stick to pass). I just can't imagine not shooting right, it feels so bizarre having my dominant hand on top.

 

[herman]

Is there any advantage to having your dominants hand on the bottom? I'm right handed and shoot right and throw right, but I can see how it would make sense to shoot the other way (especially for goalies who wouldn't have to switch handedness of their stick to pass). I just can't imagine not shooting right, it feels so bizarre having my dominant hand on top.

I am the same, and it feels like I have more strength in the wrister and control in stick handling. I grew up with wooden flat bladed sticks and tennis balls and I've never had a chance to use a composite on ice. I feel like I can bear down on my dominant side better than on my non-dominant if I were to fire a whippy shot or have to do some heavy board work. With enough time and monetary encouragement, I could probably learn to go left for hockey and baseball, but I'd be far less effective.

 

[Kin]

Not likely with a bottom 4 with the Leafs skill set.

So the answer is to give more ice time to one of their bad defensemen?

 

[Kin]

Also, the idea that Gardiner is a bad #3 or Dermott a bad bottom pairing guy is nonsense but here we are all the same.

 

[OldTimeHockey]

No just Googled it and only 10% of us are Left handed. So the ratio in the NHL is different for other reasons.  Perhaps left handed people have to adapt in so many ways to a right handed world that their brains are more adept at certain skills. I would have thought it was more like 70-30 or even 80-20... Interesting.

I think it's more to do with the debate over whether it's better (or rather preferable) to have your dominant hand at the top or bottom.

I'm right-handed and shoot left. I can't fathom having my right hand at the lower end and shooting right. It feels as awkward as writing with my left hand.

Yeah, it depends on the coaching (philosophy) you received and training mixed with your natural preference (which exists on a spectrum). The 10% ball park lefty number is probably fuzzed with many schools before the 90s forcing kids to operate right handed. The world is slightly more inclusive now to lefties, hence the growing numbers.

With enough time and motivation, a young person can build the neural pathways to going against their natural handedness. Handedness with writing/eating doesn't necessarily directly translate to stick sports (hockey, golf, lacrosse, baseball) but there was a prevalent school of thought in hockey circles to start kids with their dominant hand at the top, which enabled stronger control when playing one-handed and driving more leverage on shots. I don't know for certain, but I'm guessing there's a mix now of letting kids play the way that feels right and some parents/coaches seeing the opportunity on the right side forcing kids to shoot that way pushing the numbers in that direction.

A good number of the current top tier 1D in the NHL we yearn for are righties:
Karlsson, Hedman, Letang, Subban, Doughty, Weber, Burns, Byfuglien, Klingberg, Ekman-Larsson, Carlson, Pietrangelo, Jones, Trouba, Fowler

Just from a cursory image search, they're not all left-handed. Hedman, Subban, Weber, Doughty, Klingberg are right writers. Karlsson, Jones, Letang are lefties.

Is there any advantage to having your dominants hand on the bottom? I'm right handed and shoot right and throw right, but I can see how it would make sense to shoot the other way (especially for goalies who wouldn't have to switch handedness of their stick to pass). I just can't imagine not shooting right, it feels so bizarre having my dominant hand on top.

The top hand is your control hand though. It does all the work when you're carrying the puck, the other hand is just along for the ride. The stick actually floats in your bottom hand.

 

[OldTimeHockey]

Is there any advantage to having your dominants hand on the bottom? I'm right handed and shoot right and throw right, but I can see how it would make sense to shoot the other way (especially for goalies who wouldn't have to switch handedness of their stick to pass). I just can't imagine not shooting right, it feels so bizarre having my dominant hand on top.

I am the same, and it feels like I have more strength in the wrister and control in stick handling. I grew up with wooden flat bladed sticks and tennis balls and I've never had a chance to use a composite on ice. I feel like I can bear down on my dominant side better than on my non-dominant if I were to fire a whippy shot or have to do some heavy board work. With enough time and monetary encouragement, I could probably learn to go left for hockey and baseball, but I'd be far less effective.

To continue on from previous post, the flex of a stick is just as much about the pull back with the top hand when taking a snap shot/wrist shot.
So if you think about it, your body weight on bottom hand creates the push, your top hand creates the pull.
I would always want my dominant hand doing the pulling.

 

[bustaheims]

Is there any advantage to having your dominants hand on the bottom? I'm right handed and shoot right and throw right, but I can see how it would make sense to shoot the other way (especially for goalies who wouldn't have to switch handedness of their stick to pass). I just can't imagine not shooting right, it feels so bizarre having my dominant hand on top.

I am the same, and it feels like I have more strength in the wrister and control in stick handling. I grew up with wooden flat bladed sticks and tennis balls and I've never had a chance to use a composite on ice. I feel like I can bear down on my dominant side better than on my non-dominant if I were to fire a whippy shot or have to do some heavy board work. With enough time and monetary encouragement, I could probably learn to go left for hockey and baseball, but I'd be far less effective.

To continue on from previous post, the flex of a stick is just as much about the pull back with the top hand when taking a snap shot/wrist shot.
So if you think about it, your body weight on bottom hand creates the push, your top hand creates the pull.
I would always want my dominant hand doing the pulling.

Also, when you have your stick one hand, that's almost always going to be your top hand. Having your dominant hand there means you have better control in those situations - like for poke checks or blocking passes, etc.

 

[Kin]

Also, when you have your stick one hand, that's almost always going to be your top hand. Having your dominant hand there means you have better control in those situations - like for poke checks or blocking passes, etc.

That doesn't really read to me. It's the easiest thing in the world to slide your hand up and play one handed with your bottom hand.

I honestly think it depends on the person and what they're comfortable with. There are clearly enough people who do it either way that the idea that one or the other is "correct" seems to be demonstrably false.

 

[bustaheims]

That doesn't really read to me. It's the easiest thing in the world to slide your hand up and play one handed with your bottom hand.

Sure, but that fraction of a second transition can be a huge difference - especially when you intercept a pass in tight coverage.

 

[Bullfrog]

Is there any advantage to having your dominants hand on the bottom? I'm right handed and shoot right and throw right, but I can see how it would make sense to shoot the other way (especially for goalies who wouldn't have to switch handedness of their stick to pass). I just can't imagine not shooting right, it feels so bizarre having my dominant hand on top.

I am the same, and it feels like I have more strength in the wrister and control in stick handling. I grew up with wooden flat bladed sticks and tennis balls and I've never had a chance to use a composite on ice. I feel like I can bear down on my dominant side better than on my non-dominant if I were to fire a whippy shot or have to do some heavy board work. With enough time and monetary encouragement, I could probably learn to go left for hockey and baseball, but I'd be far less effective.

To continue on from previous post, the flex of a stick is just as much about the pull back with the top hand when taking a snap shot/wrist shot.
So if you think about it, your body weight on bottom hand creates the push, your top hand creates the pull.
I would always want my dominant hand doing the pulling.

That's my view as well. My non-dominant hand is just the fulcrum (more-or-less)

 

[Kin]

Sure, but that fraction of a second transition can be a huge difference - especially when you intercept a pass in tight coverage.

It seems pretty rare that you'd ever cleanly intercept a pass with one hand on the stick. There's always going to be a fraction of a second there to gain control of the puck and in that time you can cleanly grab the stick.

I strongly feel like this is going to be the next great holy war.

 

[herman]

I see the advantages of having the dominant hand on top, and I do wish to try it to see if I can get over the discomfort hurdle just for the sake of learning.

I find when stick handling, my top hand handles length control (bottom hand float), but bottom hand handles the control on lateral moves, which is where my left hand has failures. The bottom hand does a lot of the work fighting off stick checks; obviously I can build strength in the non-dominant hand, but I am not sure I can build up control. Have I been stickhandling wrong all my life because I went dominant hand down?

I'm also curious how this interplays with eye dominance and leg dominance. Each person has one eye that as priority when determining focus so having it on a different side than your shooting side probably requires an aim adjustment that needed to be ingrained early on. Given the size of the puck and macro aspect of the motions involved this is likely negligible unless you're shooting from distance. Erik Karlsson is a left handed person who shoots right, and he had a hell of a time with the stupid mini nets and I wonder if it's an eye thing as he was better with the nets on the right than the nets on the left.

On the legs, one is going to want to be the lead foot in terms of balance, but I'm guessing this not something one can gain any particular advantage off of.

 

[Coco-puffs]

Is there any advantage to having your dominants hand on the bottom? I'm right handed and shoot right and throw right, but I can see how it would make sense to shoot the other way (especially for goalies who wouldn't have to switch handedness of their stick to pass). I just can't imagine not shooting right, it feels so bizarre having my dominant hand on top.

I am the same, and it feels like I have more strength in the wrister and control in stick handling. I grew up with wooden flat bladed sticks and tennis balls and I've never had a chance to use a composite on ice. I feel like I can bear down on my dominant side better than on my non-dominant if I were to fire a whippy shot or have to do some heavy board work. With enough time and monetary encouragement, I could probably learn to go left for hockey and baseball, but I'd be far less effective.

To continue on from previous post, the flex of a stick is just as much about the pull back with the top hand when taking a snap shot/wrist shot.
So if you think about it, your body weight on bottom hand creates the push, your top hand creates the pull.
I would always want my dominant hand doing the pulling.

Also, when you have your stick one hand, that's almost always going to be your top hand. Having your dominant hand there means you have better control in those situations - like for poke checks or blocking passes, etc.

I think that may have mattered a lot more when sticks were heavier.  I'm right-hand dominant and shoot right.  I am very good at controlling the stick with my left hand by itself- I often coral hard passes with just my top hand on my stick as it helps me accept passes that aren't perfect without losing forward skating momentum.  I wouldn't have been able to do that 20 years ago, but that is a combination of lighter stick and going from teenage to adult strength that has enabled me to be good with only my non-dominant hand on my stick.

As I've said in previous threads about this topic- my dad was a right hand dominant left shot and when he put a left stick in my hands as a 4 yr old, I immediately flipped it around and wanted to play right handed.  After him trying a few times to flip it back he gave up and let me be a righty.