Flyers: Why Right Handed Defensemen Matter

Is the Flyers Having a Defensively Suspect Defenseman Playing on Their Weak Side a Reasonable Replacement For Matt Niskanen

Shortly after the Flyers had signed Erik Gustafsson my wife found me wandering about the house muttering myself. I was going on about how we already had a left-handed defenseman who had some defensive issues and it seemed redundant to get another one. My wife asked me questions in the same way you would if you were trapped by an old acquaintance who really wanted to tell you about the exciting world of insurance sales, polite surface questions asked with no intention of retaining any of the contents of the answer.

In one of my answers, I said “It would make more sense if he was right-handed.”  She asked if that made a difference.  “Yes, no, sometimes.”  I sputtered.  It was an honest, though confusing answer. My wife has played a little recreational hockey, and will still gloat about the season she outscored me (I was playing goalie!!).

But even with her experience in the sport, I knew it would take a bit more explaining to some who had never played on the blue line.  Before I could spit out anything more than fragmented pseudo thoughts my wife, convinced that this was not me going insane but rather run of the mill husband talking to self, moved on to the next of the task days.

As we know, it is not right-handed or left-handed defensemen that matter, it matters if you are playing on your strongside or your weak side, or put another way if you hold your stick on you forehand when facing the goal you wish to score on, is the stick pointing to the boards closest to you or the far boards all the way across the ice.  If you are right-handed, your strong side is the right side of the ice.  If you are left-handed the strong side is the left side of the ice.