When Left is Right (2024)

NHL coaching staffs think about matchups on the ice from shift to shift, game to game, practice to practice. Those matchups tend to be focused on which line of three forwards is facing which line from the opponent. It further includes attempting to get the best defenders on ice to combat the foe's top scorers.

But there is a whole different sort of matchup when young hockey players pick up a stick. Do you shoot right or left? Then, later, as players develop and progress, if you play on the wings or defense, to play the right or left position?

"You just pick up a stick and whatever hand you are, you are," said right-handed, left-shooting center Matt duch*ene to Denver Post reporter Mike Chambers in 2015 when the Nashville forward was then playing for the Colorado Avalanche. "Most right-handed throwers are left-handed shots because you steer the stick with your top hand. "

Uh, yes but no, or maybe? Right-shooting Avs center Nathan MacKinnon, the paused NHL's fifth-leading scorer, has a dominant right hand. His dominant hand is the lower hand on the stick: "Right away, it just felt right, shooting right," MacKinnon said.

Ryan O'Reilly, the 2019 Stanley Cup Final most valuable player, says he "did what was naturally comfortable. He throws a ball right-handed but plays hockey and golf as a lefty. He admits to being influenced by his lefty hockey shooter older brother, Cal, while they both idolized Wayne Gretzky, the NHL's all-time leading scorer and fellow left-handed shot. Cal O'Reilly has played 145 NHL games and 719 American Hockey League games during his 14-season career.

For his part, Gretzky plays golf right-handed-mostly because he first attempted the sport with right-handed clubs-and throws a baseball right-handed. Alex Ovechkin, the NHL star chasing Gretzky's all-time goals record, shoots his deadly floating, dipping, speeding shot right-handed and throws a baseball left-handed.

Some left-right stats: Roughly 60 to 70 percent of NHL players are left-handed shooters, depending on the season. Six of the NHL's top 10 current scorers are lefty shots, but three of the top five goals leaders shoot right-handed. duch*ene, for one, says right-handed shooters have a goal-scoring advantage because most NHL goalies handle their sticks right-handed. Players agree the non-stick, catch-glove hand usually provides a bit more room to shoot to empty space.

At the NHL level, the left-right matchup extends to positions played. There are prolific scorers such Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov and Chicago's Patrick Kane, both left-handed shooters who play right wing. Yet, Boston's right-handed shot David Pastrnak, the league's leading goal scorer and third overall in scoring, plays on the right wing or what hockey observers call his "natural side."

Kane played and starred as a left wing in juniors but his surefire Hockey Hall of Fame NHL career has featured his goal-scoring and playmaking skills skating up at right wing. He's been versatile enough to play some left wing on a line with two other future Hall of Famers, Jonathan Toews at center and the retired Marian Hossa at right wing. Hossa and Kane typically played on separate lines; both are left-handed shooters.

One reason Kane lights the right-side lane is he has a signature move entering the offensive zone in which is goes toward the goal line fairly deep then curls to his stickhand side for a player trailing the rush. As a left wing, the same move would require a backhand shot from Kane.

On the other hand-ok, pun intended-some wings and their coaches prefer players to to play their natural side - right shooters on the right, left shooters on the left - because they can carry the puck along the boards and away from defenders. Other wings and their coaches argue to lefties have a better shooting angle on the right side and vice versa for righties. Alex Ovechkin scores lots of his 706 NHL goals from the left-side faceoff circle, nicknamed his "office" because he scores power play goals on "one-timer" shots synchronized to shoot the puck as soon as the pass arrives.

The final right-left matchup and ensuing debate is whether NHL coaches and general managers prefer their defensive pairings to have a left-hander on the natural left side and same for righty on the right side. On average, about 60 percent of the league's defensem*n are left-handers.

"We prefer to have guys on their strong sides as defensem*n," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said earlier this to Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "It helps going back for pucks. You're always on your forehand. You have the ability to change the point of attack on your forehand, make that (defense-to-defense) pass. It puts guys in more advantageous positions."

Sullivan's boss and Pittsburgh GM Jim Rutherford concurs that "you see the [positive] difference in our team" when the top three defensive pairs each have a right and a left-hander.

Barry Trotz, the New York Islanders coach, says he and his coaching colleagues have to look for special players who can handle the off-handed side on defense. When you get the statistically more probable lefty and lefty defensive pairing, Trotz says the lefty on right side "loses about a third of the ice offensively" and that passing between the defensive partners requires "the ability to contort" by off-handed defender.

As a result, NHL GMs are typically looking to balance out their right- and left-handers on defense, through drafts, trades and locking up top-performing right-handed defensem*n. Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review did some digging to find 11 of the league's most highly paid defensem*n are right-handed, including San Jose's Erik Karlsson ($11.5 million salary cap hit), Los Angeles' Drew Doughty ($11 million) and New Jersey's P.K. Subban at the 1-2-3 spots.

When Left is Right (2024)

FAQs

Are liberals left or right? ›

Political scientists and other analysts regard the left as including anarchists, communists, socialists, democratic socialists, social democrats, left-libertarians, progressives, and social liberals. Movements for racial equality, as well as trade unionism, have also been associated with the left.

What is the right to left? ›

right-to-left, top-to-bottom script (commonly shortened to right to left or abbreviated RTL, RL-TB or R2L), writing starts from the right of the page and continues to the left, proceeding from top to bottom for new lines.

What is the right wing socialism? ›

Right-wing socialism is used as a pejorative term by some free-market conservative and right-libertarian movements, politicians, and economists, such as Murray Rothbard and Jesús Huerta de Soto, to describe economic interventionist variants of conservatism they see supporting paternalism and solidarity as opposed to ...

What is the difference between a liberal and a conservative? ›

Conservatives believe in the importance of stability, and promote law and order to protect private property. Liberals believe in universal access to health care; they believe personal health should be in no way dependent upon one's financial resources, and support government intervention to sever that link.

What culture reads right to left? ›

The two most well-known right to left languages are Arabic and Hebrew, which share a common linguistic ancestor in the Aramaic alphabet. Persian, Sindhi and Urdu all use adapted forms of the Arabic alphabet. Azeri, Kurdish, Azerbaijani, Rohingya, Fula, N'ko, Syriac and Maldivian are also right-to-left languages.

Why right to left? ›

This writing was done by chipping away at a stone with a chisel. Since people would typically hold a chisel in their left hand and the hammer in their right hand, moving from right to left made the most sense.

What is it called when you read right to left? ›

Writing systems that go from left to right are sometimes referred to as sinistrodextral, based on Latin roots for left (sinister) and right (dexter). Dextrosinistral is the reverse, right to left.

Is the socialist left or right? ›

While communism and socialism are usually regarded internationally as being on the left, conservatism and reactionism are generally regarded as being on the right.

What is right wing anarchy? ›

National-anarchism is a radical right-wing nationalist ideology which advocates racial separatism, racial nationalism, ethnic nationalism, and racial purity.

Who coined the term libertarian? ›

The use of the term libertarian to describe a new set of political positions has been traced to the French cognate libertaire, coined in a letter French libertarian communist Joseph Déjacque wrote to mutualist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in 1857.

What do liberals stand for? ›

Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law. Liberals espouse various views depending on their understanding of these principles.

What are the beliefs of liberals? ›

The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the separation of church and state, the right to due process and equality under the law are widely accepted as a common foundation of liberalism.

What is liberal progressivism? ›

In modern political discourse, progressivism gets often associated with social liberalism, a left-leaning type of liberalism, in contrast to the right-leaning neoliberalism, combining support for a mixed economy with cultural liberalism.

Do Middle Easterners read right to left? ›

Semitic languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew are read from right to left and are referred to as sinistroverse. On the other hand, in English we write from the left to the right, which is said to be dextroverse.

What culture doesn t use left and right? ›

Boroditsky, an associate professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego, says the Australian aboriginal language doesn't use words like left or right. It uses compass points, so they say things like "that girl to the east of you is my sister."

Why do Muslims read right to left? ›

Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi and other ancient languages have a common denominator: they are languages written from right to left. It is said that right-to-left scripts can be indicative of how ancient the language is because of the medium of writing that was used to carve these languages in stone.

What language did Jesus speak? ›

Aramaic is best known as the language Jesus spoke. It is a Semitic language originating in the middle Euphrates. In 800-600 BC it spread from there to Syria and Mesopotamia. The oldest preserved inscriptions are from this period and written in Old Aramaic.

Why do Jews read from right to left? ›

Why is Hebrew written this way? In ancient times Hebrew was chiseled on stone. Scribes would hold the chisel in their right hand and the hammer (to hit the chisel) in their left hand.

Do Japanese people read right to left? ›

Japanese also uses the traditional tategaki ("vertical writing") style which, similarly to Traditional Chinese, is read right to left and down the columns.

Is reading right to left dyslexia? ›

Quick facts about directional dyslexia:

Not an actual kind of dyslexia, more of a symptom of other types of dyslexia or a different kind of disability all together. Sometimes called spatial or geographic dyslexia. Distinguished by left-right confusion and a tendency to become disoriented or lost.

Is left-right dyslexia a thing? ›

Other Learning Difficulties Associated with Dyslexia

These learning difficulties include: Left-right disorder. The inability to tell your left from your right is sometimes referred to as directional dyslexia. Dysgraphia.

Why does my child read right to left? ›

If your child is reversing words/letters/ or numbers, it could be a vision problem. Or it could be dyslexia. Or it could be both. In cases where a child has been diagnosed with dyslexia, we strongly recommend a functional vision test.

What are liberal views? ›

believing in equality and individual liberty. supporting private property and individual rights. supporting the idea of limited constitutional government. recognising the importance of related values such as pluralism, toleration, autonomy, bodily integrity, and consent.

Is liberal a Democrat? ›

Modern liberalism is typically associated with the Democratic Party while modern conservatism is typically associated with the Republican Party.

What are the far left political parties? ›

Many far-left militant organizations were formed by members of existing political parties in the 1960s and 1970s, among them the CPI (Maoist), Montoneros, New People's Army, Prima Linea, the Red Army Faction, and the Red Brigades. These groups generally aimed to overthrow capitalism and the wealthy ruling classes.

Are Democrats red or blue? ›

Starting with the 2000 United States presidential election, the terms "red state" and "blue state" have referred to U.S. states whose voters vote predominantly for one party — the Republican Party in red states and the Democratic Party in blue states — in presidential and other statewide elections.

What do conservatives support? ›

American conservatives tend to support Christian values, moral absolutism, traditional family values, and American exceptionalism, while opposing abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, and transgender rights.

What are some conservative views? ›

7 Core Principles of Conservatism
  • Individual Freedom. The birth of our great nation was inspired by the bold declaration that our individual,God-given liberties should be preserved against government intrusion. ...
  • Limited Government. ...
  • The Rule of Law. ...
  • Peace through Strength. ...
  • Fiscal Responsibility. ...
  • Free Markets. ...
  • Human Dignity.

What do most liberals believe in? ›

The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the separation of church and state, the right to due process and equality under the law are widely accepted as a common foundation of liberalism.

What do the conservatives stand for? ›

The party is British unionist, opposing Irish reunification, Scottish and Welsh independence, and is generally critical of devolution. After a leadership election in the Conservative Party in July, August and September 2022, Liz Truss became the leader of the party.

What do Republicans believe in? ›

The positions of the Republican Party have evolved over time. Currently, the party's fiscal conservatism includes support for lower taxes, small government conservatism, free market capitalism, free trade, deregulation of corporations, and restrictions on labor unions.

What is the Republican version of liberal? ›

Conservative liberalism or right-liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with conservative stances, or simply representing the right-wing of the liberal movement.

What is the furthest left political? ›

Far-left politics are political views located further on the left of the left-right spectrum than the standard political left. The term has been used to describe ideologies such as: communism, anarcho-communism, left-communism, Marxism–Leninism, Trotskyism, and Maoism.

Which parties are right wing? ›

Right-wing parties include conservatives, Christian democrats, classical liberals, and nationalists, as well as fascists on the far-right. British academics Noël O'Sullivan and Roger Eatwell divide the right into five types: reactionary, moderate, radical, extreme, and new.

What is a libertarian left party? ›

Left-libertarianism, also known as egalitarian libertarianism, left-wing libertarianism, or social libertarianism, is a political philosophy and type of libertarianism that stresses both individual freedom and social equality.

Which political party is most conservative? ›

The Republican Party represents conservatives in the United States, with 74% of Republicans identifying as conservative, compared to only 12% of Democrats. As of 2022, Republican leaning voters are more likely than Democrats to prioritize the issues of immigration, the budget deficit, and strengthening the military.

What color is conservative? ›

Blue. Blue is usually associated with centre-right or conservative parties, originating from its use by the Tories (predecessor of the Conservative Party) in the United Kingdom.

Is Texas a red or blue state? ›

A gradual trend towards increasing social liberalism in the Democratic Party, however, has turned the state (apart from Hispanic South Texas, the Trans-Pecos, and several large cities) into generally a Republican stronghold. Since 1980, Texas has voted for the Republican nominee in every presidential election.

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