In a quest for face-off ambidexterity, players are flipping their sticks on the weak side

A look at part of the chess match that goes into face-offs when a player is on their weak side.

Vincent Trocheck is a right-handed shot, but he takes face-offs both right and left handed.

On his strong side, the New York Rangers center holds his stick the traditional way. But when the draw is on the left, Trocheck will flip his stick around and hold it like a lefty with a backward blade for the draw.

For example, both of these screen grabs feature Vincent Trocheck taking face-offs, one as a lefty and one as a righty.

And here is a clip of him flipping the stick over as he approaches the face-off dot.

Despite the blade being flipped, Trocheck effectively always has the nob of his stick away from the official. One of the keys to strong vs. weak side face-offs most of the time is how much a player can avoid the natural interference of the person dropping the puck.

As one player put it, the official also has a natural tendency to drop the puck closer to the edge of the of the dot as opposed to the true middle of the circle.

It’s worked extremely well. Trocheck ranks fourth in the NHL, winning 58.8 percent of his draws amongst players the qualify for league leaders (those who have taken at least 15 percent of their team’s draws.)

Trocheck started testing it out this season in practice, having effectively learned the technique from former teammate Nick Bonino, before making a staple in his game.

“I didn’t think it would be effective, being I’m pretty incompetent with my left hand,” Trocheck said. “It’s easier than I thought. It’s a little bit of a mind game against other centermen, so I tried it that night and it worked out and occasionally I go to it.”

It’s a trick that most of the Rangers centers have used at some point this season. Up and down the lineup, the Rangers flip their sticks before face-offs more than any other team.

Ranger coach Peter Laviolette said it isn’t a coaching thing, it’s organic and a player decision. The coaches have nothing to do with it.

Red Wings center J.T. Compher doesn’t flip his stick over as often as Trocheck, but said it’s one of the tools he likes to use on draws.

Last season with the Colorado Avalanche, Compher says he asked the video coach to pull his stats on both traditional and flipped-stick face-offs on his weak side.

“Turns out I was better with the stick flipped that way statistically, it’s the type of thing that you keep in mind and you use that, I think, to make some more informed decisions,” Compher said.

Compher said he tried it practice first, actually it started as something they were doing as a joke in practice, and it felt more comfortable than expected. After a practice reps, he eventually tried it on a draw in the neutral zone in a game before testing it on a key offensive or defensive zone face-off.

“It can throw the other guy off, especially if you are going against the same guy all night, it can be a battle,” Compher said. “It becomes a tool you can use to better win that battle.”

Red Wings center Austin Czarnik was working on flipped-hand face-offs after the Red Wings practiced Thursday, turning his right-handed stick around to practice draws as a lefty.

It’s something Czarnik has used in AHL games this season with the Grand Rapids Griffins. He has yet to try the technique in an NHL game, since he’s typically on a line with a left-handed winger who can take draws.

“It’s definitely weird at first and you’re not used to that motion,” Czarnik said. “So when you start to do it more, you get used to that motion. So like I’m getting more comfortable with it. But the second reach is still the weird part, like you might not get it on first reach, and that second reach — with flipped hands — feels the most awkward because it goes against everything you’ve done before.”

Czarnik said in the AHL there have been some games where he’s had a high-level of success with the flipped hands on the weak side. There are others where he’s struggled, and simply gone back to a more traditional draw.

“It’s something that really has most effect when it catches the other guy off guard,” Czarnik said. “So if it’s working, I keep it. If it’s not, I ditch it for the rest of the game.”

Joe Veleno, a lefty, said he struggles against Czarnik when the centre flips from a right to lefty in practice. He mentioned the reverse blade, particularly on a clean win, can sometimes dig in better and more easily flip the puck over the opposing stick.

Overall, it’s something that is more prevalent now, and will likely become more common in the NHL. For starters, the Rangers success will lead to copy cats.

Younger players will also start trying it themselves, and as Czarnik put it, “if it’s a tool that can help you in a specific way to get to the NHL, smart players will learn to use it.”