By Canadian Press

Pietrangelo says switch to off-side has required tactical adjustments

Sep 19, 2016 | 3:30 PM

TORONTO — Half the forwards on Team Canada are playing out of position at the World Cup of Hockey, a testament to the country’s depth.  But the player making the most difficult adjustment is Alex Pietrangelo, the six foot three, 210-pound right-handed shooter who is playing on left defence.

It’s a switch some defenders can’t or won’t make for the challenges it presents. What’s natural suddenly becomes unnatural, from stickwork and skating to positioning in defending. To do so with little advance prep time while playing for the heavy favourites makes for an even taller task.

Head coach Mike Babcock had previously been steadfast against such moves on the international stage, but he said it was the team’s plan all along to slide Pietrangelo over (on a pair with Brent Burns), informing him of the move about a month before the tournament.

Pietrangelo, recently named captain of the St. Louis Blues, said he considers it a great show of faith from the coaching staff.

“A lot of coaches like rightie-leftie (pairings),” the 26-year-old said. “But the coaching staff shows faith that I can play that side; it means that they trust me at both ends of the ice, they want me out there.”

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The differences aren’t huge, but substantial enough to require adjustment.

Pietrangelo said defending tactics are altered. An incoming forward, for example, is suddenly attacking from the opposite side of the ice, meaning Pietrangelo’s stick now has to swing across his body to force that opponent to the outside. Pivoting is also often the opposite of what’s normal.

There’s matters with the puck, too. Pietrangelo is likely to receive a pass from Burns on the back-end. To transfer the puck over to his forehand and make a play with it requires an extra second in a game that already moves quite fast. Or, Pietrangelo can try the less precise move of the sending puck up ice on his backhand.

He said the adjustment hasn’t been too difficult overall.

“I think the hardest part really is defending,” he said. “With the puck it seems to be easier.” 

There are advantages, however slight. 

A right-handed defenceman playing left defence has a better angle for shooting at the net. Still, getting the puck at that spot might mean picking it off the boards on the back-end, not always an easy task.

Jay Bouwmeester, a left-shooting Canadian defender who teams up with Pietrangelo for the Blues, says he spent a long time playing his off-side in the past.

“It takes a little while to get adjusted,” Bouwmeester said. “It’s not a big difference, it’s just little things in a couple of situations (such as) where you’re on your back-end and you’ve got to make little passes. It’s just harder to see the ice that way a little bit.”

“I think he’s done a good job at it,” the 32-year-old added.

Pietrangelo thinks he might have played four or five full games on the left side for St. Louis last season. He’d add shifts there at the end of close games, sometimes alongside promising right-shooting defenders Colton Parayko and Kevin Shattenkirk.

He said more experience on the left side would increase his versatility to the Blues, who lost in the Western Conference final last season.

It increases his value to Team Canada, too. The country is rich in elite right-shooting defencemen, including P.K. Subban and Kris Letang, neither of whom cracked the World Cup roster. So any defender that can capably play his off-side has a better chance of representing the country again down the line. 

In this case, Canada is able to deploy four right-shooters: Pietrangelo, Burns, Shea Weber and Drew Doughty.

Pietrangelo and Burns, playing about 19 minutes each, were Canada’s most effective tandem in terms of puck possession in Canada’s opening win against the Czech Republic. Pietrangelo also scored the sixth Canadian goal on a power play, blocked five shots, and logged the most minutes of any player at even strength.

If tested by the move initially during pre-tournament games, the King City, Ont. native says he’s feeling more and more at ease.

“As the tournament goes on, I’m just going to feel better and better,” he said.

Jonas Siegel, The Canadian Press

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