You, of course, realize that the 88% of goalies that shoot left handed are actually right handed don’t you? In that particular set of circumstances the stick is held in the right hand because it’s the dominant hand which makes it the better hand to deal with the weight of the stick. Holding the stick and deflecting the puck with it is the goal, with handling and shooting coming in second. That’s why when you see a designation of left or right handed for a goalie the focus is usually on which hand he catches with, rather than which hand he shoots with. So, if you catch right, you’re left handed; if you catch left, you’re right handed. Just wanted to add something else to ponder and to answer why goalies keep their dominant hand at the top of their sticks. Also, some goalies have thought their way around that and flip their sticks, a la Marty Turco and Dwayne Roloson.

Is there a relationship between right-handers and goal scoring? Studying the top all-time goal scorers it appears that 60% of them are right-handers.

Well, I think the primary reason why a player would want the strong hand at the top of the stick is playing without the puck. Most defensive play involves playing with one hand on the stick. In that case, you’d want to have your stronger hand on the stick for both power and control.

In terms of shooting, I would expect most of the power to come from the weight shift, body torque and the wrist snap rather than the actual muscles in the arm.

Your dominant hand being at the top has to do with even more than just your shot, or playing without the puck as well. The top hand is the control hand on your stick – you use it for stick positioning, blade control, etc. – thus affecting puck handling, passing, shooting, stick checking, deflections in front of the goal…pretty much everything you would use the stick for in the game. So, for the large majority of players, it’s easier to learn those things using their dominant hand as the control hand.