Height: 5-11
Weight: 170
Shoot: L
Born: 31 July 1941, North Sydney NS
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | Cleveland | |||||||||||
| 1973-74 | Cleveland | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
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Paul Andrea Switches • by Rich Passan • The Hockey Spectator • February 16, 1973
Paul Andrea is one Cleveland Crusader who would rather switch than fight. Andrea, a grizzled veteran in his 13th professional campaign, has spent most of that time skating the right wing despite the fact he's a left-handed shooter. A few years ago, the 31-year-old native of Sydney, Nova Scotia, was switched to left wing by Joe Crozier at Vancouver of the Western Hockey League and he responded with 44 goals. Since then, Andrea has been a portsider and started the season with the C's on the left side. He scored a meager five goals in his first 31 games and was having, by his own admission, a terrible season. "I played more uptight than I've ever been before," he said, "And I don't know why. I've thought a lot about it. I just wasn't relaxed, I wasn't contributing that much and I felt badly about it." Then came the big switch — back to right wing. All of a sudden, the puck started going in the net and Andrea was playing the kind of hockey Coach Bill Needham expected of him. Teaming with center iceman Jim Wiste and left winger Rich Pumple, Andrea saw all the pieces fall into place. On the Crusaders' seven-game trip right after the All-Star Game, the Wiste line carried the club, sparking all four victories, and it continued its sparkling play after coming home. Andrea concedes the switch back to the right side may have had something to do with the metamorphasis. But then, he presents an argument to himself that it could be something else. "Hockey is a game where you have to be on the move quite a bit," he began. "Playing left wing — at least when I think of it now — I was kind of stationary. Now that I'm playing right wing, I'm moving with the play a lot more and probably a lot better. But I did that when I played left wing before, so I really can't put my finger on it." And he doesn't even want to try, preferring instead to reap the rewards silently, Andrea prefers the right side. Playing the off wing does have its advantages. "When I'm coming in on the right side," Paul pointed out, "I have a lot more to shoot at. My stick is more in the middle of the net. A righthanded shooter's stick is closer to the boards. This fools a lot of goaltenders." "When they see a right-handed shot breaking down the right side, they cut the angle pretty good. But when you're a left-handed shot, he can't cut down the angle as much and you get a little more to shoot at." Andrea likes working with Wiste and Pumple. "We seem to work well as a line," he said, "We compliment each other, Jim handles the puck well and Pump is an up and down guy who checks well and works in the corner." Andrea is a fierce competitor, although he doesn't show much emotion on the ice. "I take personal pride in scoring goals," said the C's only helmeted skater. "But being scored on is something else. This is my big thing. I hate being scored on even when I'm killing a penalty. It irks me to no end. It's a big job killing penalities and there's a lot of pride in it. If you can hold the other guys off the board when you're short-handed, that's a little boost for you right there." For a short period earlier in the season, Andrea thought all he would do is kill penalties. When he wasn't going well, Needham switched Andrea and Grant Erickson, who had been killing penalties. Ironically, it was an injury to Wiste that got Paul back into the lineup on a regular basis. And when Wiste got back ... well, you know the rest. It took him a little while to get started. "I didn't have the confidence, which is stupid because I've played against a lot of these guys and I knew what I could and couldn't do." Then he proceeded to go out and do it and now life is beautiful again, for Paul Andrea. |
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