This is footage of Gordie Howe playing for the Houston Aeros. In this short clip Howe illustrates the "handshake" (handedness switch) or the fundamental tactic of two way hockey.
The following is excerpted from Gordie Howe’s book, “Mr. Hockey”:
“I’ve heard people say that I am naturally ambidextrous, but that’s not exactly true. The reason I could shoot from both the right side and the left side goes back to playing goalie as a kid. As you can imagine, proper goaltender equipment was expensive and pretty tough to come by. When I was scuffling around for gear, the only thing I could find for a catching glove was a first-baseman’s mitt that went on my left hand. If I was a left-handed shot that would have been fine, but I shot right— and there is no way you can shoot right with a catcher’s mitt on your left hand. Since the glove was dictating the terms, I didn’t have much choice... I learned to shoot the puck as a goalie, clearing it up the ice and steering it into the corners, from the left side. When I played out as a defenseman or forward, I would flip back to shooting from the right side. That’s how I developed a shot from both sides, but for a long time I didn’t realize I was switching hands. I just shot whichever day I thought had the best chance of putting the puck in the net. It wasn’t until my first training camp with the Red Wings, when I was sixteen, that I found out I was doing something out of the ordinary... I went in on one of the goalies during a practice, switched hands, and scored. Jack Adams, the coach at the time, was watching. He called me over with a gruff ‘What are you doing?’ ‘What’s that, Sir?’ I asked. He stuck his chin toward the goalie and said, ‘You shoot both ways.’ I hadn’t ever thought about it, so I asked, ‘I do?’ I had no idea. After growing up playing every position on the ice, it just seemed natural.”