Quote:
Originally Posted by jg13
How is it dumb? If tomorrow was the 10th game for Bennett and he was not practicing on a line like he has been for the last 2 weeks it would be majorly suspicious and go against everything management had claimed.
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Let's break it down:
Funny, if Bennett plays one more game we burn a year off his contract
Now established that he's still another game away from that happening, which is a pretty important fact in the matter.
...and he's magically missing from practice today.
He's on the ice, taking reps with the top line. Almost the opposite of missing.
Beyond that, even if this was the big game (which again, it isn't) there are plenty of explanations for why Bennett isn't practicing with his regular line, that don't include the 9-game rule. Those include: injuries to others, injuries to himself, mixing up lines because of a poor outing last game, Hartley trying to throw Anaheim scouts a bone, and finally a decline in performance prompting Hartley to hold him out of the lineup for hockey reasons.
Consider the null hypothesis: Hartley (with full intentions of winning the Cup) was planning to ride Bennett through the first round, halfway into the second round, only to sit him abruptly because of this rule. Not only have management's prior decisions/statements indicated that this rule will not play a factor, but Hartley's past decisions show no indication of a coach who anticipates sitting a player for a non-hockey reason.