Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
I'm not saying Monahan doesn't get plenty of offensive zone starts, although the stat is probably skewed because he started the season with Johnny and Hudler -pure offensive players.
I'm basing it more on matchups. Hartley would never throw Bennett out to check the opponents top line. He does that with Monahan (and more than he used to because of Backlund not doing well at it this year).
|
Are you comparing third year pro 21-year-old Monahan to first year pro 19-year-old Bennett? Rookie Monahan was much more sheltered than Bennett.
Bennett has for the most part been much, much better defensively as a 19 year old than Monahan was. However he's had some breakdowns that are just bad habits established on an OHL team that had zero structure. Don't confuse that with a worse understanding of defensive responsibilities. Bennett in his draft year was described as a two-way forward along the lines of Toews.