[GranteedEV]

It's tough for a center to be the fastest player on his line in a system like these where the center leads the breakout and is constantly on the ice with defensemen who struggle to make a quick and accurate first pass. Just a year ago Sidney Crosby looked like his run of NHL dominance was over and he was just an average top 6 guy who wasn't strong offensively or defensively.

It took a string of things to get the best player on the planet going:

- A coaching change to promote a speedier offensive system with centres playing less deep defensively (not that I want that right now, playing deep is important for both Monahan and Bennett's development)

- Shoring up the Penguins' blue line with Daley and Schultz (two strong puck movers, one who can skate unlike Wideman and one who can do everything our bottom pair can't)

- getting rid of guys like Perron and Kunitz who didn't fit with Crosby and adding Conor Sheary out of the minor leagues, who finally found chemistry with Crosby, something even Phil Kessel hadn't done.

And that's the best center in the league in his prime years. Sam Bennett is pretty much still in his first calendar year of playing center in the NHL, on the third line, who's struggled on the PP where young players usually make their money, on a team where our entire middle six has been slumping at ES for a while (Gaudreau, Monahan, Chiasson, Versteeg have all produced on the PP, where Bennett isn't even playing).

Just relax. Every good center has struggles at this age. Horvat had one of the worst +/- in the league last year at age 20 and right now looks like he's trending to be elite. MacKinnon struggled at 20, he's starting to find his footing. Draisaitl struggled at 19 more than Bennett ever did and looked like a bust, then found chemistry at 20 with Hall that got his career going. Monahan looked worse at age 22 in the first quarter of this season than Bennett does right now and he's hardly tearing it up right now either outside of the PP (2 ES pts in the last 13GP).