Quote:
Originally Posted by GranteedEV
To me, the clear issue is confidence. And I don't know how to rebuild it for Sam as he barely gets ozone touches most games for a plethora of reasons. I don't see how a guy who's had different stretches basically playing franchise player type hockey could look so broken but I don't know how to fix it either without taking a chance on him with real PP time and some extended ES minutes. If Sam's ever going to break out it will probably be when Monahan gets injured for any extended period.. as-is I'm not sure he's got the mental makeup to succeed offensively as what effectively amounts to as a traditional 3C with what I have noticed to be a short leash to try high-skilled plays under Gulutzan. We've all seen the vision, the efficient zone entries, the two-way acumen, the hands, and the shot - but a player without confidence can't execute any of that. a year ago he was trying fancy plays walking the blue line or dangling guys out of their skates but now he's simplified ad nauseum... two extremes with no middle ground.
Hopefully Jagr can be the first step in building Bennett back up to the player we've seen before. This isn't a lack of hockey sense or innate ability holding him back, it's the belief in himself to complete plays without being benched or having the puck end up in his own net. He's not a guy playing on pure instinct right now, he's too worried about screwing up that he second guesses everything he does.
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Agree with this 100%. Plays are dying on his stick. For whatever reason, his confidence is completely shot and the result is a bad case of trampoline stick.