Quote:
Originally Posted by Kovaz
The point I'm trying to make is there's a big difference between "Bennett's been disappointing for a blue chip prospect," which I agree with, and "Bennett should be healthy scratched / dumped for a pick," which I strongly disagree with.
He deserves criticism, but comments like:
are hyperbolic. Despite his struggles, Bennett has still been among the 9 best options for our top 9 forwards. Lazar and Jankowski have both put up similarly strong possession numbers and come away with no points while being much more heavily sheltered than Bennett. Brouwer's been a tire fire any time he's been near the top-9. Versteeg's been a turnover machine at 5 on 5. Bennett's potential replacements have all been at least as bad, and he's still at least got some potential to turn it around. He's not actively hurting the team, so what's the downside to giving him more time to figure it out?
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The fact the bottom 6 is struggling so badly is most definitely due, in part, to Bennett not being able to generate anything remotely close to what you could call offense. A guy who spends tons of time in the box due to idiotic, lazy penalties and struggles to put up even 1 shot per game on average is surely doing more harm than good.
Simply not good enough. The Flames are counting on him to be a producer and leader this year, not a passenger. He's lucky Gulutzan is showing patience beyond what is reasonable at this point and has not stapled him to the press box until he is ready to change his ways.