Sorry, I'm not letting Bennett off the hook that easily. Perhaps there were factors of coaching and linemates that limited how much he produced offensively, but there are a LOT of other parts of the game that he could play well without scoring goals and putting up points. From my perspective, he hasn't done nearly enough work on those things, which makes him not very valuable when he's not scoring goals. He needs to follow the mould of Backlund, who was told early by Sutter that he's not gifted enough to be a purely offensive player, so he'd better learn the defensive side of the game extremely well to stay in the league. I wish Sutter would pull Bennett aside and give him the same talk.
At the end of the day, Bennett's responsible for his own performance. Some of his old bad habits have not gone away, and he hasn't learned how to play much more effectively in the NHL yet. Not sure why, but it's up to him at this point.
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"You know, that's kinda why I came here, to show that I don't suck that much" ~ Devin Cooley, Professional Goaltender
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