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Old 05-25-2018, 12:49 PM   #1036
GranteedEV
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pepper24 View Post
Bennett had plenty of chances to succeed though. He was given a chance to center the 3rd line with Jagr and Versteeg to start the season. That didn't work.



"didn't work".

Actually, that line only spent a grande total of 16.38 minutes together in which they posted a rel CF% of +13.56% and rel xGF% of +8.92...while dragging around an awful Matt Bartkowski. The only thing that happened was they had an on-ice shooting percentage of 0% - something that happens in small sample sizes. This was when Hamonic, too, was struggling to find his footing on the team. And Jagr was rusty(and even the year before last year, Jagr's shooting percentage had fallen off the map). And Versteeg was making questionable giveaways every game. As a line they were break-even in goals and waiting for some bounces given they had the advantage in chances.

If you give me that line, except with Versteeg of 2016-17 and Jagr of 2015-16, I'd argue they'd be one of the premier lines in the NHL because they actually fed off each other exceptionally. Bennett did just about everything right with those two linemates. That said if I were making a line for Bennett I would give him speedier wingers as he has such a great stretch pass.
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