Quote:
Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus
I've been happy with his play this year overall but I can only recall a handful of plays you are describing. He still struggles to consistently create or finish plays off in the offensive zone and I think fans are just going to have to live with that.
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He's not Gaudreau, but you're selling him short. He creates quite a bit. However:
1) He lacks
confidence as a passer which I believe has a lot to do with his role in offensive situations such as the PP being so limited (he was a more confident passer up until halfway into his second year, when he was taken off the PP and he hasn't recovered). When he's
confident (not only in himself, but the pass receiver) he's making passes like this:
and this:
When he's not confident, he is playing a banal, safe cycle game along the boards until he or his linemates inevitably cough it up because cycling along the boards is not what it used to be in the days of the Sedins and Getzlaf/Perry.
But that won't change whether he's a center or a winger, because once you're set up in the offensive zone positional role mean little outside of who is going to be the F3 (and yes, someone like Frolik would be a superior F3 than Bennett, as is the case on the 3M line even though Backlund is the C)
2) His linemates haven't had much finish so far. Neal's had a plethora of scoring chances that he's flubbed. Jankowski and Hanifin have had some grade A setups by Bennett that should have been in the back of the net. Dube is still looking for his first goal and not for a lack of trying.
3) His ice time is so, so limited. Both at ES and Power Play. Can't create if you're not there. Remember when Hartley had him on the power play(for real, not the way he's been used the last year and a half), he was able to make plays like this:
I don't see any of those plays as outliers, although I can see why some might think they are. Whenever AC releases Bennett videos they're
way too full of nice plays to just say he doesn't create consistently.
BTW - Bennett played center in each of the three games above. I suspect that as a center he touches the puck more (not including the Brouwer era) and that might also help his confidence in his creativity going forward.