Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
^^^ Might have something to do with Bennett not killing penalties. Bennett was 17th in SH TOI/GP with only 12 seconds of penalty kill time per game. With the loss of Hathaway and the imminent departure of Frolik we'll see if Peters has trust in Bennett to move up and slot into the top six forwards for penalty killing. I don't see the awareness and smarts required to kill penalties in Bennett. Bennett's strength is playing a north-south grinding game, which is not what penalty killing about. Being on the ice short-handed requires discipline, playing within the system, and the ability to read the play. Not how you describe Bennett's game. It also doesn't help when Bennett is the most penalized player on the team.
I suspect the next players to step up into the penalty killing roles are Dube and Mangipagne. Both are good at reading the play and both are very disciplined players. Their skill sets seem to lend themselves to killing penalties, providing benefit to the team from the lower lines, and keeping the top six fresh.
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It really depends on what Peters does with the powerplay. He generally doesn't have players playing both units, and Bennett was on the PP last year.
Before he was on the powerplay he was unit three on the PK (two seasons ago)