Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeMc
Ryan is a much more consistent and trusted player...so this makes sense to me.
By all means Bennett go ahead and show up consistently on both sides of the puck and force your way off the fourth line.
This 'wrong linemates' and 'coaches don't give him a chance' narrative is incorrect and lame.
Personally I root for the guy, and every year I'm hoping he takes the next step - but he is what he is (at least right now). A depth forward who doesn't put up points. How does he have 4 assists in 52 games?
|
When he's playing with Jankowski and Rieder, the assists thing starts to make sense. I dug into Bennett's numbers back in March, so about a week before the shutdown, and the main reasons he has so few assists are:
- His linemates score about 50% as often as they should
- He picked up 0 secondary assists (which are essentially random)
He's a solid 3rd liner who pushes things in the right direction, and I think he should be getting 12-15 minutes in that type of role, rather than 8-10 on the 4th line. I think he's our 8th-best forward, behind Ryan and ahead of Lucic and Dube. Which is why it's baffling to me that he keeps getting put at 4LW. IMO there are so many other configurations that make more sense.
If Bennett is a C, then he should be 4C over Jankowski.
If he's a W, then he should be on the 3rd line.
If we're prioritizing chemistry over having the best 3 players on the 3rd line, then IMO we'd get two better lines running Lucic-Bennett-Dube and Ryan between two plugs
If we want to maximize the contribution from Lucic and Dube, why doesn't the same logic apply to Bennett?