Quote:
Originally Posted by mile
Now with Ward, it looks his usage of Bennett is even worse than Gulutzan's. With no injuries, Bennett is now an everyday 4th line winger, even though he's seen how well Bennett can play at C with his own eyes.
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I think a big part of the problem with this whole discussion is in how people are reading coaching decisions on the basis exclusively of Bennett's deployment. This is a case in point of that: Ward has to think about the entire team, not just Bennett. The reason Bennett plays on the fourth line is because he is the Flames's #4 or #5 centre. His deployment has far more to do with the overall depth at centre than anything else. If the lines are constructed from the middle-out, then of course he will slot behind Ryan, who is a much more important player that the coaches need on the ice in all situations as much as possible. Bennett's chemistry with certain players becomes a secondary issue when it comes to charting and deploying lines on the basis of centre depth, where Monahan, Backlund, Lindholm and Ryan are all correctly slotted ahead of him.
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