Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
He played very well for ten games.
Many of us think that they should investigate what that means in a regular season by giving him the role he had in the playoffs.
I don't see too many suggesting he should take over the second line to start camp.
But picking on his face offs? Bennett was ahead of Backlund and nestled right into the mix with Derek Ryan, only Monahan and Lucic were above the 50% point.
If you look at the the last three regular seasons Sam Bennett is 2nd to only Ryan at 53% in the dot.
Face offs aren't a Sam Bennett issue ... when his arm isn't mangled anyway.
Honestly don't get why anyone would want to throw cold water on the chance a disappointing high pick may have righted the ship and may have a bigger contribution than fourth line energy player going forward.
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Seriously? You don't understand why anyone would be skeptical of this based on history? For all the crying going on around here about wanting the team to get better, including jettisoning the top players on the team, there are an awful lot of people who are willing to ignore YEARS of bad play from Sam Bennett because of a few games in a really weird playoff tournament, and promote him into positions that he has shown he is incapable of playing.
You supposedly coach. Do you not learn from past player behavior, or do you allow the same players to go out game-after-game and hurt your team? At some point you learn, and you maintain a very healthy level of skepticism about those players. They may get on string where they play well, but you keep them on a short leash looking for the first hint of previous behaviors and attempt to curb them. I am all for giving a player some latitude, but when does that same guy ####ting the bed and contributing to a dud finally make you wake up and say enough is enough? That's where we are IMO. It's go time, and Sam Bennett better show up at training camp ready to play this exact same way or the Flames would be way better off moving on from him. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Bennett is going on opportunity three. He better perform.
My big question for the Bennett Bros, what happens if he comes to camp and is the same old Sam Bennett? At a time when this team is need of change are you willing to gamble that Bennett is capable of playing at this level the majority of the time? Because if he plays as he has each of the past four seasons, he's not going to move the needle and the team remains stagnant. There is risk with every decision, and is this risk the team can accept and you're willing to accept? I see next year as Bennett's make or break with the Flames. He either performs, or he's traded early to some other team who hopes they can reclaim a player. Is that something you can accept?