I truly believe the key to Bennett’s success in the playoffs and especially this years is style of play.
I’ve said it here before that I think Sam Bennett is at his best when he plays a north-south game where he’s dumping pucks in and hitting guys to create havoc on the forecheck. In the regular season, he gets into trouble playing east-west, turning over the puck and taking bad offensive zone penalties because of it.
But when he’s playing simple hockey, dumping pucks in, separating players from the puck, driving to the net and getting gritty like Tkachuk does, then he’s playing his most apt style. I think playing with Lucic and Dube helped a lot too because having that big body he can cycle with or having that dynamic speedster who can make plays out of nothing just seems like perfect line mates for him. I look forward to seeing if this line can transition their chemistry into the regular season.
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