Quote:
Originally Posted by Monahammer
You're asking them to potentially anchor down their top offensive producers for ~20% of the season just because you might like a guy who has never shown up in any circumstance during the regular season.
As others have pointed out, the Bennett doesnt get a fair chance on the team arguments can all be easily dismissed by showing that Mangiapane and Dube overcame similar hurdles by actually boosting the play of the bad players they were forced to play with, thereby playing their way up the lineup. Bennett has only ever played his way into the penalty box when given more minutes.
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What have Mangiapane, Simon, Leivo done for the top two lines?
Dube has done what you noted above, no matter what line he's been on.
Mangiapane had last year, but hasn't done anything this year. I'd argue Bennett has been just as effective as Mangiapane this year.
We want to give Mangiapane credit for a good last season playing on the 3M line and give him a long leash this year, yet we won't give Bennett the same long leash even though he was our best playoff performer last year?
You've got an asset in Bennett, an asset that has a name value in the market, before you go and dump it, at least make sure you have given it the longest rope. Bennett has NEVER had an extended run with the top players on this team, NEVER. Putting a guy on a top line for one game and then putting him back with plugs the next game after he fails to produce is no way to build a players confidence.
There's another reason for putting Bennett on Johnny's line, because he gives that line some size and physical presence, something that Dube, Mangiapane and Simon don't do. Bennett is also faster and quicker than Leivo. Before Lindholm cemented his spot on Johnny's RW, the previous most successful RW was Ferland, an inconsistent power forward with some skills, which is also a fitting description of Bennett.