Quote:
Originally Posted by UKflames
Pleased and frustrated to see Sam doing so well in Florida. Isn't it amazing what happens when you play a #4 pick with good players, at their natural position for a sustained period, without the threat of being dropped to the 4th line for one minor error.
He never really got the chance to play with quality players for a sustained period on the flames, and for those that say he did, maybe this is an indication then that our qulity players maybe aren't so quality after all, but that's become pretty clear this season.
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Bolded part is spot on. If Bennett was going to be in the top 3 regularly, he had to blow Monahan out of the water, and he just wasn't able to do that. Monahan is useless playing down the line-up while Bennett could at least slot in anywhere. The real tragedy here is that the roster isn't flexible enough to give other players an opportunity without totally neutralizing guys like Monahan and Gaudreau that need to be on the top line to be useful.
Theoretically, Bennett could have supplanted Backlund on the second line (when Lindholm wasn't tried there), but Backlund rightfully earned it and showed he could be productive with scrubs. Bennett not so much, which is the difference in Florida. Their second line has more talent than ours. It could basically be our first line.
I guess to make a long story short, I put this failure on how the team is constructed. It really gave coaches little choice for deployment. Bennett was used where he could be without totally making Monahan useless. With better depth on the wings, Bennett could have shown more and wouldn't have had to play on the wing at all.