Quote:
Originally Posted by GranteedEV
Well, first of all, with respect to "top six minutes", a lot of that comes on special teams, which is another conversation altogether (but as a sidebar I will note that Bennett had some degree of success on the PK here, and some degree of success on the PP here, yet never got special teams opportunity akin to what he got from day 1 in Florida). At 5v5, the top three lines are typically rolled pretty equally, and it's just a matter of matchups at that point. But last season, for instance, some hypothetical appropriate lines to try out may have been
Tkachuk - Backlund - Lindholm (Your shutdown line slash offensive first line)
Lucic - Dube - Monahan (a scoring line with some muscle and skill on the wings) or Monahan - Dube - Ryan (a scoring line with a bit more skill, and three natural centers to really help with tough faceoffs)
Gaudreau - Bennett - Mangiapane (Pretty much what would have been "our" version of Huberdeau - Bennett - Tippett/Duclair - a scoring line that's still heavily relied upon)
(Monahan helps Dube with faceoffs, and Dube's speed through the middle improves transition)
Whether you want to call Bennett's line the third or second line is virtually inconsequential. It is however the sort of out-of-the-box thinking that allowed Quennville to find immediate success for Sam.
What recent success are you referring to, exactly?
Incorrect. Draisaitl had success as Taylor Hall's center as a rookie. Draisaitl is typically centering his own line, and did so when he won the Art Ross. IMO Reinhart is not a player with a skillset particular to center, so it makes sense that he worked as a winger - but even then - Buffalo fans are adamant that he played his best hockey down the middle when given an opportunity.
Carrying the puck in the defensive zone out of traffic, using his forward vision to make quick headman passes through neutral ice, making controlled zone entries with his edgework. This is all stuff he excels at when playing center, although for the final one I'd add the caveat that he needs players who can skate alongside him (such as Dube, Huberdeau, Gaudreau etc rather than Brouwer et al). Even moreso than Lindholm and Monahan, who play center for us. In my opinion, Dube, Bennett, and Backlund have skillsets better suited to the position than the other two, although I'm not making a talent comparison here.
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A. Bennett was never going to play centre on a team with Monahan, Londholm and Backlund. In fact, IMO Lindholm was acquired because they no longer saw Sam as a top 6 centre (and it just so happened Lindholm clicked on the top line and Neal was a bust). You just aren't moving your top defensive centre in Backlund out of the position, nor your top scoring centre in Monahan.
B. The lines you've thrown together would never be used by Sutter. It's an example of fans who want some hypothetical completely balanced lineup, but no teams every go that way - they go with top players playing on the top lines. What I'm saying is - I get what you are trying to do, but no NHL team does it and it strikes me as trying to overhaul the whole lineup to fit one guy's supposed needs.
C. By recent success I mean here- between Dube and Lucic. And furthermore on the Panthers his winger plays like a centre and he plays like a winger.
D. Draisaitl got his Art Ross points mostly on McDavid's wing. He may have started a lot of games at centre but he sure didn't finish them that way. And his rookie year wasn't very good. Draisaitl has never been better at centre than on McDavid's wing.
E. I sure never saw Bennett make a lot of smart puck distributions when playing here, either down the middle or on the wing. His vision was the chief complaint when playing here. And he tended to lose the puck at the blue line a lot more than making good entries.
Bennett is a net crasher and a banger. He happens to be playing with a fast PPG winger who loves to get assists, and therefore carries the puck and drives the net as well. Huberdeau is a winger who plays like a centre (maybe because, like a lot of players including Bennett, he was one).