Beau Bennett: The Forgotten Man

[Shady Machine]

They have and will continue to get physically bullied by the Islanders. Martin flies around and pounds anything that moves to set the tone.

Watch last year's Isles/Flyers match-up to see Martin shot out of a cannon, challenged by Ryan White, and proceeds to have his nose punched. At the very least the broken nose blocked air passages, but Martin crawled into a shell after that.

The 2015-2016 Penguins have the weapons to respond by scoring goals, but the likes of Martin will absolutely physically impose against them. It's not that other teams aren't "big" or "tough" it's that now the Penguins have a skilled identity and their goal is clearly to beat you on the scoresheet. The roster is put in place to be skilled; they need to keep their heads to execute the strategy though.

Yeah Martin on the Isles but the issue with the Isles has been them skating circles around the Pens.

There's really no solution for the Martin's or the Wilson's of the Metro other that scoring more goals than them. We don't have a means to get one of those guys other than drafting them.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

There's really no solution for the Martin's or the Wilson's of the Metro other that scoring more goals than them. We don't have a means to get one of those guys other than drafting them.

Ironically, I thought Engo did that job really well when he played forward. Too bad he prefers defense.

 

[Shady Machine]

Ironically, I thought Engo did that job really well when he played forward. Too bad he prefers defense.

True enough. I mean I guess we could go get Big Buff (too bad he prefers defense as well) and move on from Perron.

 

[plaidchuck]

Yeah I'm not talking about just size or brute aggression, just the fact the team has been out skated and out worked for years now. Even when they've been apparently modeling themselves after the great puck possession teams.

That has to be fixed in the locker room and by the coaching staff even before you look at the roster though.

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Listen, if we could find a way to have guys like Tom Wilson, Matt Martin, and Cal Clutterbuck in our bottom six, I'm sure we'd do it. Those are some hard mother ******* to play against, but they can still play hockey pretty damn well (except for maybe Wilson, but I think he'll get there).

Fact is; those guys don't just fall into your lap. They're rare commodities, and since we have nothing remotely close, we've gotta roll with 4 quality, impact lines that can carry play in all three zones. No, there isn't really any physicality or snarl, but for once in a very long time, we actually have four lines that can legitimately play effective hockey. What we lack in toughness, we more than make up for in quality. We're deep as all Hell now. ****, our third line could be many teams' good second line (Kunitz - Bonino - Bennett/Dupuis).

There's more than one way to have success. Physicality isn't the only thing that makes up a successful bottom six.

 

[Shady Machine]

Yeah I'm not talking about just size or brute aggression, just the fact the team has been out skated and out worked for years now. Even when they've been apparently modeling themselves after the great puck possession teams.

That has to be fixed in the locker room and by the coaching staff even before you look at the roster though.

Outskated and outworked is a completely different thing than bullied (at least how you were initially using the word). You started by saying all of our soft, speedy guys (we don't have many speedy guys and the ones we have aren't soft) will get beaten down by the tough eastern teams. Now you are changing your argument and saying we will get outskated (which is what I said) and outworked.

They made great strides this off season with adding better possession players. If it's still a major issue, than we know it's systemic and not personnel related.

 

[Gurglesons]

They have and will continue to get physically bullied by the Islanders. Martin flies around and pounds anything that moves to set the tone.

Watch last year's Isles/Flyers match-up to see Martin shot out of a cannon, challenged by Ryan White, and proceeds to have his nose punched. At the very least the broken nose blocked air passages, but Martin crawled into a shell after that.

The 2015-2016 Penguins have the weapons to respond by scoring goals, but the likes of Martin will absolutely physically impose against them. It's not that other teams aren't "big" or "tough" it's that now the Penguins have a skilled identity and their goal is clearly to beat you on the scoresheet. The roster is put in place to be skilled; they need to keep their heads to execute the strategy though.

Great. A team that didn't even make the playoffs intimidated the Islanders.

The Islanders have a few tough bottom six guys, but Washington physically abused them in their series. Outside of the Caps, I don't think another team in the playoffs coming out of the east intimidates teams physically. Even the Caps got rid of a player like Brouwer and added more finesse guys like Oshie and Williams.

I don't know, I think the Rangers and Tampa Bay are the cream of the crop in the east right now and our line-up at least offensively stacks up fine against those two teams.

 

[mpp9]

Forgot about Columbus. They're really the only forward group with some big guys on it. They'll be interesting to follow.

 

[plaidchuck]

I just don't have much faith in the coaching and overall culture of the team, or its mental toughness. I'm still excited for the moves they made though.

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

That's a good point. Mental toughness is more important than physical toughness. Rinaldo's tough, but he's a pile of **** hockey player.

The things that made us so hard to play against during our Cup runs were the collective team hunger for a Championship, the team buying into the mindset of winning at all costs, and guys playing hard all the time. We haven't had an ounce of that mentality for years... Anyone, top to bottom.

Hopefully we can find that again. Maybe now that Sid and Geno have elite talent surrounding them and depth to help out, they'll have a fire lit inside of them again.

 

[Rocket of Russia]

Great. A team that didn't even make the playoffs intimidated the Islanders.

The Islanders have a few tough bottom six guys, but Washington physically abused them in their series. Outside of the Caps, I don't think another team in the playoffs coming out of the east intimidates teams physically. Even the Caps got rid of a player like Brouwer and added more finesse guys like Oshie and Williams.

I don't know, I think the Rangers and Tampa Bay are the cream of the crop in the east right now and our line-up at least offensively stacks up fine against those two teams.

Did you read the last paragraph? I'm clearly not of the opinion that the Penguins will stumble on a Matt Martin to suddenly make them a tough team. I also pretty much like most everything that's been done to construct a skilled team that has scoring throughout the lineup.

The point I was addressing was that it's not really fair to say no team will physically dominate them....because they will.

 

[Speaking Moistly]

I think they've shown spurts of the right mentality, at this point they need to build on it and make it more than flashes. They need that swagger back, too.

Getting out of the injury curse would probably do wonders for this team on multiple levels.

 

[vikingGoalie]

chicago got physically punished by the ducks.

but it seemed to work out ok for them, we just have to play our game.
We get in the most trouble when we try to cowboy up and out physical the other team.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Sid and Geno have elite talent surrounding them and depth to help out, they'll have a fire lit inside of them again.

Let's be careful what we wish for.

With Malkin's tendency to miss 20ish percent of the season and Crosby's proclivity towards bizarre, freakish maladies... spontaneous combustion isn't out of the question.

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Let's be careful what we wish for.

With Malkin's tendency to miss 20ish percent of the season and Crosby's proclivity towards bizarre, freakish maladies... spontaneous combustion isn't out of the question.

True.

 

[Shady Machine]

I just don't have much faith in the coaching and overall culture of the team, or its mental toughness. I'm still excited for the moves they made though.

You keep changing your story. Pick a point to be pessimistic about and defend the argument.

 

[Shady Machine]

Did you read the last paragraph? I'm clearly not of the opinion that the Penguins will stumble on a Matt Martin to suddenly make them a tough team. I also pretty much like most everything that's been done to construct a skilled team that has scoring throughout the lineup.

The point I was addressing was that it's not really fair to say no team will physically dominate them....because they will.

Right but you picked an example of a team that isn't that tough outside of like 1, maybe 2 players.

The ONLY team that will physically dominate the Penguins in the Metro is Columbus. With the changes Washington has made, I don't think there are quite as big and tough as they were but they would be the other team.

 

[Rocket of Russia]

Right but you picked an example of a team that isn't that tough outside of like 1, maybe 2 players.

The ONLY team that will physically dominate the Penguins in the Metro is Columbus. With the changes Washington has made, I don't think there are quite as big and tough as they were but they would be the other team.

The example I picked was the Islanders, who as a team, are tougher than the Penguins.

Martin and Clutterbuck were the obvious choices, but the Hamonic and Boychuk bring it any chance they get, and guys like Okposo aren’t pushovers, while Lee, Nelson, and Kulemin are all big bodies over 6’1†and 200 lbs. Big body does not equal tough; it doesn’t hurt though.

How do the Penguins match with that? Fehr? Plotkinov or Sundqvist (and they might not even be in the starting lineup)?

 

[Shady Machine]

The example I picked was the Islanders, who as a team, are tougher than the Penguins.

Martin and Clutterbuck were the obvious choices, but the Hamonic and Boychuk bring it any chance they get, and guys like Okposo aren’t pushovers, while Lee, Nelson, and Kulemin are all big bodies over 6’1” and 200 lbs. Big body does not equal tough; it doesn’t hurt though.

How do the Penguins match with that? Fehr? Plotkinov or Sundqvist (and they might not even be in the starting lineup)?

I actually forgot about Okposo so fair enough. I don't think Clutterbuck is particularly dangerous anymore, but he can count for sake of fairness.

It all depends on what you define as toughness.

Hornqvist, though not huge, is a bull and won't be deterred by anything. The Pens added in bigger bodies in Plots and Fehr. If Nelson is included, then Malkin should be. Crosby has one of the strongest cores in the hockey world so I think that should count for something here.

If Sundqvist makes the team, and I think he should, there's another one.

I just don't see the Isles as substantially tougher. The Pens blueline is the only area of softness I am concerned about.

 

[billybudd]

Ironically, I thought Engo did that job really well when he played forward. Too bad he prefers defense.

He's not the only guy like that. Burns and Byfuglien are both way more effective on the wing, but for whatever reason they just don't want to do it.

I'd happily pay Buff $6 million to play wing for me, but I don't know if I'd pay him half that as a D. He's every inch as lost at 28 as Pouliot was at 20 in his own end. What good is it if you're in on 45 goals from the blueline, but you're responsible for (not just on the ice for) 75 against? The one year Buff was in Norris contention, Enstrom was playing both sides simultaneously trying to clean up Buff's messes.

 

[penzweiser]

The example I picked was the Islanders, who as a team, are tougher than the Penguins.

Martin and Clutterbuck were the obvious choices, but the Hamonic and Boychuk bring it any chance they get, and guys like Okposo aren’t pushovers, while Lee, Nelson, and Kulemin are all big bodies over 6’1” and 200 lbs. Big body does not equal tough; it doesn’t hurt though.

How do the Penguins match with that? Fehr? Plotkinov or Sundqvist (and they might not even be in the starting lineup)?

I think we could use one more big body on the Wings in the top 6. Ideally I'd love to have a big bruising net front presence rather than Perron. However I don't think we are a small team after this offseason. Look at the guys that we added:

Kessel - 6'0 203
Fehr - 6'4 215
Plotnikov - 6'2 205
Bonino - 6'1 196
Sundqvist - 6'3 209
Cullen - 6'1 200

I think we really have some decent size, we're just lacking a really big winger and a big defenseman. We are in the same situation in offense and defense really. We have s number of people with good size, but no one that is just a big bruiser.

There are not many teams that will have a big size advantage but a team like Columbus that is stabled with guys with great size might make for a hard outing.

It would be interesting to see what it would take to get a good top 6 guy with great size. Is there someone out there that would be willing to deal that for Bennett, Perron and a 2016 2nd (maybe that would be close for big buff, we'd likely be adding another pick and prospect)

 

[tom_servo]

I think we could use one more big body on the Wingfield the top 6. Ideally I'd love to have a big bruising merry front presence rather than Perron. However I don't think we are a small team after this offseason. Look at the guys that we added:

Kessel - 6'0 203
Fehr - 6'4 215
Plotnikov - 6'2 205
Bonino - 6'1 196
Sundqvist - 6'3 209
Cullen - 6'1 200

I think we really have some decent size, we're just lacking a really big winger and a big defenseman. We are in the same situation in offense and defense really. We have s number of people with good size, but no one that is just a big bruiser.

There are not many teams that will have a big size avatar but a team like Columbus that is stabled with guys with great size might make for a hard outing.

It would be interesting to see what it would take to get a good top 6 guy with great size. Is there someone out there that would be willing to deal that for Bennett, Perron and a 2016 2nd (maybe that would be close for big buff, we'd likely be adding another pick and prospect)

That's some good autocorrect.

Yeah, I think we could spare Bennett and Perron for someone who checks a few of those boxes (big avatar, merry presence).

 

[penzweiser]

That's some good autocorrect.

Yeah, I think we could spare Bennett and Perron for someone who checks a few of those boxes (big avatar, merry presence).

Wow I didn't catch that before, yeah my Auto-correct loves to change what I say.