Beau Bennett: The Forgotten Man

[Moose Lips]

so there isn't anyone, basically, so why claim there are better options

Because I'm the village idiot and have far inferior knowledge of such things as you...perhaps???

or

Because I'd prefer a player in such a position to not have below average physicality and two-way game...

You choose.

 

[Don'tcry4mejanhrdina]

I think it was Melichar who pulled Straka out from under the weight machine. Best thing he ever did as a Pen. And the second one was in about Straka's first practice back after the accident. IIRC our goalie hit him in the face with the puck or his paddle, breaking his orbital and sending him back to IR. It was quite surreal then. Nowadays we'd just shrug and move on.

It was Kraft. Straka was definitely cursed. Breaks his leg, literally his first shift back from the broken leg Hedberg hits him in the face with his stick while shooting the puck around the boards, breaking his orbital bone. First game back from that, he re-breaks his leg in the second period. He's training hard in the off season when the day before he was planning on skating again a weight machine falls on him while he's doing squats and he breaks a vertebrae in his back. If I'm not mistaken that was the same off season Rozsival hurt his knee jumping hurdles and Nieminen got 70 stitches falling through the glass door of a sauna.

 

[Shady Machine]

so there isn't anyone, basically, so why claim there are better options

It all depends on what the Pens want out of their 3rd and 4th lines. Let's assume Bonino, Fehr, Kunitz, Dupuis, Cullen are all in the bottom 6. Do you want a skilled offensive winger with great vision in that last spot (Bennett)? Do you want a speedy guy with okay offensive skills but is solid defensively (Wilson, Rust)? Do you want a big young kid with solid defense, some snarl, and untapped offensive potential (Sundqvist)? Do you want mayhem with blazing speed (Farnham)?

I believe Bennett can and should have a spot on that bottom 6 and if it were up to me I'd run 2 third lines, but I'm not so sure that's how MJ and co. will think about it.

 

[Fordy]

Because I'm the village idiot and have far inferior knowledge of such things as you...perhaps???

or

Because I'd prefer a player in such a position to not have below average physicality and two-way game...

You choose.

what's the difference?

 

[systemsgo]

Any updates on Beauner's workouts / conditioning this summer? Haven't seen a damn thing about him.

Guy is crazy cut right now, but his legs look as skinny as ever.

I think there was a random video of him running around in a girl's thong or something too. But I'm not gonna search for it, because it feels creepy.

It all depends on what the Pens want out of their 3rd and 4th lines. Let's assume Bonino, Fehr, Kunitz, Dupuis, Cullen are all in the bottom 6. Do you want a skilled offensive winger with great vision in that last spot (Bennett)? Do you want a speedy guy with okay offensive skills but is solid defensively (Wilson, Rust)? Do you want a big young kid with solid defense, some snarl, and untapped offensive potential (Sundqvist)? Do you want mayhem with blazing speed (Farnham)?

I believe Bennett can and should have a spot on that bottom 6 and if it were up to me I'd run 2 third lines, but I'm not so sure that's how MJ and co. will think about it.

If it were up to me, I wouldn't be running 2 third lines, as I'd still want Sid and Geno to play 18 mins a game, but I think I might possibly be okay with playing Geno less in the regular season as he seems to have an issue staying healthy for a full season. There'd be a shutdown bottom 6 line and a scoring bottom 6 line, as much as running 2 third lines sounds nice, the shutdown line would be getting more minutes simply because if possible, I'd still run Sid or Geno's lines against weak competition vs. giving the 4th line more minutes.

If those are our bottom 6 forwards, I'd run:
Kunitz-Fehr- Dupuis
Bonino-Cullen-Bennett

Personally, I'd run Bennett in the top 6 to start on Geno's LW, and drive his value up enough to trade him - since I'm assuming he's gone anyway and we'd find out he's a locker room cancer somehow . Keeping him in the bottom 6 and trading him later only limits his trade value.

 

[PensBandwagonerNo272*]

guy looks like he literally only does curls

 

[plaidchuck]

Damn Beau do some squats or something.

 

[billybudd]

I'll never understand why Beau Bennett's problems get hung around Craig Adams' neck, apart from Adams being an easy guy to scapegoat. What, was Adams heckling him from the bench during his shifts? The two have barely shared the ice together. Bennett has more overall ice time with Dustin Jeffrey (to say nothing of Crosby and Malkin). Jeffrey only played something like 8 games in a Penguins uniform when Bennett was on our roster.

 

[Fordy]

I'll never understand why Beau Bennett's problems get hung around Craig Adams' neck, apart from Adams being an easy guy to scapegoat. What, was Adams heckling him from the bench during his shifts? The two have barely shared the ice together. Bennett has more overall ice time with Dustin Jeffrey (to say nothing of Crosby and Malkin). Jeffrey only played something like 8 games in a Penguins uniform when Bennett was on our roster.

because adams' TOOK his ice time? i mean seriously don't pretend that you didn't see adams regularly getting bennett's third line shifts

 

[Fordy]

other than that adams just gets lumped in with the other garbage he had to play with even if the games they may have actually played on the same line weren't that prevalent

 

[zero8771]

I think he has a real shot this year to establish himself as an NHL player. He hasn't been healthy for a long stretch of games, and a lot of the times when he was he was playing with less skilled players.

This year regardless of the line he is on, he will be playing with quality NHL players. It's exciting to see him "demoted" to a line with fehr and dupuis. or cullen and plot. or however it pans out.

With so many players competing for the top lines and those lines makeups unknown, we are going to see him play with a lot of players. Camp is going to have more of a "tryout" feel with so many new guys. If he's good they will play him where he belongs.

 

[DoktorZaius]

With so many players competing for the top lines and those lines makeups unknown, we are going to see him play with a lot of players. Camp is going to have more of a "tryout" feel with so many new guys. If he's good they will play him where he belongs.

I hope this pans out, but with MJ you never know. He mentioned Perron as a "right wing" earlier in the offseason, so he may just cram Bennett into LW somewhere and mediocrity could ensue.

 

[zero8771]

I hope this pans out, but with MJ you never know. He mentioned Perron as a "right wing" earlier in the offseason, so he may just cram Bennett into LW somewhere and mediocrity could ensue.

Why is this "with MJ you never know". Who did he play out of position?

he's been a good coach here. Not sure why people think he's all the sudden going to become Bylsma

 

[Fordy]

i think this left wing stuff is getting overblown. he's played well on the left before, including as a rookie. is it ideal? no, but he can do it on a line with the right mix of other good players, basically top 6 vs bottom 6. what mj was doing last year, playing him out of position for seemingly no reason on lines with at best sutter and spaling and downie, was dumb and pointlessly handicapping him. but if he was in the top six, obviously i think he would be just fine on lw

 

[plaidchuck]

Thing is I thought he was always a top six or bust guy. I just don't see him flourishing with fourth line minutes.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Thing is I thought he was always a top six or bust guy. I just don't see him flourishing with fourth line minutes.

The Hawks had a third line of:

Patrick Sharp, Antoine Vermette and Teuvo Teravainen. Not exactly a bruising third line that wears you down. That line scored a bunch of huge goals for the Hawks in the playoffs though.

Just food for thought.

 

[Headshot77]

I want a third line that can win drive possession and score some important goals, like the Cooke-Staal-Kennedy line of old. Bennett sounds like a good right winger for that type of third line.

 

[mpp9]

The Hawks had a third line of:

Patrick Sharp, Antoine Vermette and Teuvo Teravainen. Not exactly a bruising third line that wears you down. That line scored a bunch of huge goals for the Hawks in the playoffs though.

Just food for thought.

I want to see 4 lines built with speed and skill. If Bennett can't develop playing with Bonino or Fehr, he's not really any good.

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I want to see 4 lines built with speed and skill. If Bennett can't develop playing with Bonino or Fehr, he's not really any good.

I will agree with this. If he can't produce and be effective with the guys we'll have in our bottom six, there's just really no place for him. He isn't going to be playing with Adams, Spaling, and Sutter anymore. He's going to have high impact, legitimate NHL talent surrounding him.

 

[plaidchuck]

The Hawks had a third line of:

Patrick Sharp, Antoine Vermette and Teuvo Teravainen. Not exactly a bruising third line that wears you down. That line scored a bunch of huge goals for the Hawks in the playoffs though.

Just food for thought.

Yet imo.we dont have guys that can make that kind of third line. Definitely no one with the scoring touch sharp has had.

 

[mpp9]

Yet imo.we dont have guys that can make that kind of third line. Definitely no one with the scoring touch sharp has had.

The Sharp from last year? He's not that far off from Kunitz and certainly not a better finisher than Perron at this point.

 

[cassius]

He's certainly not forgotten around these parts... given the fact that he's been penciled in as a top-6 winger for the past 3+ years.

Yeah.. we all know how that played out

 

[drpepper]

Why is this "with MJ you never know". Who did he play out of position?

he's been a good coach here. Not sure why people think he's all the sudden going to become Bylsma

Johnston's roster choices and player deployment (game situation, strength, FO location) were pretty questionable last season.

Just because he's not Bylsma, that doesn't mean Johnston didn't make mistakes.

i think this left wing stuff is getting overblown. he's played well on the left before, including as a rookie. is it ideal? no, but he can do it on a line with the right mix of other good players, basically top 6 vs bottom 6. what mj was doing last year, playing him out of position for seemingly no reason on lines with at best sutter and spaling and downie, was dumb and pointlessly handicapping him. but if he was in the top six, obviously i think he would be just fine on lw

Also Johnston's defensive system (at the end of the season) required more responsibility from the weak-side wing which Bennett struggled with, and his transition/breakout frequently had the puck moving through the LW where Bennett on his backhand struggled. Johnston's systems put the LW in different and more difficult situations than Bylsma's especially when Bennett is more familiar and more comfortable on the right. I don't think LW was a big of a deal in the OZ because Bennett was frequently on the right anyway (see also Perron playing as a RW).

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Yet imo.we dont have guys that can make that kind of third line. Definitely no one with the scoring touch sharp has had.

JR stated he wanted four scoring lines. So they will need skill on all of their lines.

He will end up playing with some combo of Fehr, Bonino, Kunitz, Dupuis, Cullen and Sundqvist. If you want four scoring lines, you better have some playmakers on those lines.

It's rare you have an effective third line that has three guys like Staal, TK, and Cooke that are all crap playmakers.

 

[robopigeon]

I want to see Kunitz - Bonino - Bennet tried as a 3rd line. As long as Kunitz doesn't pout, that's got a little mix of everything, and they could all play off each other well.