I'm split on Ward's coaching that game. Situationally, he made do without Monahan and finally put 3M back together and they looked solid all night. And then the Oilers clogged it up once they got to the 3rd. Feels like the ice was real shitty out there as people were falling over, and the puck was bobbled all oevr the place which plays into the team with the lead. But then Bennett gets benched and it's complicated.
According to Darren Haynes, he was benched following the Haas goal where he had a lacklustre back check. I look at the play and... eh?
https://hlslive-wsczoominwestus.med.nhl.com/editor/6baaefe4-3465-4546-82be-514c03b8e5a2.mp4
He follows up the play but he doesn't put the effort in to get to the puck and lazily floats to the opposite post, but Valimaki was already cutting to Haas and it was a weak job tying up the stick from Vali that lead to the goal. But fine, if you consider that worth benching so be it.
Then you get into the 3rd period. The Oilers are clogging the neutral zone like nobodies business, the ice is shitty, and the Flames are having trouble generating speed. Ironically it felt like Froese was the most effective one at breaking in because of the simple dump and chase, but then they didn't do anything to follow up that. But Dube is working with a lot of speed, Bennett has speed and hands up the middle, and down one goal you are shooting yourself in the foot by playing sub optimal lines.
So it comes down to this, imo; Ward is considered a players coach, but in this instance he sacrifices the teams success to punish a player in a way we haven't seen in the past (other than with Dube). Even then, the benching coould have been a culmination of things (for example, he is supposed to be in the slot and not do a switch positionally in the d-zone to attack the point on the first goal) but as a head coach when the team is struggling, it feels beyond stupid to put one player being punished ahead of the needs of the team. It is ridiculous. We have 3 NHL calibre centres healthy right now, they have to have a longer leash in pivotal games since the next man up is Byron Froese.