Calgary Flames Monday Roundtable: First week of the 2017-18 season

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VANCOUVER, BC – OCTOBER 14 2017. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Question 1: While Sam Bennett has been kept off the score sheet, does his game at least look better than it did last season when paired with Troy Brouwer?

Jonathan Boulanger

Absolutely. I just wrote an article about this, and I believe he has so much more jump and when paired up with good players he has looked great. I think he has a lot of potential but it’s like taking Gaudreau away from Sean Monahan or vice versa, they play well together. Bennett should be playing will players at the same skill level as him.

Ian Gustafson

I believe his game has improved a lot from last year. He seems to be playing more physical and has a jump to his step that was missing last season. He is using his size a lot more and crashing the net. Pairing him with better players has taken him to another level.

Tomas Oppolzer

Hard to tell this early. That said, I did like what I saw from Kris Versteeg, Jaromir Jagr, and him. They had a bunch of offensive zone time and the little passes they were making were really nice. Almost Sedin like. It would be nice to see the line shoot more, but with more time together I think they could be a really good unit for the Calgary Flames.

Ben Prokopy

Yes, though the statistics would indicate otherwise. In spite of deplorable even strength possession numbers, the best word I can come up with for Bennett’s play is ‘engaged’. He is always in and visible on every play whenever he’s on the ice. And I think he has forechecked very well.

I’d like to see him shoot the puck more (he only has 4 SOG as of this writing). And he could spend less time in the penalty box. But, he’s doing well so far in the faceoff circle (best faceoff win percentage among centres as of this writing).

Altogether, he looks better and is trending in the right direction.

Dan Raicevich

Sam Bennett is going to keep getting chances and I feel like he’s played quite well through the first six games. Having said that, being patient with this talented forward is the most important thing. Goals will come for the young forward and hopefully, sooner rather than later.

To be fair, I feel like Troy Brouwer has not been all too bad this season. His foot speed looks to be much better in my opinion.

Ramina Shlah

I know it’s still early, but his play at this point of the year is already better than what it was at this point of the year last season. Jonathan and I were talking about it earlier and I looked into Bennett’s stats and between the game against the Edmonton Oilers (on a line with Brouwer) and the game against the Winnipeg Jets (not on a line with Brouwer) were significantly different. His shot attempts for/against percentage at 5-on-5 was one of the worst on the team against the Oilers with 34.21%. In the game against the Jets, it was 65.38%.

I know it’s only been a few games, but his game does look more solid and he looks a little more confident than he did last season. I have high hopes for him this upcoming season.

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