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You can excuse Pittsburgh Penguins fans for having Beau Bennett fatigue. Every time the talented young winger (which is like a unicorn in the Penguins organization) gets ready to make an NHL impact, he gets hurt. Like a flaky friend who promises to come over with pizza, there's always that flimsy excuse of a text that he's not going to make it.
In Bennett's case though, it hasn't really been his fault. His injuries haven't been the result of being too weak, too slow or too injury prone- in a lot of cases they've been freaky "wrong place, wrong time" kind of things- like his latest injury when he hurt his knee in a training camp practice after bumping into a teammate and then hitting a rut in the ice the wrong way.
It's hard to make that stuff up.
Still, Bennett is just 22 years old and has the skill and potential to make a big impact in the NHL. The Penguins, lest we forget, are still playing Pascal Dupuis and Blake Comeau as second line wingers with Evgeni Malkin. This is a team that could use a young, cheap winger who is offensively creative with the puck.
With that, many were interested to see what Bennett would do being sent to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to play a couple of games this weekend. Would he be rusty in his debut? Could he make a difference? Is he ready for the NHL? Can the man even just get through two games?
If there were any doubts, Bennett erased them with his play.
WBS has scored seven goals in the two games Beau Bennett has been with the team. He's been on the ice for all seven and assisted on five.
— Jonathan Bombulie (@CVBombulie) November 9, 2014
Bennett, of course, only has 6 goals and 15 assists in 47 career NHL games- some of them he played through a wrist injury which may have hurt. It's important to remember he isn't going to come in and score 30 goals this year. He might not even score 15. But if he can add a slick, playmaking element to Malkin's line, that makes the Penguins a lot more dangerous and better of a team at even strength, an area they will need to improve as the season goes on.
For that reason, Penguins fans should believe one more time that this will be the time that Beau Bennett is showing up to the party. And when he arrives, he'll even have some pizza for everyone.