The Sporting News
May 2, 2013
PITTSBURGH — Beau Bennett says he has a playoff beard. He is a liar.
Bennett, a 21-year-old winger for the Pittsburgh Penguins, has Step 1 down, at least—he says he stopped shaving a while ago—but to call what's (not) on his face "peach fuzz" would be misrepresentative of peaches. It's apple fuzz. It's banana fuzz. It's watermelon fuzz.
"Oh, I've been growing that out all year," the 21-year-old winger joked after his Pittsburgh Penguins won Game 1, 5-0, over the New York Islanders on Wednesday.
If Bennett plays the way he did in his first NHL playoff game (and 27th NHL game overall), he's going to have some more time to see what develops on his face. His play is coming along well enough.
Less than four minutes into regulation and on his first shift of the game, Bennett jumped over the boards with Evgeni Malkin and Brenden Morrow during the back end of a Penguins power play. Twenty seconds second later, he streaked down the near-side boards, took a shuffled feed from Malkin (who almost thought the better of it) and slid a shortside shot past New York Islanders goalie Evgeni Nabokov.
"I think he thought I was gonna pass," Bennett said. "I just tried to drop my shoulder and luckily, he kind of bit for it, and there was a little slot short-side, and it went in."
It was the first of five pucks Pittsburgh would send past Nabokov, then Kevin Poulin, and a prime example of why, exactly, Sidney Crosby can take a few extra days to make sure the bones in his face fuse back together. The Penguins might not be able to win the Cup without their captain, and there's evidence that suggests they're not as good as their 8-4 record without him suggests. But with players like Bennett holding down the fort, things will be fine. And when Crosby is ready? Look out.
Pascal Dupuis scored twice, Kris Letang and Tanner Glass each scored a goal, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 26 saves for his sixth career postseason shootout in a game Pittsburgh used, emphatically, to start the process of proving that its recent postseason failures—with or without Crosby—are fully behind them. It all started with Bennett, though, who found out at Pittsburgh's morning skate that he'd take Tyler Kennedy's spot in the lineup, then made an emphatic entrance.
LINEMAKERS: Penguins favored to win the Stanley Cup
Nabokov, who has 700 games on Bennett (counting the postseason), wouldn't have lasted 16 years in the league if he made a habit of allowing those goals. They're rare for a reason—goalies tend to hug the posts, and wingers who attempt roof-jobs into six-inch windows just as equally tend to fail.
NHL playoffs: Beau Bennett scored the Penguins' first goal in a 5-0 Game 1 win. (AP Photo)
Bennett didn't, and became the first Penguins rookie to score the team's opening goal of a postseason since Jordan Staal in 2007. He also did one of the few things Crosby and Malkin haven't yet managed—to beat Nabokov.
"It's a perfect shot," Glass, Bennett's frequent linemate, said after the game. "The goalies got the angle on him. He's down, and you don't gotta shoot it hard to put it in there; he just kinda flipped it up. That's a goal-scorer's goal, and a really pretty one."
The point was Bennett's 15th in 23 games and the exact sort of play he's made more frequently down the stretch. Earlier this season, Bennett was trying to survive. Now, he's beyond that—it's just not about avoiding mistakes. It's about using the vision and speed that took him from Gardena, Calif., to the British Columbia Hockey League to the University of Denver to the first round of the NHL draft in the first place. Now, he's in Pittsburgh—and he might not be in the lineup for good, but someday soon, he should be.
"When I first came in here, I was just trying to be responsible and get pucks out, not be a liability out there," Bennett said, adding that coach Dan Bylsma had been on him about starting games slowly. "As of late, I've been trying to hold onto the puck a little bit more and make plays from there. It's just a confidence thing."
Bylsma was impressed.
"(Bennett's skill) was evident five-on-five as well with some of the shifts that he had in the offensive zone, and that's something that he's added with us after he got called back up (in late March)," Bylsma said,"
Glass was, too. He also scored his first playoff goal—in his 25th postseason game. And just like Bylsma, he sees a player blending skill and responsibility, whenever and wherever he gets the chance. By the middle of the second period, Bennett had played with every forward on the bench, save for James Neal, who was dealing with an undisclosed injury, Brandon Sutter and Matt Cooke. All in all, Bennett played 13:58 spread over 16 shifts and totaled two official shots, another that was blocked and another that missed the net. And that goal.
"Your first playoff game? You couldn't have drawn it up any better to get the first one on your first shot like that," Glass told Sporting News. "Even beyond that, he played a really mature game. He gets the puck deep when he has no play, and then he's got the talent and the patience to make plays when it's available."
He just doesn't have a beard. Yet.
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