SAN JOSE, Calif. — Just looking at the stat sheet might make it seem as if Penguins forward Beau Bennett is in a bit of a slump. He scored one point in his past nine games and only has seven registered shots over that span.
But coach Mike Johnston tells a different story.
“Beau’s been coming along overall,” Johnston said. “I’m looking at his overall game. I’m sure sometimes people focus on points a little bit too much. But his overall game, how he competes on loose pucks, for me both offensively and defensively, I thought it’s really come up in his game.”
Bennett was a healthy scratch for a stretch of four out of five games in early February, but made his return to the lineup Feb. 15 in a 2-1 shootout loss in Chicago and has played in every game since.
In the past three games, Bennett has moved up to the third line, playing alongside Daniel Winnik and Brandon Sutter.
“I like what he’s doing, and then his puck skills start to take over the game because he’s a good puck management guy,” Johnston said. “He holds onto the puck, makes a good play with the puck, but I really feel like his compete areas have gone way up.”
Warm-up trip
Road trips are always a good time for some quality team bonding, but this four-game West Coast swing also had a nice side benefit for players and coaches.
As temperatures in Pittsburgh hovered in the teens and 20s, the weather in Anaheim and Los Angeles over the weekend got as high as 80 with clear skies.
“When we’re in California, to be honest, the sunshine, getting away from the cold winter has been the thing that’s brought everybody together,” Johnston said. “It’s a nice change because we’ve had some cold weather and some real winter back East.”
Minus memories
Sidney Crosby’s previous trip to San Jose was a memorable one, but not exactly for the right reasons.
Crosby recorded a minus-5 in a 5-3 loss March 6, 2014, a game that involved the Penguins blowing a 2-0 first period lead.
“I remember, obviously coming back, what the last game was like,” Crosby said Monday before the game. “I’m hoping it’s pretty tough to go minus-5 and then go minus-6 the next time. We’ll see what happens. You never know. Hockey’s a weird game sometimes.”
Sharks one bite at a time
While the Penguins are relatively secure in their status as a playoff team, the Sharks are still fighting for their postseason lives.
San Jose came into Monday night five points behind the Calgary Flames for the third and final Pacific Division playoff spot.
“It gets tougher and tougher as the schedule diminishes,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. “If we look at it as a big chunk of games, rather than one at a time, I think we have less chance of success. We have to deal with the moment, the period.”
Sam Werner: swerner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @SWernerPG.
First Published: March 10, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
