Most of you haven't watched Sam Bennett play for your team before so I can excuse your skepticism. Cooper knows. He knows Sam is a pitbull of a hockey player. Excellent on the boards, softens up defense pairings, and really quite good at transporting the puck through the NZ. Tons of net drive and can have the other team hearing footsteps with his aggressive physical speed. Responsible positionally and anticipates well defensively.
This is an ideal 4th line limited ice time player in a short tournament such as this. Generating offense is not going to be a problem for the top of this lineup. Makes their jobs a little easier when they take an OZ draw following an icing forced by a guy like Bennett bearing down on some poor tired defenseman who was just looking to make a simple outlet but instead got images of this crazy bearded f***er about to commit a war crime. And that little easier, those small margins are where are a contest with this many great players and four great teams is going to be won or lost.