Matty Beniers has started the season extremely slowly and is looking for an offensive breakout ahead of the Seattle Kraken's matchup against the Colorado Avalanche.
Matty Beniers has started the season extremely slowly and is looking for an offensive breakout ahead of the Seattle Kraken's matchup against the Colorado Avalanche.
Beniers has recorded just one assist through six games, which came against the Nashville Predators. He's averaging just 2.3 shots per game in 17:35 of ice time. The Kraken dished out a massive seven-year extension to Beniers in hopes that he finds his rookie season form and improves on it. Instead, he's shown signs that his rookie season is the outlier and his sophomore season might be what he is as a player.
Six games isn't enough time to come to that conclusion but the early signs are troubling. Through these six games, Natural Stat Trick has Beniers down for eight individual scoring chances and six individual high-danger chances at 5v5.
When Beniers is on the ice at 5v5, the Kraken are outshooting their opponents 41-25, outscoring their opponents 2-1, and have a high-danger percentage of 60%. The scoring chance percentage is a bit different with the opponents at 43.64%, out-chancing Beniers 31-24 when he's on the ice.
The analytics show that the Hingham, Massachusetts native's slow start isn't due to poor play or a lack of effort. Some can be attributed to puck luck, something he felt he suffered from last year when he finished the season with a shooting percentage of 11.3%.
Beniers' puck luck is bound to change and he won't shoot 0% all season long but it isn't unfair to ask Beniers to push the play more often and try to outwork his slow start. Superstar players find ways to create more chances, shoot more often and go to harder areas to score when the puck isn't finding the back of the net. Beniers wants to and can be a star in the NHL but this is an aspect of his game that he needs to improve.
The 2021 second-overall pick can use his skating and puck-handling abilities to get himself into the slot and other high-danger situations. He also has the size to win battles in front of the net and could use his speed to drive hard to the net in transition.
The Kraken are scoring lots of goals and winning games without his production but Beniers finding his offensive game can take the Kraken to the next level. The Kraken take on an Avalanche team that has struggled to keep the puck out of their net and it could be an excellent opportunity for Beniers to have a breakout game.
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