Penguins waive Arcobello - Bennett being misused

Penguins waive Arcobello - Bennett being misused

The Penguins today lost Mark Arcobello on waivers to the Arizona Coyotes. The Penguins originally listed him on waivers yesterday presumably in anticipation of Blake Comeau's potential return tonight against the Detroit Red Wings. Arcobello was originally claimed by the Pittsburgh Penguins from the Nashville Predators through waivers on the 10th January 2015. In his time he recorded 2 assists in 10 games. He wasn't a top 6 player but was put there due to injuries for a brief spell but outside of that he was normally see on the third and fourth lines. Why the  Penguins waived him over Zach Sill I don't know. Arcobello scored as many points in 10 games as Sill has in 59 games or in other words, his whole career.

Elsewhere one of the biggest talking points with regards to the line-up has been the scratching of Beau  Bennett recently. He was taken on the West coast trip and we were told through Johnston through the media that he would play. This was after being scratched in the Penguins 2-1 OT win against New Jersey. He played against Nashville in the 4-0 loss but was then rather oddly dropped again. Then, despite Johnston saying he would play on the West Canada swing he missed the games against Calgary and Edmonton. The reason?

“The way we played in the first two games,” Johnston said, “we played so well, we didn't want to make a lineup adjustment.” - Josh Yohe - Trib Live

Whilst I can understand not making changes we were playing back to back games against the Oilers and Canucks. Some fresh legs would have been handy, especially in place of Sill and Adams who still, somehow, get regular ice time despite being inept beyond belief. It makes less sense when you look back at the last few years at young forwards that we have drafted, it is a real area that lacks and when we do get one we scratch him when healthy. It is frustrating. Especially when you consider the performance of some of the bottom 6 players such as Sill,  Adams and recently Sutter. None of those have been scratched due to poor performance so why is Bennett being singled out?

Bennett will again sit out tonight against the Red Wings and this will make it his 5th healthy scratch in the last 6 games. For a young, cost controlled player as talented as him that is just not acceptable. Even less so when you consider the lack of accountability across the whole team. Johnston needs to rectify this error and re-instate him.