To be fair, when you inherit (Benning was hired I think a week after Chara was acquired by the Bruins) a franchise D like Chara & goalie like Thomas, ones job is WAY easier.
Frankly, I could care less if the D were all midgets or smallish guys so as long as they could actually play *defense*. Ie., nobody would consider Tanev a monster. Still think Schmidt is decent defensively but he gets most of the tough defensive starts because there's nobody else in the lineup to take those minutes. That and it was a new team/system for him this past season.