What Would You Do Wednesday: Getting Nick Bonino Going
By Rhys Jessop
9 years agoWelcome to a new feature here on Canucks Army and all sites on the Nation Network: What Would You Do Wednesday, where we put you, yes YOU, in charge of your own imaginary Vancouver Canucks. We’ll present you with a different scenario each week, and you tell us how you’d solve it in the comments section below. Give props to the answers you do like and trash the ones you don’t. Easy! So let’s get started:
Last WWYDW, we ask you how you would go about filling the void left by Dan Hamhuis’ injury. And, in general, the top responses were in favour of a pretty level-headed approach: stand pat and hope for the best, and don’t make any rash decisions. Char Richo had the most popular response here:
I would ride it out for awhile and see how it goes. Of course keeping eyes and ears open to a possible good trade.
But, one of your top defencemen going down just screams “hey we’re looking to make a desperation trade and get kicked in the junk while we’re at it” which is never a good position to be in.
It’s a bit of a gamble, but if the team manages to perform relatively well over the next little while, and Benning actually looks like he’s willing to just sit tight until Hamhuis comes back, then they’re in a much stronger bargaining position for a trade.
Granted, it could totally backfire since the wheels could come flying off, the team could tank harder than last year and then we become even MORE desperate for another top 4 D than we already are. But, that’s what I’d do, and hope that the worst case didn’t happen.
And AllanD shared a similar thought with this comment:
I think Trader Jim has the right idea in calling up Corrado and signing a young D-man to fill the roster spot in Utica.
With any luck Hamhuis and Bieksa’s poor performances early were due to a new system.
Sbisa has been playing well the last couple games and has been adjusting to new teammates as well as a new system. I’m not holding my breath but maybe, just maybe he will round into the 24-year-old top-4 defensemen we were told about when they traded for him.
We knew the defence corps wasn’t deep when we started the season, but maybe these young guys can prove us wrong. Stanton and Corrado both had promising rookie seasons.
No-one said a youth movement was easy.
Of course, a lot of you liked Highlander‘s idea too:
SAMI SALO
We miss you, Sami 🙁
With that out of the way, we can focus on this week’s dilemma, which is the fact that Vancouver’s second line has gone from one of the most potent scoring threats in the entire NHL to completely unable to generate offense. And the biggest reason for this is that Nick Bonino hasn’t scores a goal in over a month.
Now, some of this is variance driven and completely expected, but at the same time, successful teams need consistent contributions from their depth so Bonino’s lack of goals is a problem. We know he’s capable of finishing chances, and he’s got a few during this slump, so it seems like he just needs to bury one and get feeling good again.
So the question is what would you do to get Bonino going again? Would you, like Willie Desjardins in the third period against Montreal, play him on the 4th line with some high-energy guys like Hansen and Dorsett? Would you limit his ice time until he’s ready to break out again and play guys who are actually scoring? Would you go with the status quo and keep rolling him out with Chris Higgins and Alex Burrows? Or would you try something designed to get him scoring again, like playing him with the Sedins at 5-on-5 and on the first unit powerplay instead of Linden Vey? Let us know in the comment section below!
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