Life After Nick

How will the Terriers survive the Bonino-less stretch ahead?
By Chris Aliano

They were undefeated in the last 35 games that junior forward and assistant captain Nick Bonino recorded at least one point.  Now, the Boston University men's hockey team will need to find other ways to light lamp after head coach Jack Parker announced that the Unionville, Connecticut native will miss up to a month after dislocating his shoulder in last Saturday's 3-2 win against Michigan.

How do the Terriers survive the next three-to-four weeks without their most dangerous offensive threat?  It is an unenviable task, but not an impossible one.


First off, consider that Bonino was held without a point through the first three games this season.  That could be the very reason the Terriers have struggled mightily in creating and converting offensive chances, which there have been many of.  There has been no chemistry on Bonino's first line so far, whether it's Vinny Saponari and Chris Connolly or Zach Cohen and Alex Chiasson.  Time and time again, Bonino tried to make too much out of too little, pulling two or three opponents toward him in attempt to give his other line-mates opportunities.  A great idea in theory, yes, but that hasn't been the case so far.

The only Terriers to find the back of the net so far have been the following: Chiasson (twice), Zach Cohen, Colby Cohen and Joe Pereira.  In every one of those scoring plays, Bonino wasn't involved at all.  Weird, right?  Could it be--gasp--that by trying to do too much with the puck, Bonino was more of a hindrance than a benefactor?  Of course not.  It's early, and Bonino is still adjusting to playing with new partners after going all last year with John McCarthy and Brandon Yip at wings.

While Bonino's absence certainly stings, it does give the rest of the team an opportunity to build a new bond among the new lines that Parker is likely to put together over this stretch.  One thing I'd like to see out of this: a reunion of last year's all-freshman line: Saponari, Connolly and Corey Trivino.  Saponari and Connolly have been paired together already in previous games, but Trivino has centered the second or third line with mostly freshmen.  Reuniting these three seems only logical.  Besides, the freshmen have been playing rather well on their own, as Parker has indicated after more than one game already.

The big test comes this weekend with a home-and-home with up-and-coming UMass-Lowell.  If the Terriers can split, maybe sweep, this series, then they have lowly Northeastern and Maine to look forward to the next weekend, and a home-and-home with Merrimack the week after that.  If Bonino can make it back in time for the home-and-home with UNH on the weekend before Thanksgiving, and if the Terriers continue to build on the win against Michigan, then who knows?  It may not seem like he was gone at all.