BCNeil Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 Define second line center......he was 40th in center scoring last season.So at the stronger end of the 31-60 grouping one might consider 2nd line centers.If he had 5 more points he would have been top 30 in scoring for centers, which would have him ahead of several first line centers. He was a plus 14.He is a slightly above average second line center right now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William_Clarkson Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 Define second line center......he was 40th in center scoring last season. So at the stronger end of the 31-60 grouping one might consider 2nd line centers. If he had 5 more points he would have been top 30 in scoring for centers, which would have him ahead of several first line centers. He was a plus 14. He is a slightly above average second line center right now With very sheltered minutes 5 on 5 minutes and minutes on a strong powerplay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCNeil Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 With very sheltered minutes 5 on 5 minutes and minutes on a strong powerplay.That's why the terms 1st and 2nd line center need to be defined.Is a first line center the best on his team?Top 30 in the league? Colorado and San Jose both have 3 centers that were top 30 for center scoring.But I think if you were to list the best 30 centers in the league.Then list the next 30. Bonino would definitely be there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHatnDart Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 I for one am really excited about Bonino coming to play here. If you take him just as he is... his stats, his age, his cap hit, there's no reason not to be excited about this guy. Nice to get someone at that age who hopefully continues his trend upwards. Unfortunately, because he was traded in return for one of the best 2 way forwards this team ever had, he'll be compared and weighed against this. Whether or not that's fair is subjective to ones opinion, but I for one like what he appears to bring to the table. He will be very anxious to prove himself, and the fact that he will most likely slot in 2C and earn himself substantial minutes, has to be very exciting for him. Interesting (noted from a couple of previous posts) that he's in the upper echelon for points for 2nd line centres. Hopefully last year was in fact a breakout and he can match or even improve on last seasons 49 points. Yes, he doesn't bring the same defensive qualities perhaps that Kesler did. However I don't see that necessarily being a bad thing. Our 3rd and 4th projected lines look much more rounded and hopefully can provide a defensively sound game and score some points as well. I've made a point on another thread of how well balanced LA is. It's a team based on playing 4 effective lines that can bang, score, and play good overall hockey. I've seen so many people making points about the Canucks lack of scoring and that was a key difference maker in our missing the playoffs last season. I have to disagree. Looking just now at overall team scoring last year, LA finished 26th in total goals for. 26th! Clearly playing a tight style of hockey, with good defence and goaltending wins you championships over simply scoring goals. We need to tighten up overall, as a unit, and stop having those collapses in the 3rd period like we saw happen way too many times last season. Rolling 4 hard working lines as opposed to overplaying the top 2 night in and night out will go a long way towards this. Back to Bonino...I hope he plays really great this year, and makes all his critics eat their words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lui's Knob Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 He's our only option to be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferlands_Head Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 If he can continue to improve defensively and maintain a consistent 50 point pace I'd say he's a legit 2C. He's not quite there yet though, hoping he can surprise me. Expecting 15G 25A from Bonino next season, simply because He won't be getting PP mins with Getzlaf and Perry. Our PP is trending downward with the losses of Garrison and Kesler. His 5 on 5 production should improve but his PP PTS will drop quite drastically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownUndaCanuck Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 He's the best 3rd line center in the NHL on a good team, or a pretty decent 2nd line center on a normal team. He's going to have linemates like Kassian, Higgins, Jensen, Hansen, Burrows and Vbrata at times who are all fairly inconsistent though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
It's Bieksa's Fault Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 He is a second line centre but is not a fantastic second line centre like Kesler was. I see him more as a stepping stone towards Horvat or any of our other centre prospects, and he should be able to do his duties fine until any of our prospects are ready to step up to the plate. Who knows, he might turn some heads while he's at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
messier's_elbow Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 I think he and sbisa are gonna surprise a lot of people this year .. can't wait to see them prove themselves Bonino has potential but im not sold on sbisa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IBatch Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 He got enough points last year to warrant the spot - with enough upside to do more, so yes for now he is. That said it wouldn't hurt the team to sign Alfie who played very well in DET, to compliment his chances of succeeding on this line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canuck Surfer Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 A 2knd line center? Yes! A dominant physical specimen (or hockey talent) who alters most every match up and preferred opposing strategy ??? So yes a credible 2knd line player. But not a top one. Maybe over time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdatb Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 Wouldn't it be cool if our second line consisted of Burrows-Bonino-Kassian. And their pts were: Burrows 15-25-40. Bonino 25-30-55. Kassian 25-25-50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toews Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 That's why the terms 1st and 2nd line center need to be defined. Is a first line center the best on his team? Top 30 in the league? Colorado and San Jose both have 3 centers that were top 30 for center scoring. But I think if you were to list the best 30 centers in the league. Then list the next 30. Bonino would definitely be there. Imo there aren't 30 first line centers in the league. There are some players playing on some teams like Nashville, Toronto, Montreal, Phoenix, Winnipeg, New York R, New Jersey etc that don't qualify as #1 centers to me. If you see my list of second line centers it would have more players than my list of 1st line centers. But that is just how I define the #1 center and #2 center. I think only about 17-18 players fit my standards of a #1 center and hence I have a lot more players who can be labeled as #2 centers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Me_ Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 I personally think, and hope, that there will be a dog fight for the 2C position between Matthias, Bonino, Vey, Horvat and Virtanen and to a lesser extent, Richardson. Let the best player win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Me_ Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 Imo there aren't 30 first line centers in the league. There are some players playing on some teams like Nashville, Toronto, Montreal, Phoenix, Winnipeg, New York R, New Jersey etc that don't qualify as #1 centers to me. If you see my list of second line centers it would have more players than my list of 1st line centers. But that is just how I define the #1 center and #2 center. I think only about 17-18 players fit my standards of a #1 center and hence I have a lot more players who can be labeled as #2 centers. Tell me Kesler doesn't make your list of 1C or 2C... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonaldBrashear Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 LOL. I don't think he is a 2nd line centre. I KNOW he is a 2nd line centre. And in Canada, we put the R before the E in "Centre". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maniwaki Canuck Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 I personally think, and hope, that there will be a dog fight for the 2C position between Matthias, Bonino, Vey, Horvat and Virtanen and to a lesser extent, Richardson. Let the best player win. Yes to a dogfight, but Virtanen isn't going to be in it (1) because of his injury, (2) because of his age, and (3) because he's primarily a winger. Like others have said, this is going to be more of an LA/Boston kind of team where the bottom 3 lines aren't that far apart in terms of talent level. We are going to try to win on depth more than anything else. Under that strategy, the question of who the 2C is isn't so meaningful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 I've made a point on another thread of how well balanced LA is. It's a team based on playing 4 effective lines that can bang, score, and play good overall hockey. I've seen so many people making points about the Canucks lack of scoring and that was a key difference maker in our missing the playoffs last season. I have to disagree. Looking just now at overall team scoring last year, LA finished 26th in total goals for. 26th! Clearly playing a tight style of hockey, with good defence and goaltending wins you championships over simply scoring goals. We need to tighten up overall, as a unit, and stop having those collapses in the 3rd period like we saw happen way too many times last season. Rolling 4 hard working lines as opposed to overplaying the top 2 night in and night out will go a long way towards this. LA's centres: Kopitar-Carter-Stoll-Richards Ours: Sedin-Bonino-Richardson-Matthias The problem is well beyond how our team plays. There's a difference between not scoring a lot of goals and not being able to score a lot of goals. LA out-classes this team top-down. If LA wanted to, they could light it up quite a bit more in the regular season, but they realize that it's not about that. We need to stop pretending that systems changes matter when it's the players available to a coach that determines how well he's able to implement a system. When we have rebuilt our team and we're ready to try to win again, I hope it's built the right way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwkCam Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 I just checked out Bonino's stats for the past 3 (partial) NHL seasons @ hockeyanalysis.com and noted that pretty much across the board he has shown modest improvement from year to year at 5v5. So maybe he doesn't get the #1 unit PP time that he did last year and his PP points total at the end of the year isn't as impressive. That's pretty likely. But it's also likely that his 5v5 production increases, again, and could potentially make up the difference. I would expect roughly the same point totals from him over the course of a full season. I voted "Yes" to him being a 2nd line centre. I expect to see him do fine at that. Not "carry the team when I go into Beastmode once a month" great, but fine. The one thing that I think I will miss about Kesler is his faceoff percentage. Bonino managed a win % of 48.8 to Kesler's 52.6. What I'm really looking forward to is this time next year when (hopefully) Horvat and Bonino have to battle it out for the 2nd line C position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHatnDart Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 LA's centres: Kopitar-Carter-Stoll-Richards Ours: Sedin-Bonino-Richardson-Matthias The problem is well beyond how our team plays. There's a difference between not scoring a lot of goals and not being able to score a lot of goals. LA out-classes this team top-down. If LA wanted to, they could light it up quite a bit more in the regular season, but they realize that it's not about that. We need to stop pretending that systems changes matter when it's the players available to a coach that determines how well he's able to implement a system. When we have rebuilt our team and we're ready to try to win again, I hope it's built the right way. Don't get me wrong TO, I'm not trying to pretend our centres are even close to being on LA's level. The comparison I was trying to make was simply that LA scores by committee, different players stepping up every night. A total team effort. That's the kind of team I would want to emulate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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