...so when Bonino went down wrist injury during the Ducks' win over Philadelphia in late January, coach Bruce Boudreau exercised caution, listing the team's third leading scorer on the team's Injured Reserved list and shutting him down for the final four games before the Olympic break.
A small sample size to be sure, but the results were eerily similar to last season's sub .500 funk when Bonino ripped up a hamstring playing soccer, Anaheim going 8-9-3 during his 20 game absence after a white-hot 17-3-3 start to their season - so when the Ducks went 1-3-0 during his brief stint on the list before the break, including being shut out twice, it seemed to be far from coincidental.
"We were at a distinct disadvantage when we lost him for six weeks last year" Boudreau said when announcing that he had placed Bonino on the IR. "He's not feeling really good. We want to make sure he's better and there's four games before the Olympic break."
The 25-year-old centerman has already set career marks in just about every offensive category there is and is third in scoring on the Anaheim roster, finding twine 16 times while dishing out 24 dimes for 40 points in 56 games played.
In reality, Anaheim's dreadful performances in leading up to the break have been ongoing since mid-January, the Ducks following up a season-high eight-game winning streak by losing six of eleven - a funk made even more disturbing when considering that five of those loses were at home, where they had been invincible for the majority of the season...
...so obviously their issues range beyond Bonino's injury - but the good news is that Anaheim still sports the best record in all of hockey and face a cupcake schedule down the stretch.
http://www.sportsinjuryalert.com/2014/02/ducks-nick-bonino-set-to-return-from-ir.html#.UwjT2YUcq58
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