Bonner concerned about future, not the past

From The Daily News of Thursday, April 24, 2008 . . .

Craig Bonner was saying all the right things Tuesday afternoon.
He talked about changing “the culture, identity and work ethic of this
organization.” He spoke about having a team capable of competing on a
nightly basis. He mentioned making players accountable on and off the ice.
“The sooner the players figure out that they’re not running the show around
here the better off they’re going to be,” he said. “Because it’s not
happening. . . .”
A lot of what was said by the new general manager of the WHL’s Kamloops
Blazers as he took office has been said by others who have occupied that
office, and others who have coached here, since the dawning of the new
century.
They’re all gone now. The ship belongs to Bonner now and it will be up to
him to try and raise it from the depths of the WHL.
In three or four conversations with Bonner since late last week, he said one
thing that stood out above all the rest of his pronouncements.
It was late last week and the 35-year-old Bonner hadn’t yet agreed to accept
the five-year contract offer that had been made by the Blazers’ ownership
group. Oh, he knew that he was going to accept it; after all, being a GM,
here or somewhere else, is what he has wanted to do for a number of years
now. He just wanted a couple of days to think about it, to make sure he had
left no stone unturned.
“One thing about me,” he said, “is that I don’t live in the past. I won’t
live in the past. I don’t care what’s gone on here before now.”
And in everything he said Tuesday not once did he reference the past.
Bonner is bound and determined not to allow the past, recent or otherwise,
to influence him. He is well aware of the success this franchise once had —
he was, in fact, on the 1992 Memorial Cup-winning team, although he was on
crutches at season’s end — but he also is well aware that 1995, the year of
the last Memorial Cup championship, may as well have been a million years
ago.
He knows and respects Bob Brown, Don Hay, Ken Hitchcock, Tom Renney, Marc
Habscheid et al but he recognizes them for what they are — ghosts of past
successes, all of them gone and not likely to return, at least not in the
winter months.
That’s why, when asked about the possibility of Habscheid returning, Bonner
did his best to put out the fire.
“I coached with Marc here and Marc Habscheid is a great coach, there’s no
doubt about it,” Bonner said. “If he was available I would love to bring him
in. The fact of the matter is that he is under contract to the Boston
Bruins. He seems quite happy being with his kids and doing the family thing.
. . .”
(Habscheid, the Bruins’ associate coach last season, was fired by Boston
last summer and spent this winter at his ranch near Swift Current.)
Bonner then summed it all up: “The reality is I don’t think he has any plans
of coming back to Kamloops.”
So with that out of the way — never mind that Habscheid is said by the
fanatics to be building homes in Juniper, Batchelor Heights and Campbell
Creek — who will be the next head coach here?
Bonner isn’t saying, perhaps because he doesn’t know.
Still, there have been hints.
The next head coach will be someone with experience in junior A or major
junior because Bonner believes that coaching at this level is extremely
demanding. It will be someone with a solid track record as a teacher because
the team that comes out of training camp in September is going to be young
and facing an uphill climb.
The new head coach will be someone who, at this point in time, is looking to
stay in one place for more than a couple of seasons, someone who is prepared
to make a commitment to the team and to the community.
The next head coach will have to be an excellent communicator and must
understand exactly how important structure is to a hockey team at this
level.
“You can’t just have structure on the ice,” Bonner said. “You have to have
structure in workouts, in school, in the dressing room. You’re their
guardian for nine months.”
Bonner is going to have to live with the whispers about him not having
experience as a general manager and only getting the job because he and
part-owner Darryl Sydor are pals.
Bonner will be able to handle that because he has the job security that
comes with a a five-year contract, one year for each owner perhaps.
Talk with Bonner for a while and it becomes evident that he knows precisely
what he wants. It is to be hoped that he is given the autonomy he will need
to implement his rebuilding plan.
He has a lot of recent experience with a winning organization. He comes here
after five seasons with the Vancouver Giants who, with him on staff, three
times finished with more than 100 points and played in two Memorial Cup
tournaments, winning one of them.
Working under general manager Scott Bonner, his older brother, and head
coach Don Hay, he learned what it takes to win and how to build a winner.
At one point Tuesday, as Bonner was making the rounds, he came upon Mark
Hall, Alex Rodgers and Tyler Shattock, three forwards who have played here
for two seasons.
After the perfunctory greetings and inquiries about school work, Bonner
offered: “Make sure you come to camp in shape.”
The building, it seems, has begun.

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca.