Bubnick looking to expanded role

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Jimmy Bubnick knows that it’s time for him to start shouldering some of the
load.
You know what?
He can’t wait.
“I’m a lot more confident,” the Kamloops Blazers sophomore winger says. “I
can bring a lot to this team and hopefully contribute at both ends of the
ice.”
Bubnick, the fifth overall selection in the 2005 bantam draft, is feeling
especially confident after helping Canada win gold at the Ivan Hlinka
Memorial tournament in Czech Republic and Slovakia last month, the fourth
time in five years the country has won there.
“It was a tremendous experience,” says Bubnick, who had one goal in four
tournament games. “To play with the group of guys I got to play with and to
win a gold medal is memories for a lifetime.”
What made that championship even more meaningful is that Bubnick got to play
with some of his childhood pals, guys like Brandon Wheat Kings forward
Brayden Schenn and Lethbridge Hurricanes forward Carter Ashton.
“Playing with Schenner . . . we grew up together, played zone hockey, summer
hockey, you name it,” a smiling Bubnick says. “Carter Ashton . . . we played
summer hockey. We’re a really tight group and it was a tremendous experience
to play with all of them again.”
And winning the gold medal was something else altogether.
“It’s the best feeling in the world,” he says. “To come back with the gold
for your famiy and you represented your country so well . . . . it’s such a
great feeling.”
Bubnick says it also was a wonderful experience to see another part of the
world for the first time.
“Europe . . . it’s a lot different place,” he offers. “The people are great,
but the food’s a lot different. The lifestyle is a lot different, but it was
a great experience to see it all.”
Bubnick feels that playing for Team Canada head coach Bill Peters, who
guided the Spokane Chiefs to the Memorial Cup in May, also was a tremendous
experience.
“He expected the most of everyone,” Bubnick says. “He really focused on the
defence side of the game and that’s why we won gold. He had great systems
and we had real good systems play.”
And now that he’s back in Kamloops for his second WHL season he wants to
build on that golden experience and improve on last season, when he had 27
points, including nine goals, in 64 games.
It’s just all confidence, I think,” Bubnick says. “Going forward, confidence
is everything. I feel a lot better on my skates, like everything is coming
into its own this season.
“I’m really looking forward to this season.”

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca