Bonner doesn't like this feeling

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Craig Bonner has experienced something of an unfamiliar feeling over the
last few days and he hasn’t particularly enjoyed it.
Bonner, in his first season as general manager of the WHL’s Kamloops
Blazers, spent the previous six seasons on the coaching staff of the
Vancouver Giants. In those six seasons, he helped the Giants post 45 playoff
victories. They won one WHL championship series, lost another, and appeared
in two Memorial Cups, winning it all in 2007 as the host team.
Which is why he doesn’t think much of what his Blazers have done, or haven’t
done, against the Kelowna Rockets in the first round of this spring’s
playoffs. And now he is hoping that the returning Blazers will learn from
what has transpired, much the way the Giants did after losing a 2005
first-round series in six games to the Rockets.
“I hope we have some success against Kelowna in these playoffs, but,
regardless, we have to learn from it and have a sour taste by not getting
where you want to go,” Bonner told Doyle Potenteau of the Kelowna Daily
Courier prior to Game 3 on Tuesday. “That (2005) series could have gone
either way, but what made us better the next season is that we weren’t
satisfied with that. We wanted to prove that we could take the next step,
and, obviously, we did.”
The taste of that loss to Kelowna hung around like a bad cold, Bonner said.
“That summer, a lot of guys were eager and couldn’t wait to get back to
training camp with something to prove,” Bonner said. “It drives me nuts
when people tell us ‘You played hard’ or ‘Good job.’
“We’re in this sport because we’re all competitive and I don’t like to be
satisfied with teams that put in just a good effort; eventually you have
to step up and become the team that wins, and wins on a consistent basis
and isn’t satisfied with being close.”
“The bottom line is we play this game to win.”
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Bonner didn’t see the first two games of the series as he was in Regina at
the Sask First bantam tournament. He will spend most of this weekend in
Dauphin, Man., watching yet another bantam tournament.
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The Blazers have been running a poll on their website: How many games will
the Blazers’ series with the Rockets go?
There had been 817 responses by Tuesday at 4:45 p.m. Of those, 53.2 per cent
said four games, 22.2 said five, 14.9 said six and 9.7 picked seven.
By Wednesday, at 5:30 p.m., there had been 945 responses, and the
percentages, in order, were 55.0, 21.2, 13.8 and 10.1.
The poll didn’t ask those interested which team they thought might win the
series.
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On the side of the Rockets’ bus are the words: The 2008-2009 WHL season is
dedicated to the memory of Ed Chynoweth.
Yes, the Rockets, under the direction of president and general manager Bruce
Hamilton, dedicated this season before it began to the memory of Chynoweth,
the former WHL president, chairman of the board and majority owner of the
Kootenay Ice who died of cancer in April.
“This isn’t a league thing,” Hamilton said. “This is my thing . . . our
thing.
“He was my best friend.”
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When the Blazers opened the scoring in Game 4 on Wednesday night, it may
have provided a glimpse of the future.
Centre Colin Smith, the Blazers’ first pick in the 2008 bantam draft, got
the goal, his first in the WHL, on assists from wingers Brendan Ranford, the
team’s first pick in 2007, and Jimmy Bubnick, who was Kamloops’ first pick
in 2006.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com