Bonner, Smith sticking to game plan

Craig Bonner could only shrug his shoulders and move on . . . to Dauphin.
Bonner is finishing up his first year as general manager of the WHL’s
Kamloops Blazers, a team whose season came to an inglorious end on Wednesday
when it was beaten 5-3 by the visiting Kelowna Rockets.
That victory gave the Rockets a sweep of the first-round playoff series and,
really, it wasn’t that close. This also was the 13th straight victory by the
Rockets over the Blazers this season, with seven of those coming right in
the home boys’ lair, Interior Savings Centre.
Bonner knew when he took over as general manager of the team with which he
won the 1992 Memorial Cup title that he had his work cut out for him. This
season has shown him that he is going to need a bigger shovel.
But he is nothing if not a realist. And what he witnessed this season didn’t
surprise him in the least.
“I felt it was really important to make the playoffs with a young team
because it was important for the players to experience the playoffs and the
highs and lows,” Bonner said Thursday afternoon from the warm confines of
Winnipeg International Airport. “Hopefully the way things went leaves a
bitter taste.”
Before leaving on his latest scouting trek, this one to a bantam tournament
in Dauphin, which is a couple of hours north of Brandon and is the hometown
of former Flin Flon Bombers forward Wayne Hawrysh, Bonner was able to
conduct player interviews. He did some late Wednesday night, the others
yesterday morning.
“I was happy to hear guys weren’t satisfied, that they were bitter about the
end,” he said.
When he took over the job, Bonner said it was going to be a marathon. What
he witnessed this season hasn’t caused him to rethink the plan.
“When you get into the season, it’s hard to be patient because we’re all
competitive . . . and we want to win right away,” he said. “But you have to
step back and evaluate.”
Bonner has been to the top of the hill as a player and as an assistant
GM/assistant coach. He has two Memorial Cup rings, the most recent from two
springs ago when he was with the Vancouver Giants. He knows what it takes to
win it all. He knows, too, that the team he found when he got here had
alarmingly few of the necessary ingredients.
Meanwhile, Barry Smith, the freshman head coach of the Blazers, was true to
form when it had ended.
Ever the optimist, ever the head coach who sometimes is blinded by the
competitive flame that burns so intensely, when it was all over Smith was
talking about bounces.
As in, his Blazers didn’t get enough of them.
He referenced a play from Game 4 in which Kelowna defenceman Tyson Barrie,
with the Blazers leading 3-2, shot wide from the point and forward Ian Duval
banged home the rebound at 8:21 of the second period.
“Pucks go their way. Barrie shoots the puck wide; the puck comes right back
out on the back door. Bang!” Smith said. “When the puck bounces . . .
whatever . . . their skill guys got the pucks . . . when they got the bounce,
it went to the 50-goal scorer and they buried them.
“We’d get the bounce and it’s in between our legs instead of on our sticks.
But that’s about playing hard and doing the right thing. You create those
bounces.
“The bounces went their way because they work hard and they get some
bounces. . . . You create your luck; you create your bounces by working hard
and they did that.”
This season was about more than bounces, though.
It was about an organization with a new general manager, a new head coach
and two new assistant coaches, Scott Ferguson and Geoff Smith — none of whom
had experience in their new roles.
It was about a head coach who came to the Blazers after a few seasons as an
assistant coach with the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks. He had to make the
adjustment from dealing with men to working with teenagers. And he had to
learn how to run his own bench, something he hadn’t done in more than 10
seasons.
Yes, he made mistakes. He struggled to find playing time for backup
goaltender Jon Groenheyde. He didn’t always make good use of his timeouts.
He was still trying to find consistent line combinations when the season
ended. And, like so many inexperienced head coaches, he spent too much time
and energy trying to work the game officials.
He stood there late Wednesday and admitted that the season was all about
learning.
“We have to use this as a tool to learn where we’re going,” he said. “We’re
a young team and made some strides . . .but obviously there’s a lot more to
go . . . a lot farther to go.”
There were positives, too. No one dedicated more time and energy to the
cause and, in doing so, Smith showed the organization what it is going to
take to get out of these doldrums. He brought structure to a team that was
in a state of disarray after the wasted season that was 2007-08.
He took a team that had won 27 games and drove it to 33 victories. For that
alone, he should get some coach-of-the-year votes.
More than anything else, though, he brought a fierce desire to compete to an
organization that has taken a lot of lumps over the last 10 years. And he
stood there Wednesday night, his team having been beaten 13 straight times
by the despised and strutting rivals to the south, and he let it be known
that he was ready to let Kelowna try for 14. Any time. Any place.
“We didn’t really play our best. I didn’t think we did,” Smith said, before
begrudgingly admitting that “yeah, they’re a good team.”
You got the feeling that he was ready to open training camp in the morning.

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