Habs put lower expectations on Bonk - tsn.ca

[les_glorieux]

MONTREAL (CP) - Ever since Radek Bonk joined the Ottawa Senators for the 1994-95 season as a highly touted 18-year-old drafted third overall, he's struggled to live up to huge expectations.

But Bonk's career is being given a new life with the Montreal Canadiens after the Habs acquired him in a three-way pre-lockout deal with the Sens and the Los Angeles Kings. Head coach Claude Julien insists that Bonk is not expected to fill the scoresheet every night for the Habs, but simply to play a solid two-way game much like he has for the last 10 years.

''We don't have those same high expectations that some people seemed to put on him in Ottawa,'' Julien said Thursday after watching the second day of Habs training camp in front of another packed house in suburban Pierrefonds.

''Maybe the expectations were for something that is not his strength. When you draft players in the first round, all of a sudden people have a tendency to think he should be your leading scorer. You can't have 20 leading scorers, everybody's got to be really good at their jobs.''

Though Julien doesn't need Bonk to outscore the team's top two centres - Saku Koivu and Mike Ribeiro - it doesn't mean the 29-year-old native of Krnov, Czech Republic is not expected to contribute.

''He's a first-round pick that is, to me, an excellent two-way player, and that's what he was drafted as,'' Julien said. ''We want him to be one of the best two-way players in the league, and I think he'll be comfortable doing that."

Bonk admits that his years of continuously failing to meet those lofty goals in Ottawa began to wear on him and eventually affected the way he played the game.

''You were trying to do things that normally you don't try,'' he said. ''When you try to do something different, you don't play your role and that's when your game collapses. So I really want to concentrate on my role (in Montreal) and leave the goals to the goal-scorers.''

The Canadiens plan on using Bonk as their third-line centre, most likely between Niklas Sundstrom and fellow Czech Jan Bulis.

The main attribute that Bonk brings to the Habs is a good combination of size - he's six foot three and 213 pounds - and skill. That's something the Canadiens haven't had in a centre since Trevor Linden was traded to the Washington Capitals in 2001.

''We've always talked about getting a little bigger. Maybe it's a little less of an issue today because of the new rules, but you still need size and he gives us that,'' Julien said. ''We feel that with him, we're going to have at least three lines that can score on a more or less regular basis. So he gives us some depth.''

Bonk spent the lockout year playing in the Czech Elite League, notching nine goals and 12 assists in 33 games with Trinec and ZPS Zlin, and then took a week off to get married in July.

''My family got together and my wife's family got together, so it was a nice time to relax and get a week off,'' he said. ''But right after that it was back to training.''

Bonk said he first got excited about the prospect of playing in Montreal after receiving a call from GM Bob Gainey following the June 26, 2004, trade that brought him to the Canadiens.

''He called me right after the trade and talked to me about my role on the team, he made me feel good and feel wanted,'' he said.

The role Gainey described to Bonk suits him just fine.

''That's a role I like to play, help out both ways a little bit and be strong defensively, because defence wins the games,'' he said. ''So I'll try to do that. It's my strongest suit, so there's no reason to change.''

The Habs certainly don't have any expectations for Bonk to do that.

[TheBigRedC]

Well he is not going to be a first or even second round centre, we know that belongs to Koivu, Ribs. We can't expect him to be HUGE on the third line. I do however beleive he will be great and will do good.

[JLP]

Would anyone expect that minutes played will be about equal for the Koiviu/Ribeiro/Bonk lines?

I wonder, will Julien match Bonk with the other team's first line like he did with Juneau/Dackell before? Back then Juneau/Dackell were getting as much or more ice time than our "first" line.

[shortcat1]

In my somewhat less than knowledgable opinion, I do believe that Bob Gainey knows his stuff, knows his players, knows his direction and knows how he'd like to get there.

The trade for Bonk/Huet was well thought out, I'm sure. He may have been able to do better (we'll never know) and he will surely have been able to do worse.

On the whole, whether one thinks Bonk is overpaid or not for his role, I can only think of players like Gainey himself and Carbonneau, defensive players par excellence. Bonk will likely be closer to Carbonneau. Good on defense but still able to contribute fairly well offensively.

Players with elevated talents like that are worth 'their weight in gold'.

So, if Bonk is slotted in to do what he does best, great! If he's expected to do that in which he excells, super!

Now to the topic of this string...

To say that Montreal has 'lower expectations' of Bonk could very likely be a misreading of what was said and/or intended. When I read Julien say: ''We don't have those same high expectations that some people seemed to put on him in Ottawa,'' I look at the words 'same high expectations'. Gainey and his gang do have high expectations of Bonk. It's just that those expectations are not the same, it's that they're different.

Read the next line: ''We want him to be one of the best two-way players in the league..."

Can't get much higher than that.

:ghg::ghg::ghg:

[Roo-AH! Roo-AH!]

Those who criticize the Bonk trade overlook two things: one, it's a miracle we got that good a player for a totally unproven no-name like Garon, and two, Bonk is an especially good fit for the Habs---he adds more value to us than he would for some other teams. The reason for this is that our #1 centre is so fragile and our #2 promising but unproven. By acquiring another centre with Bonk's offensive tools and serious experience as a first-line guy, we now have someone who can step easily into the breach should Koivu go down or Ribeiro turn out to be a one-season wonder. Bonk is an insurance policy for our top lines AS WELL AS a huge upgrade on Perrault as a third-line centre. I honestly think this trade will make the Canadiens a significantly stronger team over the course of a full season. Good job, Bob.

[Edited on 2005/9/16 by Roo-AH! Roo-AH!]