David Bonk taking it all in stride

David (Dave) Bonk is playing in his second season in the Asia League. In his first season he contended for the championship, but ultimately his team was unsuccessful. Last season he led his team in points and shots on goal. He was a +44 over 36 games. In his second season he's hoping for more success for himself and his team. So far he's on pace with 22 points after 13 games. Eurohockey recently got an opportunity to speak with him about his experience in the Asia League and the other Leagues he's played in over the years.

Eurohockey: Tell us a litttle bit about yourself
David Bonk: I'm from brandon manitoba, played junior in the USHL, went to northern michigan unviversity. Kind of had injuries and didn't do too well in university and just went one year to play and see how it goes and kind of had some options so I was still young and I'll play another year and the next thing you know this is my ninth year. It's been better the last three or four years, had some success. That's how I ended up here.

EH:This is your second year in the Asia league, how do you feel at the start of this season compared to a year ago?
DB: Personally I feel good, I feel in pretty good shape. I kind of knew what to expect more this year, they train pretty hard so you come in August you gotta be ready to go. So I think our team, similar personnel, like we've had lots of injuries to key guys this year like Fuj being out he's like our MVP goalie and Hiroki was suspended for 10 games. Which he's probably one of the best, if not the best Japanese forwards in the game, maybe just the best all around. He was my line mate last year, so missing him and Tako was out. So yeah we got a lot of injuries but we're competing, I think we're getting better every day and we're kind of looking for a little spark to turn it around.

EH: You've spent the bulk of your career in the ECHL, but you've also been to Germany, Netherlands, Norway and now Asia. Are there any major differences that stand-out for you?
DB: North America is different really than any country in Europe. Just with the smaller rink and the way it's played. I'm not that big of a guy, I think in a lot of ways I fit in sometimes better in North America. Just it's a lot more little plays less time, little chips, I think that's my strength, little pass here, little play. I'm not a guy who can usually pick it up and go end to end or something. Which it's definitely more of a skating game in Europe. It's funny, a lot of times it depends how you fit in with the team.I feel like I struggled in Germany but our team did pretty well for what we had and other years it didn't feel like I was playing any better but more goals are going in and stuff so it's hard to compare, it's more of a skating game it's more wide open, more time. Maybe in North America maybe it's a little more physical. Here, it's definitely a skating game. They're really skilled. I think the biggest thing they're lacking, just it's growing, it's.. just having the coaching and everything at such a young age. Sometimes you feel they want everything to be very structured and you gotta have a system but at the same time hockey is not like football, run this play and it's over. You gotta adapt to situations, so I think that's a constant with trying to ingrain that this is what we want to do on our forecheck but sometimes you're going to have to read and see what happens.

EH: Where have you enjoyed playing the most?
DB: Every year you play with great guys, great people. Bakersfield was nice because we were comfortable there, Holland was probably the most fun because it's a pretty laid back league, you practice at night, you had a lot of time to just tour around and we'd just gotten married. So the first time in Europe, so all of that was new. On top of that we had the best team in that league and we ended up winning the championship. So any time you can win like that. Holland was probably the most memorable, probably because it was our first year over. But there's good things in Germany, Crimmitschau is a small east German town, but the fans are awesome there. You win a couple games, big games, derby games, it's like you won the Stanley Cup. Then at the same time, if you lose a couple games it's like "oh my god".

EH: Last year you guys made it to the final, and started well, but the Eagles came roaring back. Given that final, and how the Eagles are doing thus far this season, what is your game plan when you next meet them?
DB: Well obviously, you gotat just bring your A game against them. They're a team that can win when they don't play their best, cause they're so deep. They have so many good Asian born players, Japanese guys and then they have good imports. Just biggest thing is their depth. They can come at you with four lines. So you gotta be ready to compete. We gotta get good goaltending, as far as being an import you know it's important that we step up and really contribute offensively in those games, because you gotta take advantage of your powerplays against them. Things like that, any team is beatable and I think we showed that last year, even though we ended up losing. We won that first game, we lost one in OT, we lost one 4-3. You gotta give yourself a chance, but it's tough against them because they can have an off night and still be good. We gotta play our best to have a chance.

EH: How do find playing on a Japanese team. You have another imported Canadian and a couple of Japanese Canadians on the team, how about the other guys? Do they speak some English? have they made you feel welcome?
DB: They're great guys, awesome guys, really friendly. Never been somewhere, obviously maybe I don't understand everything, where I felt like there wasn't really any negative guys or anything. Seems like everyone is sort of pulling for the greater good. There's not really any egos. As far as the English, not so many guys speak. Obviously in Germany, or Norway or Holland, pretty much everyone speaks a little bit. There are some guys on our team who really don't understand anything, and I've only had conversations like "konichiwa, genki desu ka" but you can tell they're great guys and they like to joke around and it helps for sure having a Canadian coach. There is always going to be stuff lost in translation but at least when you're dealing with him you know exactly what's going on so that helps.

EH: Do you have any personal goals you'd like to achieve this season?
DB: Personally I don't try to set number goals or anything like that. You just want to contribute every night, I think it's the biggest thing, the most important thing, being an import. Really on any team in Europe or over here is that you want to feel like you are pulling your weight. I'd like to at least come close to my numbers last year. I feel like I've got a good opportunity here, play a lot of power play time, play a lot of minutes. But most importantly, and I know everyone says this, team success is the most important. If you're held pointless but the team wins it's still better than getting a couple goals but the team loses 6-2. Ideally you just want to contribute every night.

EH: What's your take on the puck behind the net, full change. Have you seen that in a lot of other leagues? Do you think it would drastically change the game here if the teams changed on the fly more often?
DB: I think a lot of it is, what I talked about before, just needing that structure. Getting organized, that's one way to do it. Just make sure you can get at least four guys changed before you're breaking it out. We try to push if there is an opportunity to quick up it, if they're changing or something do that, but a lot of times maybe it's just easiest to relax take a minute get everyone organized, and then go from there. I think on a smaller ice surface, other teams change better. There's not as much opportunity to do that. I don't mind it, sometimes I'm coming out, I'm like "Let's go, let's go, let's go" but as long as we can get it together and make a good play breaking out I don't mind it. At least everyone gets on the same page and gets organized.

EH: Is there a particular play, or goal that stands out in your time in the Asia league?
DB: Well obviously, when Suzuki tied it up against Oji in game 4 when we were down 3-0 with about 11 minutes left, and we scored 3 goals with maybe about two and a half minutes left, that was the most excited I think I've been in a long time. Just because it felt like even though maybe they deserved to win maybe we had the hockey gods on our side. Everyone was fired up and there was so much emotion there, we thought "geeze we've gone to over time we just need one good shot and we've got game 5 and who knows what can happen". That's probably the biggest goal that stands out in my mind. Even though we ended up losing the game, just the excitement in Nikko. My wife said that was one of the loudest and most exciting things she remembers in my career. It was pretty exciting that one.

EH: Thank you very much for your time

 

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