Bondra bound for world juniors
Giants must carry on for a while without their Slovakian leading goal scorer
The Vancouver Giants could use some goals for Christmas. Too bad Radovan Bondra is heading away for the holidays.
Bondra, who has tallied a teamhigh 17 goals this season, is slated to leave Dec. 16 to join the Slovakian squad preparing for the world junior championships, said Giants general manager Glen Hanlon.
The world juniors are being held in Toronto and Montreal. They start Dec. 26 and the tournament finale is Jan. 5. That means Bondra, 19, could miss seven Vancouver games. That’s a potential punch to the gut for a Giants team fighting to get back into the playoff hunt. Fellow winger Ty Ronning is next on the team’s goals list with 10.
“I like that in his good games, he’s very noticeable. And I like that on nights when he doesn’t have his ‘A’ game, he still finds a way to help out,” Hanlon said of Bondra.
“There’s a feeling now that when he gets the puck in certain spots, it’s definitely a goal.”
Hanlon, the former Vancouver Canucks netminder, has coached extensively in Europe, including a stint with the Slovakian national men’s team. He predicted that the 6-foot-5, 221-pound Bondra would take a step forward in this his second season with the Giants.
Bondra, a 2015 Chicago Blackhawks fifth-round pick, showed flashes of this last season, but it wasn’t nearly as consistent. He wound up with 15 goals in 58 regular season games in his WHL rookie campaign.
He’s not keen yet on doing interviews in English. He looks considerably more comfortable even around the rink, though.
“Understanding the language makes your life so much more enjoyable,” said Hanlon. “Everybody takes that for granted until they experience it.
“When you can’t speak, you can’t laugh. You can’t get angry. You can’t get anything. You can go a whole day without opening your mouth.”
Bondra, a forward, is a little like a left-handed Cody Franson, the Giants’ star defenceman from the 2007 Memorial Cup team. He’s long, lanky and shoots the puck like an NHLer already.
On good nights, Bondra’s much more involved physically than he was a season ago.
“Most races for pucks are five strides … from the faceoff dot to the side boards, from the front of the net to the back boards. If he can gain a step there, he’ll really have a chance,” Hanlon said of Bondra making the NHL.
The Giants’ schedule during the world juniors includes two games against the Everett Silvertips, who could be missing goalie Carter Hart and defenceman Noah Juulsen to Team Canada. There’s also a tilt versus the Kamloops Blazers, who could have goalie Connor Ingram on Canada’s squad.