Defender Oliver Bonk will once again play for Canada at the upcoming U20 World Cup. A year ago, he accidentally sent the Czech Republic to the semi-finals, which some compatriots could not forgive him for. The unfortunate’s father, former Czech center Radek Bonk, has now sharply defined himself towards them.
Three assists and four plus points in five games. As one of the youngest players in the team, Bonk stood his ground at the last world championship.
Still, he ended up being the target of anger, reading one angry message after another on his Instagram account.
In the quarter-finals against the Czech Republic, a country whose passport he owns as well as the Canadian one, with the score 2:2 a few seconds before the end of regular time, he rushed to the decisive moment – he deflected Jakub Štancl’s shot beyond the reach of his own goalkeeper.
Favored Canada, which at that time had four consecutive finals appearances, was scalded by the premature end.
Some Canadian fans took their anger out on poor Bonk, whose Instagram was flooded with indiscriminate comments. Therefore, the defender preferred to temporarily switch the account to private mode, in other words, he limited public access.
“Obviously we have freedom of speech, so you can say what you want, but the abuse he faced…,” the player’s father Radek Bonk, who recently spoke to the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, did not understand. “Maybe it was from adults, maybe it wasn’t. They feel brave behind a keyboard or on the phone. I think it should be possible to find these guys and punch them in the face.”
“Everybody was disappointed because Canada lost, I understand that, but some of the comments were pretty damn absurd,” added Bonk.
He watched the fateful quarter-finals directly in the Swedish venue, so he saw his son right after the game.
“He was devastated, he said something like the loss was because of him. I told him he didn’t have a chance to do anything better. There were four mistakes before that run. We had the puck and lost it. A couple of guys went to change at the wrong time. He he started the attack flawlessly, the puck just bounced off him. When it hit him, he felt better,” recounted Bonk.
After returning to the overseas junior team of the OHL, the young back showed that the unfortunate streak did not tie his hands. He collected points by even bigger handfuls than before the championship.
“I was a little worried about how he would react,” the father admitted. “But he played the best hockey of his life. I thought, what a fighter he is. Some guys take things like that more than others, but it didn’t phase him at all. I was so proud of him.”
The 19-year-old Bonk, the 22nd player in the 2023 NHL draft, already has a rookie contract in his pocket with Philadelphia.
In the current season, however, he starts again in the junior team, where he collected 21 points (6+15) in 24 games for London.
While he would be practically certain of a place in the Czech top 20, despite his participation last year, he had to earn a nomination for the Canadian top 20 in the preparatory camp.
This time, he is not expecting a “trip” to Sweden, but the home WC in Ottawa, where he was born and where his father spent most of his brilliant career in the Senators jersey.
The young Bonk also grew up playing hockey in the country, specifically in Kopřivnice, thanks to his father’s involvement in nearby Třinec, but not long enough to represent the Czech Republic.
He already defended the colors of Canada at the junior Hlinka Gretzky Cup 2022, where he also commented on the golden success in Czech.
Now, after a year-old crash, he will repeat the Junior World Championship, the most prestigious youth tournament. He may encounter the Czech Republic again first in the playoffs, as they play in the second group.
“Last year we maybe thought a little bit that we had it in the bag. That it was going to be easier than it actually was. So we have to be more competitive and better prepared,” he commented recently on how to get Canada back on top.
