The Rage that Is...Kevin Bieksa

Everyday he misses Byfuglien...

After last weekend's raucous display between the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks off the opening face-off, there were really only two questions; how badly did John Tortorella need a vacation from his once-powerful now mediocre Canucks and 2, what is up with Kevin Bieksa?

First, let me state that I enjoy Kevin Bieksa. He seems to be a funny guy. He jokes with the assembled sports reporters like a high school quarterback that acknowledges the local nerd squad. He looks to be the type of guy that makes funny comments after the waitress walks away and is constantly daring you to do something stupid and because it's Kevin Bieksa, you kind of want to do it.



His chiseled jaw can probably cut down sturdy trees. Lately, usually after I hear someone say that Bieksa is one of the toughest players in the game, I visualize just that; swinging KB3 (as my Canuckle-head friend Tyler calls him) by his ankles against the sturdy trunk of a spruce tree.

KB3 is a force on the Canuck blue line to be sure. On a vaunted back end that brings back memories of the fabled four force of 1985.

and lo, i stared into the face of Death...then punched it, repeatedly.

KB3 can be considered the heart of the Canucks, the glue of the team that keeps it together. He is considered one of the tougher guys on the ice at any given time, despite not really proving it in the last few years. He has a tendency to help with the face washes, the after whistle scrums but when push comes to shove, he merely...shoves back. Unless he sees an opportune time to fight someone with less of a reputation for toughness than him. He's this Canucks version of fabled tough but small 80's enforcer, Garth Butcher, except "GB5" was usually fighting someone tougher than him because that's what you did when you stood 5'11, and were the biggest player on a team littered with non-intimidating names like Skriko, Tanti, Bubla, Halward, Sundstrom and management had already dealt away Dave 'Tiger' Williams.

But back to KB3. This is what got me started on this colossal waste of time; the Flames/Canucks match with much yelling and finger pointing.
First, let's re-watch the prequel and main course of Flames/Canucks game and keep your eye on Sir Bieksa's odd choice of opponents in this old time hockey melee.

- it starts with KB3 chirping away at 4th line center Kevin Westgarth from the safety of beyond the circle, which had been going on for a while before this. Ignore Torts for a moment starting to lose his cool (there's plenty of time to watch him lose all dignity later).

- That's 6'5 Canuck rookie Kelllin Lain preparing for his 1st NHL game and draw against 6ft4 Kevin Westgarth who has been spending the last minute listening to KB3 jaw at him. Westgarth once had 18 fights in the AHL, but only 2 in 2013-14. Apparently he's a pretty tough guy and it's probable all he wanted to do was line up against the Canucks' top center and feel proud of the only time he was on the ice during the national anthem.

- Then in what some people say is Sir Lancelot-like gallantry, Bieksa goes up to the face-off circle and takes the draw in place of Lain, still chirping away at Westgarth who probably just wants to find out whatever happened in the Bourne trilogy. Inside he is probably crying that his 1st ever opening face-off is being treated as such a travesty; that he shouldn't even be in the NHL, much less taking an opening face-off against what he thought was going to be one of the Sedins (whichever one plays center).

-Immediately, Westgarth drops his gloves, guaranteeing an immediate spot in the box where he was going to feel shame. Oddly, KB3's gloves seem to be bolted on. He doesn't even drop his stick which is peculiar as it fully appeared he was going to do the Man-Dance with Westgarth only seconds before.

-Instead, he clings to Westgarth until the referee breaks them up and everyone's attention turns to some much better entertainment; Brian McGratton and Tom Sestito. You can see one of the only Europeans on the ice, Ladislav Smid (the other being the Flames goalie) also wandering over to watch.

-Then KB jumps him - you can watch it slower at the 2m mark.

Now is when i put forth the hypothesis that will piss all the Canuckleheads I know; Bieksa is the worst kind of fighter; he's an opportunist.

He's like that cool guy at the party who always winds up hitting on the girl that's drunk out of her mind and needs to get home an hour ago. He's the guy that sneaks french fries off some other guy's plate when they're not looking. If he was a singer he'd be Rick Springfield, right when he wrote the song 'Jessie's Girl'.

When it comes researching KB's recent fighting history, the one thing that stands out is there is no real 'name' opponents on there. Including last night, here are KB's last 10 opponents with some telling quotes from the hockey play-by-play. You might notice a pattern...

First KB has had 43 fighting majors as of this writing and has been in the league for 10 years. In his younger years he's gone against some pretty tough guys (Jordan Tootoo, Matt Barnaby, Travis Moen) which probably gave him the reputation of being a bit of a 'fighter. He's good defenceman and often considered the 'heart' of the Canucks, probably only just behind Ryan Kesler and Trevor Linden in terms of...well...not doing so well in fights.
After watching these videos, I have to say that Bieksa could also be considered a Claude Lemieux type figure on the Canucks, if that wasn't already taken by Alexandre Burrows.

I hope that doesn't start some type of intense rivalry that will last for a decade...

and then he goes and does something like this...

A big shout-out to hockey's best fight site; http://www.hockeyfights.com/ for all the easy to access videos.


EDM's Ryan Jones   'now the jersey is up, Kevin's in a little trouble... (linesmen break them up)... now the jersey's coming back down, Kevin doesn't want to quit but he's going to be forced to'

CGY Ladislav Smid  'there's Bieksa and Westgarth and the funny thing is they never went'

NYR Brian Boyle   'Bieksa's a pretty good fighter, Boyle's not known to be much of a fighter...he doesn't back down from anyone but he's not a real good fighter...'

LAK Matt Greene   Greene gives him a quick hip toss to the ice after KB3 cuffs Quick in the back of the head. Not much said...

SAN Andrew Desjardins 'Kevin Bieksa picks his spots when he's going to do stuff like this' ... 'very surprised at the strength of Desjardins'

2013 fights

ANA Matt Belesky  'he has picked Kevin Bieksa, one of the toughest guys in the league and he pops him, puts him down on his knees. Bieksa gets back up and again Belesky with a short right brings him back to the ice'

SAN Andrew Desjardins after a Bieksa late hit on Scott Gomez 'you're seeing one of the many reasons many people, many players across the national hockey league hate the vancouver canucks'.

MIN Nick Johnson  to be fair to KB, he owned Johnson here in a half-hearted affair, letting him go when he was defenseless. So, fair play to him.

CAL Tom Kostopolous 'this is a rematch from last season...it did not end well for Bieksa'

NYR Brandon Dubinsky 'Dubinsky was in a defenseless position when Bieksa came hard from the other side'
CHI Jamal Myers 'Watch Bieksa back off...then when Myers started shaking his arm (to get rid of an elbow pad) Bieksa went on the attack'.

CHI Viktor Stalberg 'Bieksa just tackled Stalberg and now is feeding him'

CHI Troy Brower 'Brower a big right hand, drops Bieksa! Bieksa might have got one in then ate one or two from Brower'

SAN Patrick Marleau they (the sharks) love it, they know he's not a fighter but he steps in there with Bieksa who's got a lot of experience in that department'


Wow. That was fun.  And time-consuming.