Connect with us
[the_ad id="89560"]

Bruce Dowbiggin

Best of 2022: How Kevin Bieksa Conquered HNIC

Published

7 minute read

The recent news that the NHL is contemplating an 84-game regular season is testament to the bankruptcy of ideas at NHL HQ in New York City. Perhaps they felt it necessary after the shellacking the league absorbed for its “non-binary” proclamation. See here. And its inept handling of sexual abuse scandals the past few years. Here.

A little red meat perhaps for those who still tune in to watch the hockey, not the Woke lectures? Whatever. If adding a few more meaningless regular season contests to what is already an interminable winter slog is all they’ve got you have to wonder if anyone has turned the calendar on the 21st century Chez Gary.

The league’s principal TV mouthpiece has also contracted a case of intersectional fever. Hockey Night In Canada is fully vested in the latest progressive talking points from trans inclusion to equity pay arguments. Like all Canadian broadcasters it purports to be a good corporate citizen by toting up WEF bonafides.

But the venerable TV franchise has changed for the better in the past couple of ears with the addition of former NHL defenceman Kevin Bieksa. As we wrote here last April, the irreverent product of Grimsby, Ont., has made the show about him— not vice versa. The only problem might be that he gets bored of the format or flying back-and-forth to California all the time.

Like Ozymandias lying stolidly for centuries in the windswept desert, Hockey Night In Canada has endured. Okay, maybe not that long. But it seems like the format, the tone, the zeitgeist of the program has been locked in for as long as memory serves.

That tone was serious, sombre, even a touch grim. As the technology of the show soared and danced, the editorial drift was rooted on the spot. Levity? Humour? Irony? Nope. In part, this was due to the lengthy reign of Don Cherry and Ron Maclean over the editorial. It was Grandpa Simpson’s fierce-old-man-cursing-clouds leavened with a highly-sentimental-pensioner. 

If there were any levity it escaped our attention. But there is evidence that with Cherry gone and Maclean playing Goodbye Mr. Chips that a sea change is occurring on at least two fronts. One is the emergence of former Canuck Kevin Bieksa as the new tone-setter of the editorial. 

Bieksa— whom Cherry always malapropped as Bieska— was a good quote for years in the dressing rooms of the Canucks and Ducks. Among the many gems that filled reporters’ notebooks was this one on the sex appeal of the Sedins: “Two good looking red heads with goatees, how can you resist?”

But as we’ve seen too often to count, locker-room wit can melt like the snow under the hot lights of TV. Yet Bieksa has been a moveable feast. His insouciance with media has become his ragging on the fellow panelists during intermissions that used to be as much fun as skating in July. (Wait, they’re doing that this year!)

In particular, Bieksa’s ongoing banter over reporter Elliotte Friedman’s garish wardrobe and hockey experience are must-watch. (Friedman gets in his own shots.) What he says is rarely as important as how he says it. Lippy, sarcastic, sardonic, disruptive. 

Bieksa told journalist Lisa Dillman that his inexperience might be a bonus. “I feel like I came out of the gate, raw and almost naïve to everything, but I thought that really helped me. I don’t know if that makes any sense… You don’t get sucked into the everyday lingo and what other people are doing.”

The former Canuck is also good on the whiteboard stuff, although the panels have others who can talk shop. He talks the Cherry Code of honour without any of the accompanying blood lust. Sunday he was on point showing how the Rangers lulled Tampa’s Alex Killorn into cheating in the defensive zone, leading to a New York goal.  

There’s no going back since Bieksa joined the crew in 2020. The younger iteration of the crew has moved it into less formal territory. HNIC is no longer a church, it’s a supper club.  Bieksa is now the must-watch for his hockey insight, but even more so for his “what will he say now?”quality.

That candour might frighten some in the upper reaches of management— who carefully guard the brand as a 1960s artifact.  But it means that for the first time since Cherry left the show has a reason to stay tuned in for intermissions.

Sign up today for Not The Public Broadcaster newsletters. Hot takes/ cool slants on sports and current affairs. Have the latest columns delivered to your mail box. Tell your friends to join, too. Always provocative, always independent.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author was nominated for the BBN Business Book award of 2020 for Personal Account with Tony Comper. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book with his son Evan Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx

 

BRUCE DOWBIGGIN Award-winning Author and Broadcaster Bruce Dowbiggin's career is unmatched in Canada for its diversity and breadth of experience . He is currently the editor and publisher of Not The Public Broadcaster website and is also a contributor to SiriusXM Canada Talks. His new book Cap In Hand was released in the fall of 2018. Bruce's career has included successful stints in television, radio and print. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster for his work with CBC-TV, Mr. Dowbiggin is also the best-selling author of "Money Players" (finalist for the 2004 National Business Book Award) and two new books-- Ice Storm: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Vancouver Canucks Team Ever for Greystone Press and Grant Fuhr: Portrait of a Champion for Random House. His ground-breaking investigations into the life and times of Alan Eagleson led to his selection as the winner of the Gemini for Canada's top sportscaster in 1993 and again in 1996. This work earned him the reputation as one of Canada's top investigative journalists in any field. He was a featured columnist for the Calgary Herald (1998-2009) and the Globe & Mail (2009-2013) where his incisive style and wit on sports media and business won him many readers.

Follow Author

Bruce Dowbiggin

From Hall of Fame To Hall of Shame? Shohei Faces Banishment

Published on

Holy Backtrack, Batman. With MLB Opening Day— the North American, not Korean version— days away, the sport’s biggest star is up to the bill of his new L.A. Dodgers cap in gambling controversy. Turns out that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s closest companion since coming to North America in 2018, has committed “massive theft” and stolen a reported sum of at least $4.5 million to pay off debts to an alleged illegal bookmaker.

At least that is one story. There are others. After the Dodgers’ first of two games in Seoul last week, Mizuhara admitted that his buddy Ohtani had “loaned” him $4.5 million to pay off a gambling debt which has a paper trail to California and possibly Japan. Sooner than you can say Cy Young, Ohtani’s lawyers said, nay, nay… he didn’t lend anything to Ippei, and Ohtani is severing his relationship with him.

(Which is just as well, because the Dodgers were firing Mizuhara already.) Then Mizuhara did a complete reversal, telling ESPN that Ohtani had no knowledge of his gambling debts, and that Ohtani had not transferred money to a bookmaking operation in California, where there is no legal gambling. About this time someone got to Mizuhara and told him it might be a good idea if he 黙って (Japanese for damare or STFU).

Friday, reports emerged showing large amounts being bet in Japan on games played by Ohtani and his lousy performance in those games. While no one has been able to say the bets were placed by the pitcher or those around him, there are a few games that look highly suspicious. Monday, Ohtani sought to distance himself from his former buddy.

What is undeniable is that payoff money came from Ohtani’s account. And that for almost five years, a gambling addict had complete access to the inner workings of the California Angels dressing room. What injury insights and insider knowledge might Ippei Mizuhara have traded for gambling debts or favours? MLB and the police say they are investigating, but if it can be shown the Ohtani had any betting interest in his own team or other MLB games he will— based on the Joe Jackson and Pete Rose examples— be banned for life from MLB.

Also, are these stories exposing Ohtani about something else? Some believe the allegations may be revenge for Ohtani signing a friendly contract that backloads most of his compensation till after he retires— thereby depriving tax-hungry California of hundreds of millions in taxes.  Finally, why was MLB, which purports to have a security department, caught flat-footed here, and why are they only “gathering information”? Not a good look on any of these fronts for a business already struggling to re-capture lost audience share.

For those who like comedy we can only hope this mess has the entertainment value of the NHL when its greatest star ever was caught gambling with a shady character outside Philly. Okay, Wayne Gretzky never bet on sports , which was then illegal everywhere in North America outside Las Vegas. Never. Perish the thought.

When the Gretzky story broke in 2006 we were informed by people throughout hockey—including many sniffers in the sports media who still have jobs— that it was Wayne’s wife Janet and his pal Rich Tocchet who had the gambling problem. The walls around No. 99 went up quickly to protect him. There was concern about Gretzky’s eligibility to manage the 2006 Olympic mens hockey team.

VANCOUVER, BC – OCTOBER 20: Head coach Wayne Gretzky and assistant coach Rick Tocchet (R) of the Phoenix Coyotes discuss a play during their game against the Vancouver Canucks at General Motors Place on October 20, 2005 in Vancouver, Canada. The Canucks defeated the Coyotes 3-2. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images)

For weeks the police and the NHL did a dance around the Gretzkys, placing most of the blame on Tocchet as the point man who financed and placed bets. Much was made of No. 99’s simon-pure record, even though wiretaps later showed his knowledge of the scheme and of Janet’s “involvement”.

Janet, who was taking the heat for hubby, later whined to Chatelaine Magazine. “It’s unfair that Wayne and I have had a great marriage for 20 years and a nice family, and the people in the media could care less if they are trying to cause friction in your marriage, trouble in your family, and make your kids feel a certain way. That was a little hurtful, because it was like, ‘Why? What have we ever done to you?’”

Um, as the wife of a hockey legend, you were, at the very least, dealing with illegal gambling when any such activity at the time was strictly verboten in the NHL and with the cops. That’s what you did. Your marriage had nothing to do with it.

Just to prove that Gretzky is not the type to get involved with the sleaze of gambling he immediately signed up to advertise sports betting as soon as it became legal in 2022. He’s done commercials with Connor McDavid yukking it up over parlays and teasers. He’s the hockey face of legal gambling. But he’s not a gambler.

This story was never going to be told straight in 2006 with Gretzky’s name involved. He’s just too big in Canada to be taken down for a silly betting scheme with a few goombahs in Tony Soprano’s old Jersey neighbourhood. You could tell by the indignation of Team Gretzky in the day that they were calling in their markers… er, discussing the issue with friendly media on burying the story.

MLB can just hope that it has enough lackeys of its own in the press and friends in the DOJ to keep the Japanese Babe Ruth out of trouble. But the bases are full and the runners will be in motion with the next pitch

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.

Continue Reading

Bruce Dowbiggin

Don’t Bother Asking. Justin’s Only Got One Daddy Now.

Published on

Why did almost 600 people cram a hotel room in Charlottetown Sunday to hear speakers (including former RCMP and CSIS employees) describe Chinese efforts to buy up their land and influence the political process in PEI and Canada? In a province as sleepy as PEI, 600 people travelling from every corner of the province on their own dime to attend a Sunday political rally is the equivalent of the Truckers’ Convoy.

Then why, say organizers, were there no local CBC or CTV reporters covering the event? (A CTV documentary unit was there, but to get video for an October broadcast.) They’d been told of the meeting that forced hotel staff expecting 300 people to add a second room and hundreds of chairs. And why did no local papers send reporters?

With a federal election possible this year, there must have been some politicians there to hear the speakers, right? Get the temperature of their voters? Nope. Zero cabinet members, MPs or MLAs were in attendance. Probably they were off voting on fatuous NDP motions in the Commons telling Israel not to defend itself.

By contrast, if ten people shouting “Charlottetown4Gaza” had gathered in front of the PEI legislature building you have to know that Justin Trudeau’s paid media would have been there to record the keffiyehs and the masked antifa thugs. As of this writing there has been no reference to this hotel event in the PEI or larger Canadian media.

Meanwhile, Veterans Affairs, which is headquartered in PEI, dedicated an entire recent struggle session to disparaging white Canadians and calling the military racist. You want to know how PEI will go from all-red to all-blue next time? This weekend’s meeting will suffice. The Tim Horton crowd ain’t buying.

This detachment from The Other happens with greater frequency as Canada’s Tiffany media turn further inward and the demonization of the non-416/613/514 fact increases. Despite government efforts to pour millions into corporate media that no one watches or trusts anymore. As Stephen Taylor noted, “The worst people in Canada never had so much access to government.”

The unreported story of the 2022 Truckers Convoy was not mounted police trampling old ladies in the crowds. Okay, that was a story, too. No, the principal takeaway was how completely unaware the Family Compact was of the dimensions headed toward them. From the puny police presence to Justin Trudeau’s deer-in-the-headlights response to complaints about his unyielding vaccine regime. “How dare they?” Establishment Ottawa thought it could finesse the whole thing, bring in the purchased media to rough up the protesters verbally, get the Liberal base outraged about… uh, honking horns and Bouncy Castles.

How’d that work? The images of ordinary folks lining the convoy route and the groundswell of disgust over Trudeau’s Covid calumny never penetrated their bubble. And when it did, crashing into the placid vaches qui rit beside the Rideau, their only response was to cite a vestige of War Measures Act to protect their privilege against unarmed protesters. And have CBC hacks talk about “gold-standard” policing and wonder aloud if Putin was behind it all.

Contrast that treatment with the recent demonstrations on Parliament Hill where Hamas supporters weren’t asking for the right to refuse useless Pfizer shots. They were talking about death to fellow Canadians and the eradication of a democratic ally of Canada (or was before Monday night’s vote.) It was hard to tell who police were protecting: the free-speech public or the protesters with their hate speech.

Why? People misunderstand the motivation of Team Trudeau. Yes, they are obsessed with keeping their power to order $1,822-a night Dubai hotel suites to discuss climate Armageddon But most of all, they fear being ostracized by the “cool kids”. The pecksniffs of the Left are the modern equivalent of the Greek aristoi, the aristocrats who labelled themselves “the best”. The Hellenic equivalents of Barack and Michelle.

Their greatest fear, even 5,000 years ago, was finding themselves lowered to the Kakoi, the rubes and hicks in Athenian society,  shunned by their former aristoi buddies. Required to be the catchers, not the pitchers in the Ottawa circle jerk. Today’s status seekers are mortified they will be pilloried by their heroes, Racial Maddow, Joyless Reid and the At Issue panel.

Isolation is their nightmare. So while they recognize that Justin can’t dance and Melanie don’t rock ’n roll, there’s safety in staying under their skirts. They won’t have to turn on CBC or CTV and confront rubes in Charlottetown who’ve noticed that Team Trudeau is selling PEI off by the pound to the CPP. They’ll be able to trade Saturday Night Lies skits with fellow travellers.

And that’s not such a bad life, is it? Especially when someone else is paying.

(For more information about concerns in PEI with land purchases see video below)

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.

Continue Reading

Trending

X