Kevin Bieksa on Maple Leafs’ Early-Season Slump

Kevin Bieksa on Maple Leafs’ Early-Season Slump

You’re watching Toronto Sports Rush on the Bet Rivers Network. Welcome into Toronto Sports Rush for the Bet Rivers Network. I’m Julie Stewart Binks joined by former NHL player and current analyst for Hockey Night in Canada. On Sportset, it is none other than Kevin Bexa joining us all the way from the other side of the country/continent, but he is uh very generously donated his time to talk about his favorite team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. juice. Things aren’t going so well in the T do O dot. What is going on with this Leafs team that has now dropped three in a row and we are doing this on Wednesday morning after they just lost 5-3 against the Bruins. So, this is the second three-game losing streak they’ve had in this young season. And as the kids would say, the Leafs are very mid right now. They’re very Ohio. And um it’s not time to panic. I don’t think they’re one point out of the playoff spot, but I think, you know, fans are used to seeing the Leafs comfortably at the top of the uh division throughout the regular season for the last five, six years. And then obviously the struggles have been mostly in the playoffs, but I mean there there’s a lot to go on like there’s a whole lot like there’s a lot of change. There’s so much to unpack here, Julie. Um you know, injuries is not going to help them. Um you know, Matthews hopefully that’s not serious last night. stolers. You know, Lton hopefully is back soon. Um, TANV missing some time, but every team has injuries and every team kind of gets through them. So, like what’s going on with the Leafs? Well, they’re scoring goals. They’re at the top of the league for goals. They’re third, but they’re giving up the most. So, that’s the problem, right? So, I mean, a lot of little things and and you can look at like when your team’s not winning as much. You can look at statistics to kind of like give you some answers and and I I’m not big on that because I think there’s so much more than just statistics. But if you are looking at statistics, you know, the top guys are scoring. The top guys have their points. Knander, Matthews, N. Um, and the way you look at a team and how it’s structured, usually like your bottom six, you want them to be like your your responsible defensively type players and all their bottom six guys are in the minuses and plus minus say what you want about it. But when everybody’s in the minus that means that they’re on the ice for more goals than they’re providing. So it couple that with goalending and they give up the most shots almost in the NHL. It’s just a perfect storm for kind of mid right now. Well, mid seems to be quite uh the compliment in in Leafs land right now after the loss, but defense, you know, your former defenseman, of course. How would you rank where they where their decor is right now? Well, I I think everybody looked at their decor as probably the strength of the team going into the season. It was kind of the one area that after the playoffs, everybody kind of said, “Let’s leave this alone.” Like, “This this works good.” Ben Wis as our six defenseman. Carlo brought over, you know, McCabe and Tana have had a really nice partnership going. Morgan Riley, uh, who’s had a good good start offensively to this season. Um, but I mean, obviously they they would probably tell you that they’re not happy, but you know, like there’s a lot of good things, too. Like I’m not a doom and gloom kind of guy and I think you know we both come from Anaheim where we were here together for three years and kind of the difference between the main difference between Anaheim and Toronto is you know the year we went to the conference finals and I really thought we were the best team in the league and should have won the Stanley Cup. We went through little lulls like this and but there wasn’t a whole lot of attention. and there wasn’t a whole lot of people dissecting it at, you know, 8:00 in the morning, uh, Pacific time talking about what’s wrong with the team. And we were able to kind of weather these storms. And I think that’s the big thing for this Leaf team. Can can they weather this storm? Can they not overreact? Can they not panic? Um, I think everybody just expected when when Mner left, you know, there’d be like a week or two and then boom, everybody would snap out of it. Machelli would come in and he would fill in offensively and and and Dakota Joshua would come in and he would chip in and I just think it takes a lot longer than people think. There’s so much more. You know, there’s moving to new cities, there’s new teams, just finding out like what your dynamic is within the locker room and and all that takes time. The power play ran through Mitch Mner for 10 years or as long as he was there. That doesn’t just change overnight because you plug in another person. like there was a lot of touches, a lot of plays that went through Mitch Mner. So, you know, the power play, like it’s 24th in in the league. You score a few more power play goals and all of a sudden you win a few more of those games. So, there’s a lot going on here with the Leafs. Um, but I don’t think it’s panic time. Okay. So, not panic time, but we are very close to American Thanksgiving. At what point is it panic time? because there are signs that perhaps maybe even this team and its DNA aren’t looking like they are very um consistent. They’re not connected. There doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of chemistry there. Does that does that sort of come in the next two weeks or or do we look at it now and say, is this a team that that even has what it takes to go down the stretch? Well, I don’t know. I just I think what’s the expectations for this team? Did they think at the start of the season, hey, we’re a dominant team. We’re going to be a first place lead the division all year long in a division with the defending Stanley Cup champions two times over Tampa Bay looking better like like Boston’s I don’t know like if the goal was to start the season and just be at the top of the division and dominate then yeah you’re going to be super disappointed but realistically this team right now is a mid team. It’s, you know, you lose like your best offensive player and, you know, you bring in a couple guys that you think are going to kind of help out, but they took a step back. So, it’s going to be a team in my opinion that’s going to kind of scratch and claw and be there and grind it out and hopefully at the end of the season be in a playoff spot, not at the top of the division, probably not going to win the division. And then they’re going to see if they can do some damage as maybe an underdog type team. But the way they’re going to win is just by being a super cohesive, hard to play against team that gets good goalending and their big dog score, right? Their their offense is going to be carried by Matthews, Knander, Ny, and then hopefully Tiver. That’s the way this team is designed and everyone else is going to have to be hard to play against and plus players plus positive players. But, you know, nothing’s nothing seems to be going right now. Power play is not going well. Even though everyone’s scoring, you know, defense is holy. Goalending, right? Like last year, I think the goalending exceeded everybody’s expectations with Stallars coming in and doing what he did. Wall being a great backup. Wool hasn’t been around a lot of this season. Stallars has kind of like struggled out of the gates. That’s a big part. If you don’t have solid solid goalending, you’re never going to win consistently in this league. So I but it’s still until you get everything back, Julie, and everything’s firing, there’s no you don’t really need to panic unless you fall out of the playoffs by 10 points, which they haven’t yet. Yeah. It just feels like when you talk about them being a difficult team to play against and if they can kind of uh claw and scratch their way in the playoffs, like that doesn’t seem like that’s who they are. I mean, Matthews getting run by Zidorov in the game on Tuesday night and then like Doy who’s, you know, half the size of him kind of tries to rally something in the third period and obviously gets a penalty and they score on that. But like they don’t seem to have like your best player just got taken out essentially by you know another player on the other team and no one really seemed to this has happened before at the Leafs. They don’t seem to have that axe murderer gene that would consider them to have that kind of a tough to play against grit. Well yeah but there’s a lot of teams that don’t have a tough tough player a tough guy like you know Ryan Reeves is gone now he’s in San Jose protecting CBrini and Will Smith. A lot of teams decide we’re not gonna have that heavyweight guy. So the only person who can really, you know, make Sedora pay is a heavyweight. He’s he’s a big man. So there there’s a handful. There’s Olivier, there’s Reeves, there’s like Mcder. There’s only a few guys that could actually step up and grab Zidorov and make him pay for that hit. Now that being said, that hit wasn’t that bad, Julie. It really wasn’t. Like it was awkward. He was trying to finish him. Matthews turned a little bit. It wasn’t the dirtiest hit I’ve ever seen. And and if you listen to Zidorov in in his press conference after, like you could just tell by his tone, like it’s like I wasn’t even really trying to like hit him hard or hurt him, you know? What he did to Schaefer the last week, that was a little bit more, you know, reckless and premeditated, but like the Matthews one, like I don’t know if that’s a big big deal, so to speak. Like that’s not one that you’re circling Zadorov’s name and like, oh, we’re going to have to get that guy back. Well, I mean, Matthews went out after that. We’re not necessarily sure if that was like the reason why, but you could even if it was sometimes there’s hits that are awkward and guys get injured. I think the ones that you really like you’re talking about where as a team you kind of get challenged a bit was like the really dirty ones to your star player. I personally I didn’t think that hit was that that bad. I just think it had an unfortunate outcome. But uh but I mean Doy like Doi can bring that there’s you know Domi yeah he’s obviously not the biggest guy but neither was his dad. Doesn’t matter how big you are. Like he threw a couple punches. Did he do it at the right time? You know it kind of depends on how he felt about the game. It kind of felt like they weren’t coming back in that game. So it is what it is. But I don’t know. You’re right. Like it’s a mid team. It’s not a super aggressive hard to play against team. It’s not a super puck possession team. It’s kind of like right right in the middle right now. Right. And it seems when you say mid, it it almost feels like that is um the way these players they look out on the ice like they don’t look as engaged I would say as as in previous years. Of course they you know they don’t have a 100 point plus player that they had last year but sometimes it feels as though like Craig Breub can’t figure out a way to get this team going. This team looks a bit disinterested. At what point would you say you can tell in a player’s body language that they maybe uh I don’t want to say that they that they’re not that they’ve lo that Ruby’s lost the room, but like they’ve started to kind of the message is kind of getting old and wearing on them. I don’t It’s hard. It’s hard for us to put us all in the same group now. Media. Yeah, you’re media now, which is great. regrudgingly um kind of get into players heads and watch them on the ice and think, “Oh, this player’s disinterested.” I don’t know. It’s hard. That’s a hard one to do because it’s you never know what’s going on in a player’s head and and and different players and different people handle frustration differently and lack of production. And some people like Dry Cidle are really hard on themselves and swear and you know get mad at themselves and it’s very easy to see and it’s tangible. And then other players kind of hold it in and maybe look a little lethargic, but really they’re like inside they’re struggling. It’s it’s hard to say like I don’t think he’s lost them. I don’t think they’re disinterested. I think it’s more like maybe just like a little bit of like confusion about how how they you’re right. What is their mo like how are they going to win games in the long term? And I don’t know. I I I mean maybe that is a conversation, but I think it’s the bottom six is hard to play against and responsible and can play at like an even pace like you know generate one chance give up one chance kind of thing or or better and you rely on your top guys to score your power play to be good and your goalending to be solid big big defenseman and they’re not playing that way right now but that’s the formula for this group I think to win right there are some holes there that have certainly really hurt them. And you know, you mentioned with the goalending and we’ve talked about the defense, they’ve they’ve given up three or more goals in 11 of 12 games this season. And they have not looked great uh defensively and we know that things have been precarious in goal. Hillbe had to come in for Stallars, which he they said he had a upper body injury, but he also gave up three goals in the first period. Like where I know you said, okay, it’s early in your mind. they’ve had injuries, but like that’s the same for every team. So, what’s like two or three things that you want to see from this team going forward? You know, they play they host LA on Thursday night to at least prove to you that they are going in in the direction that that you feel they they are capable of. Why do I feel like I’m defending the Leafs right now? This is so backwards. I know. I love it. It’s And when it’s three Oscars over your left shoulder Yeah. I’ve lived a lot of lives. Those that’s the LA chapter right there. Um I think uh I’m just trying to like squirrel. Um yes, I know. I think for the Leafs, um, you know, like sometimes having injuries and having guys out of the lineup just brings a sense of urgency. You know, if Stallers is out for a bit, Matthews is out for a few games, you know, L and Tana, it’s like one of those things where all these guys come in and now they’re competing and they’re getting like a little bit more of a roll and they’re a little hungrier. And sometimes just, you know, having that feeling, oh my god, like we’re we’re missing our best players, like we’re we better really play. Sometimes that gives you a jolt. I mean, there’s a whole bunch of different tricks. I think like this is where the coaching staff kind of earns their money, though, right? Like when things are going well and and it’s an welloiled machine and you’re winning games and everyone’s got their cookies, like it’s easy to coach in the NHL when it’s like that. This is the time where you go into your bag of tricks and you think of all your different motivational type things. You think about, does there have to be like a really positive video session where we’re like showing all these good things and build people up? Does it have to be the opposite? Does it have to be like a crack the whip? Because we don’t really know like what the the message is from day to day in the dress room. But I I think there’s got to be either one or the other. Probably go in crack the whip and really grind everyone down and keep everyone accountable and start having a like a sheet on the board chances for chances against and see where everyone’s at. And like we had that the one year in Vancouver where we kept track of every chance for and against. And at the end of every game, you’d see, okay, like I was minus six in chances four, so I generated three chances four and I gave up nine. And like there’s different ways where you can keep everybody accountable and hold everyone to an individual standard. Um, this is where the coaches make their money. And on that note, just very quickly, you mentioned before Anaheim when you guys were not, you were bottom of the league like what was it 2015, 2016 or one of those years and then you ended up winning it. Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, hold on a sec. Bottom of the league for the first eight games and then Yeah. Yeah. And then we then we apparently it was all my fault too, according to Bruce Budau. And then Gabby said that it was your fault. Yeah. We were skating around like I just got there and we’re I think we’re like three and five out of the gate and we’re skating around at Honda Center and he says, “What do you think so far?” And I go, “Yeah, like obviously like I you know I think we could all play better. I that certainly me.” and he goes, “Yeah, the way I see it is we have basically the same team back as last year. We went to the conference finals and it was just you and Chris Stewart and now we’re like at the bottom of the league.” So the way I look at it is you two definitely have to pick it up. I’m like, “What? It’s just our fault.” I’m like, “Yeah, I guess Cory Perry’s got no goals and you know Guessie’s minus eight, but I guess yeah, I’ll take all for this.” And then we turned it around and we had a good year. Okay. So I mean did that have an effect on you? No, I mean I was a I was a veteran at that point, so I got I got a laugh out of it. I got a little a little bit of my backup a little bit like and then I thought about it and I’m like this guy does this guy nuts right now. Like he doesn’t really think this. So I got got out of my own head. I’m like, “All right, forget that ridiculous conversation. I’m just going to worry about playing good.” Okay. So then in a situation where you’ve been on a team and things aren’t going well, what has been something that has helped you guys get out of that slump? Well, like threats like I had also like Randy Carile would say you you might not be in the lineup next game if you don’t play well. And then he who knows how many other guys he went around and did that same thing to. So the the biggest thing you can threaten an NHL player with is ice time. That’s the biggest thing you have over them. Every player wants to play more. Every player wants to be in the lineup. Every player wants to be on special teams. So that’s what you have over players. So if you don’t think you’re getting enough out of certain guys, you can start going to guys and you can start threatening them with ice time and with their role. And if that works, great. You look like a genius. If it doesn’t, then you go to a different method. Yeah, that’s very much like a parent and child type of thing. like, okay, if you’re not playing well, you don’t get to be on the iPad anymore. Like, you don’t get to do this or that or go play with your friends. iPads are still around. I mean, is is I’m not a parent is I just see people out with their children in iPads at restaurants as like a it’s an observation. The worst The worst thing for a team is when everybody is in their roles no matter what. wins, loses, losses, you know, like playing well, not playing well. And you’re always like, first line’s going out first every period, second line’s going out second, third line. Special teams doesn’t change no matter what. Like first unit is always going up. Like you need internal competition and you need guys moving around the lineup depending on how they’re playing. Like that’s how you keep a team accountable. Otherwise, it’s like a guy on the fourth line, maybe he’s playing really well and he never moves up the lineup. Never to the third, never to the second. It’s just like he’s like, “What am I doing?” And then all of a sudden he’s like, “Okay.” And that that’s kind of where teams break down. So when you’re in this kind of little slump, you start shuffling, guys. You know, you have somebody playing really really well on the third line, get them up to the first line. You have somebody on the first line not playing very well, drop them down a little bit, right? Start shuffling. And you don’t have to be like mean or malicious about as a coach, but you can start like saying, “Hey, like let’s let’s motivate you. You’re not playing well, you move down. It’s just the way it is for everybody on the team. Everybody’s in the same boat.” that that’s kind of but I would hate to see the lines just stay the same and the team just keep playing mid right by by the way the kids know you’re mid that’s not like oh sweet I’m like in the middle no mid is not good these days I would have thought you would have said that they were like below mid like they were not whatever that is what the kids say they’re below below mid because I think mid’s kind of bad and I don’t think they’re tanking. I don’t think they’re the wor I don’t think they’re like Mississippi or Arkansas. I think they’re just Ohio mid. Yeah. I just think the expectations for this team were that they probably weren’t going to drop as far as they have after just a couple of different shakeups. I think people expected them, especially with at least the core three. Now you could put N in there, whatever. Core four. You still have some of your top guys, but then the other pieces aren’t working. Um, one last question before I let you go. Uh, do you feel in any way, shape, or form right now or that Craig Bubé is on the hot seat? Um, I don’t know. I don’t think Craig Buby really hurts or solves anything right now. I mean, I think it’s it’s the players. I’m not a big believer in in changing a coach mid-season. I I could be wrong, but I don’t think I ever had a coaching change in the middle of a season in my in my 15-year pro career. Um I don’t know. I just I don’t think I think it’s like a a desperate desperate thing. And I don’t think bringing in a new coach right now is really going to change a whole lot when you have, you know, a lot of different things wrong. Like we already went through it all, like the goalending, the the go the shots against the the bottom six, everything. There’s so many problems right now. Like I don’t know if a new coach Put this into perspective, Julie. They’re on a three-game losing streak, right? So I kind of just like looked at it quickly. If they would have won the last three games instead of lose, you know, they’d be in first place in their division. So they’re they’re one winning streak away from being at the top. Um I don’t I don’t think it’s full-time panic. Like when you bring a new coach in, unless you’re thinking about just moving, elevating an assistant, like you’re talking about changing the whole culture and the whole dynamic. And I think that has to be a desperation thing. And if I were to do that, it would probably be a little bit later later in the season when I knew exactly what I had as a team, right? I mean, maybe the culture needs to have some kind of desperation change if there isn’t an identity change and they keep doing the same things they’re doing because, as you mentioned, the points wise, they could be top of the league or top of their division, but it’s the way they’re playing. I think people look and say, you’re giving up three goals in the first period after that game you had against Carolina and the game you had against Boston. It’s like it just doesn’t feel like a whole lot of fight from the Leafs. Top league. It’s a really tough league. It’s hard to play hockey is what for players out there. Yeah. Yeah, there really is. Okay. Well, we have come to the conclusion that the Leafs are pretty mid right now, but there’s still a lot of optimism coming from Kevin Bexa, which is very surprising. Is right now. You make me feel like I’m like the Leaf Ambassador. Yeah. I just need to get you like the the chain, you know, the gang the gang that they have with the chains. Um because uh it’s no panic over here from BXA. And uh thank you so much, Kevin, for joining us. Oh, you got the towel. I’m going to give myself the towel for that job I just did. That was great. How much do you love that towel? Uh I I love this. I love these. I just think they were the ultimate to get one of these when whenever we would play on Saturday night in Vancouver, which was a lot. you like you would always want to be one of the interviewers because they only bring three towels to the game. Like that’s Yeah. You you think you could find these? These are very very rare. Like even now we can never find them. They bring three of the game. First intermission, second intermission, and postgame interview. That’s it. So to get one of these, this is the old one cuz it’s got the CBC logo, but to get one of these was was a pretty big deal back in the day. Yeah, I have a bunch of them. I still kept a lot. Um but I’ve also given a lot away. like every family member’s wanted one friends. Yeah. But Oh, no. Those are very highly coveted. And for those listening on the podcast, Kevin is wearing the hockey night in Canada infamous towel that they give them at the intermission. Captain Ros’s t-shirt. Yes. It looks great. Um, I love that you’re finishing off the podcast with wearing that cuz uh just reminds us all of what a presence you were on the ice and of course now what a presence you are on our TVs on SportsNet. So, thank you so much for joining us here on Toronto Sports Rush for the Bet Rivers Network. Thanks for watching Toronto Sports Rush on the Bet Rivers Network.

Former NHLer Kevin Bieksa joins Julie Stewart-Binks to discuss the Toronto Maple Leafs’ recent three-game losing streak. Defensive issues and goal-scoring inconsistencies are glaring issues, so how will Craig Berube get Toronto back on track?

00:00 Leafs drop third straight
04:45 Are Leafs a playoff team?
10:00 How does Berube fix this?
16:45 Keys to breaking an NHL slump

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