Kevin Bieksa Calls Current NHLer a 'Rat' and Publicly Blasts Him on Live TV

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TJ Tucker
January 7, 2024 (2:45 PM)

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While Kevin Bieksa of the Hockey Night in Canada panel, and others, are paid to give their opinions on the game, not often to we see them target a specific player they way Bieksa did tonight.

Bieksa went after Nick Cousins of the Florida Panthers with plenty of ammo while referring to a play earlier this week where Cousins was not penalized for an awful hit on Juuso Valimaki of the Arizona Coyotes. Not only that, Cousins refused to answer the bell, and Jason Zucker of the Coyotes ended up with a three game suspension for taking matters into his own hands and boarding Cousins in retaliation. Bieka said Cousins Cousins is well known for these types of plays, yet somehow gets away with them. He said it has to stop.

"I've never done this before, but I have to do it because this is a trend with this player. He's done this a numerous amount of times...there's no place in the game for this. And what's the common theme? Him at the bottom of a pile. In the turtle position."

Bieksa said from what he understands, Cousin is liked by his teammates and is a pretty good hockey player, but added someone with the Panthers organization that Cousins respects has to sit down with him and tell him to stop.

"Somebody has to hammer this guy from the Department of Justice and put an end to these crappy hits. I hate them. And, they remind me of...that's a rat to me. I'm sorry, it is."

Bieksa said eliminating the instigator rule, which can lead to at least a one game suspension, would help players police these things better on the ice.

While the other members of the panel didn't say much on the subject, the general consensus seemed to be they agree with Bieksa's take on Cousins, and support for his comments are pouring in online.

Kevin Bieksa calls out Nick Cousins' dirty playstyle and labels him a rat🐀 pic.twitter.com/3NIp485EN5� Everything Hockey (@EHClothing) January 7, 2024

He is so right about the turtling. Every time a guy goes into a turtle, player safety falls for it and lays a suspension on someone.� JMT8218 (@jmt8218) January 7, 2024