It’s all in how you say his name.
When chanted by fans around the NHL — and some in Anaheim who have had cause to consider Kevin Bieksa too mistake-prone and slow to keep up in today’s NHL — it’s pronounced “Bee-EKK-saaa,” with each syllable drawn out and sung in a mocking tone.
To Sami Vatanen, he’s “Bee-ASK,” minus the final ‘’a.” Bieksa finds that amusing. “He claims he doesn’t speak English,” Bieksa said of his Finnish teammate.
Don Cherry, a famously bombastic Canadian TV personality, pronounces it “Bee-ESS-ka,” a mistake Bieksa suspects is deliberate and is part of Cherry’s bluster.