Kevin Bieksa indulges the memorable but untold story of John Tortorella Benching Alex Edler

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Cooper Godin
October 13, 2024 (11:15)

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Kevin Bieksa shares story of newly-retired Alexander Edler showing leadership qualities after John Tortorella benched him early on in a game.

The Vancouver Canucks honoured the career of Alexander Edler on Friday night after he signed a one-day contract to retire as a member of the organization. Edler, 15 seasons with the Canucks, might not be gone for too long as he's expressed interest in rejoining the organization in a coaching role, similar to what the Sedin twins have been doing, which would be fantastic for the team's defensive prospects.

On Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night, Sportsnet analyst and former teammate of Alexander Edler in Vancouver, Kevin Bieksa, shared an awesome story of how he showed his leadership qualities after being benched by John Tortorella.

"Well, I'm thankful for my old teammate Alex Edler, who retired as a Vancouver Canuck, signed a one-day contract yesterday. I think about his career and what a complete player as far as a defenceman. Great passer, great shot, big timely hits, low-maintenance teammate, never complained about anything - ice time, etc." Bieksa said.

He added, "I always think about the one story and always think like a good teammate or a leader - what are you doing when times are tough? When things are great and you're winning, it's easy to be a good teammate right? But I remember in Madison Square Garden for this one particular game, he tried to reverse hit a guy right in front of our bench in the first period, maybe five minutes into the game. Guy goes around him and scores, Torts comes down the bench and says 'he's done' to Mike Sullivan, who was the D coach, 'he's done' and Sully is like 'what do you mean, for the game?' and he goes 'for the game, he's done'. It was five minutes into the game. So we went with five D for the rest of the game and it was an outrageous benching, but Alex sat there and opened the door for the rest of the game, sitting on the bench our number one defenceman, benched for a missed hit and that just showed you what kind of a teammate he was. In a tough time, he didn't pout or complain, he opened the door for us."

With Alexander Edler benched for the remainder of that game on November 30th, 2013, the New York Rangers would go on to win by a score of 5-2, while at the conclusion of the season, the Canucks would fire John Tortorella after just one year as head coach.

It's great to hear all these stories over the past few days of how great a teammate Alexander Edler was. He was loved by all of his teammates and is one of the best defencemen the Canucks organization has ever seen.