Saku Koivu
Saku Koivu
Saku Antero Koivuis a Finnish former professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League. He began his NHL career with the Montreal Canadiens in 1995–96 after three seasons with TPS of the Finnish SM-liiga. Koivu served as the Canadiens' captain for ten of his 14 years with the club, which makes him the longest captaincy tenure in team history, tied with Jean Béliveau. Koivu was the first European player to captain the Montreal Canadiens...
NationalityFinnish
ProfessionHockey Player
Date of Birth23 November 1974
CityTurku, Finland
CountryFinland
Right now, it seems that we're doing good things, the puck is bouncing for us and we're getting breaks like I did at the end of the game.
When you have a core group of young players as we do, the future looks bright.
What we are hoping is that we've had to battle till the end and really maintain our focus here. I think the momentum is going for us right now, and hopefully we can bring it to the playoffs.
We didn't know what to expect from him or what would happen. Huey surprised a lot of people and his teammates as well. He's been tremendous for us.
Obviously, that off-the-ice battle I went through, plus injuries I came back from, I always felt the fans are really knowledgeable there and respected and appreciated guys that gave whatever they had and guys that fought through things.
There are a lot of good things going on here. We're not getting away from our game plan, and we're getting the bounces and the breaks.
I think for Finns, it's probably, maybe, the biggest game ever. Not just that we're playing in the gold-medal game in the Olympics, but we all know the importance of playing against Sweden.
I thought Perezhogin played really strong, he scored his second goal, he's been a real surprise. We knew he had offensive talent but the way he worked for the puck in the corners was impressive.
It goes way, way back when we were under Sweden's rule. We always think they are better than us. We played against them so often for so many years. Every country has one opponent they want to beat and for us, it's Sweden.
I think there's a lot of reasons. A lot of times in the regular season, you play back-to-back nights or you're on the road for a long time. In the playoffs, everyone is focused and . . . sometimes there's no explanation for things.
I think the positive is that everything is in our hands. I know we've played well for the last 15 or 20 games, but we need to win that last game and secure a spot.
I think the positive is that everything is in our hands.
I felt like an outsider. The only time you get to really know guys is on the ice, and I couldn't be there.
Whatever the reason is, I hope we can finish talking about the Olympics. It's gone, it's behind us. The schedule wasn't proper for players who went there and there is some fatigue in a lot guys' play right now.