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
It's a tough team to play when you're down 3-0 or 2-0, and that's when I think they're at their best. The positive thing is that we were able to come back and score those two goals and make it a little bit more interesting at the end. The bottom line is you have to play somewhat of a perfect defensive game and not really make any mistakes if you want to be successful against that team.
They're all really important games right now. We need points to secure a playoff spot, and that's what we're looking for right now.
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 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 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.
It's been tough for me being away from the game.
Each of their units got the goals, so they're effective.
I haven't been back in Montreal, at all, since the playoffs ended two years ago. It's been a while.
They want to show they belong in this league, and it drives us older guys to work harder to keep our spots.
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.
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.
The thing that has surprised me is his consistency. As a rookie, it's tough to maintain your level of play throughout the year and he's played well from day one. Since the Olympic break, he's gotten more ice time and he's really taken advantage of that. I think the work he did early in the season is paying off.
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.
I felt like an outsider. The only time you get to really know guys is on the ice, and I couldn't be there.