Tuesday 25 January 2011

O Captain, my Captain, how you still my heart...

"...With the starting teams lined up at their blue lines, Koivu was off to one side of the visitors' side of the arena during the last few words of Canada's national anthem he had heard hundreds upon hundreds of times during his 13 seasons with the Canadiens, 10 as captain.

It was then that his teammates skated to the boards and so did Canadiens skaters Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta, Max Pacioretty, Roman Hamrlik and James Wisniewski.

It was a lovely display of respect for one of the great names in the franchise's history because now the big stage belonged only to Koivu.

Picture, if you can, 21,273 fans on their feet showing what this brave man meant to them with wave after wave of thunderous applause. Koivu skated in little circles, raising his stick repeatedly and tapping his heart with his free, gloved hand to all sections of the sellout crowd. Several times, he motioned with his head to the Ducks to join him for the start of the game, but they refused. And all the while, the noise grew louder and louder, just as it had exploded when a quick photo of Koivu, his hair lost to his battle with cancer, was shown returning to the team after missing the first 79 games of the 2001-02 season.

The ovation ended only after Selanne skated to where Koivu stood alone and tapped him gently on the back of his leg in a gesture of respect only hockey players understand. As expected, it was repeated after the game when Koivu was announced as the second star....

What you got from Koivu during his years with the Canadiens was everything he had - on and off the ice, including the many millions the Saku Koivu Foundation raised to combat the killer disease he conquered.

What you also got was someone born to wear the C."

- Red Fisher, Montreal Gazette




The crowd erupted at the end of the anthems as the jumbotron cut from an old clip of Koivu to one of him live on the ice in a Ducks jersey. Cue the emotion and the first of two thunderous ovations that night.

After nearly two whole seasons without him, seeing him play twice in one week has been good for my sanity (not to mention getting to see him play with a fellow Finn because oh, the chemistry). I didn't think I needed any closure with the city of Montreal, but it did reaffirm how deeply rooted my adoration of this man is. I love his constant domination in the faceoff circles, his deke that almost always lands him a goal in shootouts, I've missed his particular and recognizable way of skating into the offensive zone on his heels and hell, I even miss his notoriety for taking ill-timed slashing penalties. And then, after the match, they announced his name as the second star of the game with such booming grandeur and familiarity as though he really was playing on home ice. And for those few hours on Saturday January 22nd, 2011, when he was skating yet again on Bell Centre ice, everything felt right again.

I took it for love, or at least something beautiful out there in the spotlight