Saku Koivu

Saku Koivu

My hero is Saku Koivu. He was born on November 23rd 1974 in Turku, Finland. He is a hockey player for the Montreal Canadiens. He is my hero for two reasons; one is because of his great ability to play hockey and the other is because he overcame cancer and returned to hockey. Before Koivu got drafted to the Canadiens he had a lot of accomplishments. He led the Finnish team to their first ever gold medal in the 1997 Nagano Olympics just to name one. Saku Koivu was drafted to the Montreal Canadiens in 1993 as the 12th pick overall in the National Hockey League.

Saku Koivu during the 2002 playoffs

On September 6th 2001 Saku Koivu was diagnosed with cancer. This had a great impact on his career. His statistics fell right down to the ground and he was nowhere to be seen as of September 6th. Then a year later he made his triumphant return to hockey. On that glorious night for Koivu and the Montreal Canadiens he stepped onto the ice of the Bell Centre in downtown Montreal to the roaring cheers of about thirty thousand fans all cheering, “SAKU! SAKU! SAKU!" It filled his heart and all of ours with pride and the feeling of joy just overflowed out of all of us.

It wasn’t because of Saku’s ability to play hockey that he was and still is loved by every single citizen of Montreal. It goes way beyond that. It’s because of his courage and the fact that he never gave up that he always kept fighting day and night, he fought for his life and won. Saku Koivu will always be a part of us because he made us all proud and to this very day he still has. He will always remain the one who could. We all know how he felt the night he returned because we were there with him.