Saku Koivu's 13 Years in Montreal, and the Inspiration behind the "C"

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Back to the Montreal Canadiens.

"And now, votre capitaine, your team captain, le numero onze, number eleven, Sakuuuu Kooooivu" - Michel Lacroix, Official Introduction of the Montreal Canadiens

We have talked about Kovy, Carbo, the brothers Kostitsyn, Price, and Komisarek. Getting to know more about our roster, let's take a look at the man with the "C" on his jersey.

Born in 1974 in Turku, Finland, Saku Antero Koivu was drafted in the first round by the Montreal Canadiens in 1993.

Before moving to North America in 1995, he was playing with a Finnish team named TPS, and won two Finnish Championships before being elected player of the year in 1994. He won the Bronze Medal with team Finland at the Olympic Games in 1994 and 1998. They won the silver medal in 2006.

He was ranked fourth among the NHL rookies and became the best scorer of the NHL till the middle of the season 1996-97 when he suffered of a knee injury.

In 1999, he was handed the biggest responsibility in being named the Captain of the Montreal Canadiens. He is actually the first European Captain in the history of the team.

Pierre Boivin told him: "It happened, you are captain, and you are going to take this team and lead it."

In September 2001, the new dropped and put Montreal and the NHL in shock: the Captain was diagnosed with a Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, in other words, Cancer.

"When you actually hear the word from the doctors in front of you, it is like everything stops", recalled the Captain.

Koivu was expected to miss the entire season.

He laterly decided to build a foundation which would bring a PET scan to the city of Montreal, at the Montreal General Hospital. The nearest one was in Sherbrooke, where Koivu and the medical staff had to drive during those tough times.

"It was a gigantic project, but he said this is what he wanted to do; this is what he wanted to give back to the people of Montreal", tells Canadiens' physician David Mulder.

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