HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Saku Koivu Turns 47 Today (Nov. 23)

[BargainBinSpecial]

Happy Birthday, Saku! Special player, special person. And before the emergence of Suzuki, we have not had a #1 C since Koivu's prime years.

He was more of a 2C. We all wished Pleky would fill that void.

 

[OldCraig71]

A class act that deserved a better team around him, much like Carey Price. It's also encouraging to know that he is alive and well all these years later after what he went through.

 

[montreal]

naslund was my neighbour growing up - he'd join in on street hockey games in the 80s..

that's cool as shit.

 

[Forsead]

He was more of a 2C. We all wished Pleky would fill that void.

Crazy how standards changed over the years. I vividly remember how most posters here, or fans, were saying like you that he wasn't a true 1st line center. The guy had a 10 years run, between 1996-1997 and 2006-2007, in which he maintained a 0.863 PPG (that's 71 pts in a 82 gp season). All this while being a very good two-ways player, on mostly mediocre/bad offensive teams, with low support, in the dead puck era, and all the while he had cancer and major injuries.

Now we cannot believe how lucky we are to have a potential first liner in Suzuki, while he hasn't shown he's more than a 60-70 pts center, AND I LOVE HIM. It would be a dream if Suzuki had Koivu career. That's what terrible management do, LOWER THE STANDARDS.

 

[JianYang]

Crazy how standards changed over the years. I vividly remember how most posters here, or fans, were saying like you that he wasn't a true 1st line center. The guy had a 10 years run, between 1996-1997 and 2006-2007, in which he maintained a 0.863 PPG (that's 71 pts in a 82 gp season). All this while being a very good two-ways player, on mostly mediocre/bad offensive teams, with low support, in the dead puck era, and all the while he had cancer and major injuries.

Now we cannot believe how lucky we are to have a potential first liner in Suzuki, while he hasn't shown he's more than a 60-70 pts center, AND I LOVE HIM. It would be a dream if Suzuki had Koivu career. That's what terrible management do, LOWER THE STANDARDS.

The thing is when some people talk about number one centers, they actually are only talking about being a top 5 or top 10 center instead of a top 30 center.

Koivu was a guy who came into the league as a potential elite centre, and he lived up to that briefly in his 2nd season before busting his knee, and it established a certain benchmark that he never got back to.

So then we went through the next decade or so debating whether he is a #1 center but the argument was with wavering goalposts.

To me, he was not an elite center, but he was a top line center.

 

[themilosh]

that's cool as shit.

80s were a different time.. he lived in a nice bungalow house. A few streets over were the "rich" players: Rick Green, Mike McPhee, Brian Skrudland.
Every so often, Skrudland would play too.
Ryan Walter also ran a church group.

 

[Forsead]

The thing is when some people talk about number one centers, they actually are only talking about being a top 5 or top 10 center instead of a top 30 center.

Koivu was a guy who came into the league as a potential elite centre, and he lived up to that briefly in his 2nd season before busting his knee, and it established a certain benchmark that he never got back to.

So then we went through the next decade or so debating whether he is a #1 center but the argument was with wavering goalposts.

To me, he was not an elite center, but he was a top line center.

I think you're right, a good example is the 2002-2003 season (Koivu was 27 years old, right in his prime).

Koivu had 71 pts and a 0.87 PPG, which was good for 12th for centers. Ahead of him were : Jason Allison, Brad Richards, Doug Weight, Vincent Lecavalier (all of which were dubbed as first liners) and HHOFamers : Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic, Sergei Fedorov, Mario Lemieux, Joe Thornton, Mike Modano and Mats Sundin. Around the same PPG were Brendan Morrison (playing on the first line with right in prime Naslund and Bertuzzi), Andrew Cassels (lol), Robert Lang (Pittsburgh first line center, playing with Jagr or Bondra), Alexei Yashin, Olli Jokinen and Pavel Datsyuk. That's a lot of star power namedropping.

Koivu teammates were : Richard Zednik, Yanic Perreault, Jan Bulis, Oleg Petrov and over the hill Doug Gilmour and Donald Audette.

And he wasn't called a true first liner...

 

[Frankenheimer]

I hate him

Having posted on this board for over a decade, this is probably the most perplexing post I can recall. I don't think I hate any habs or former habs (cause I got a grip on life?), but then on top of that, Saku??

 

[Forsead]

I hate him

Mike Ribeiro, is that you ?

 

[Locks]

He was more of a 2C. We all wished Pleky would fill that void.

Read some very informative posts above on that topic and you will get a better idea of what Saku was.

 

[BargainBinSpecial]

Read some very informative posts above on that topic and you will get a better idea of what Saku was.

I watched him play during the Habs dark age, the late 90s and early 2000s, when Peanut was running the show. I must admit he was playing on a very atrocious team, and under the right conditions he may have faired a lot better. There was always a love hate relationship with the fans and media about Saku. That all changed when he unfortunately became ill and came back to triumph over the Bruins. I must admit that was a very magical moment and I will never forget the standing ovation he received from the fans. The team wasn't good enough to get pass the Canes afterwards though. For the record, the Canes won the Cup that year but I really wished that the Habs could bank on Saku's presence to have a deeper run. Years later, Gainey decided to do a complete overhaul and Saku signed elsewhere. It's a business afterall but I really wished the Habs showed a little more gratitude towards the player. All in all, Saku would be a good 2C overall on most teams.