Saku Koivu Quotes (30 Quotes)

I felt like an outsider. The only time you get to really know guys is on the ice, and I couldn't be there.

We wanted to do this a long time ago, ... but there was kind of a lockout or something.

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.

It's a good feeling when you get that. I think halfway through the season not too many people expected him to get 20 goals and the way he's playing right now and getting the goals, it's really fun to watch, and it's really fun to play with him.

For some reason we didn't get the best game out of us today. Sweden is a better team and they handled it better.

I think there's a lot of reasons. A lot of times in the regular season, you play back-to-back nights or you're on the road for a long time. In the playoffs, everyone is focused and . . . sometimes there's no explanation for things.

I thought Perezhogin played really strong, he scored his second goal, he's been a real surprise. We knew he had offensive talent but the way he worked for the puck in the corners was impressive.

It goes way, way back when we were under Sweden's rule. We always think they are better than us. We played against them so often for so many years. Every country has one opponent they want to beat and for us, it's Sweden.

Obviously, it's a very sad moment. It's something we wished for him to see, his banner being raised to the roof. That would have been an extremely proud moment for him, but I'm sure he'd also wish it was a night of celebration.

I didn't have any hair anywhere for almost seven months. So now, finally, I've got some hair, I'm going to keep it.

It's been tough for me being away from the game.

Each of their units got the goals, so they're effective.

A few times we lost the momentum again, with penalties. This is a team with a lot of offense up front and they're really going to capitalize on our mistakes. They did that early in the game, but we stuck with the game plan, came back and got some goals, and then at the end we got the bounces. They weren't pretty goals but we'll take them and get the first win.

(Fleury) played well, but after a game like this, the bottom line is that we have to look at the way we played and the mistakes we made. If we want to make the playoffs, this is the kind of game we just can't have at this time of the year.

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.

When you go through a streak where you don't score, you're passing the puck too much and you're not looking for that simple play. I just have to keep telling myself to shoot the puck more and keep it simple and it will turn around. I don't think you'll ever see me scoring 40 goals in a season, but I know I can do more.

That's probably the most hated team we face in hockey. I think it goes just way, way back to years and years ago when we were under Sweden.

He's been tremendous for us. We never even thought that he could be near as good as he's been. He's a big part of the reason we're in the playoffs right now. For us to be as successful, we need him.

You always need younger guys if you're going to be successful in the long term.

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.

There are moments like this in sports where you have a hard time seeing the positive.

There isn't too much time. I've got to go home and pack and leave (Sunday), have one practice and then we play on Wednesday.

We found out tonight how important and how crucial momentum swings can be. I thought we were playing very well. We were doing a lot of positive things but then we lost the puck two times in our zone and things swung their way. You can't afford to give teams momentum.

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.

Whatever the reason is, I hope we can finish talking about the Olympics. It's gone, it's behind us. The schedule wasn't proper for players who went there and there is some fatigue in a lot guys' play right now.

I was a little worried about that. When you have to kill almost two minutes, it's rough.

You know it's going to be a great atmosphere, the fans are going to be really crazy, there's no doubt about that. Hopefully we can get that energy there that we need, but sometimes there's a chance that you want to do too much so I think we've got to stil

I always knew where I was going eventually, so it helped me to stay at home for three years. It helped me to develop my game. But it also helped me off the ice. Life here is way different, and I was able to get older.

The most important thing is to stay positive.

We had a short meeting before the game about how we have to show that we are a team, ... It's not about one guy or one line, it's how we are going to react under adversity, and I thought we did a very good job.