When Saku Koivu stepped on the ice for his first shift in the Ducks 3-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Monday he celebrated an impressive milestone. You see it was the the 37-year-old's 1,000th career game but in reality it meant so much more than that.
Nearly ten years ago the Finnish born star won his battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Cancer not only threatened his career... it threatened his life and there he was playing in his 1,000th career National Hockey League game. When you think about how it could have turned out, it really was quite a significant milestone and Koivu is relishing every moment of it.
"When you talk to players that have got to 1,000 games, afterward they said that was the one milestone that really means something," Koivu said. "And it is. In my case, the cancer obviously makes it a more special accomplishment."
Sometime its easy to forget that athletes are human beings and they deal with real life heartache and tragedy too. It's usually not until real life and sports collide that we realize just how important every moment and opportunity is.
The Ducks will hold a pre-game ceremony prior to Wednesday nights game with the Detroit Red Wings to honor Koivu magic moment.
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The Ducks face the Red Wings tonight on life support but they face a Detroit team in a bit of a tale-spin themselves. The Red Wings limp into Anaheim after taking a pounding in Los Angeles the night before.
Detroit is trying to avoid a fifth loss in six games and third straight on their four-game trip while the Ducks are trying to delay the inevitable
Anaheim picked the worst conceivable time to lose three games in a row. They have fallen too far back to even have a chance to make a playoff chase interesting even if they win out.
The eight through 11 seeds are all tied with 78 points while the Ducks sit in the 12 spot nine points back with only 12 games left. Plus the teams leading goal-scorer and hottest player Corey Perry is still nursing a sore shoulder. (I can already hear the sound of
Taps playing in the distance.)
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I think it's safe to say the Ducks will not make the playoffs but they did manage to accomplish one very important thing during their second half run.
They made Ducks hockey fun again.
Obviously it's frustrating when your team is losing. All the negative press which included the GM saying he's going to trade the whole team but they pulled it together and held their own.
I commend the players for staying positive and I commend those fans that showed up and supported the team even during Anaheim's horrific start. This team will come back better next year.
All the Ducks need are a few off-season tweaks up front and perhaps a defensive upgrade or two or three but they will come back stronger and perhaps this time next year we can discuss who they match up best against in the first-round of the playoffs.
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