Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?

Saku Koivu & Mikko Koivu

Many female Wild fans were saddened to learn that Saku Koivu signed a contract with the Anaheim Ducks. I’m sure many of the male fans are saddened, too, but females will mention the fact that besides being an incredible hockey player, Saku is incredibly hot.*

*I'm making Ryan reconsider his idea of having a female presence on his site, one sentence at a time! I should clarify here that I don’t watch sports for cute guys. I’ve had favorite players who were not attractive. However, I will admit that I consider attractiveness of some players as an added bonus.

Wild fans were looking forward to Saku Koivu joining the team not only because he is a great hockey player with a well-established career, but he’s also the big brother of the Wild’s oft-Captain (and guy with the best name in professional sports), Mikko Koivu. The boys are nine years apart in age, and haven’t had many opportunities to play with each other, and only limited opportunities against each other. Having brothers, I know I’d have a hard time playing against them. I’m competitive enough that I want to win. But I’m sympathetic enough that I wouldn’t want my brothers to lose. A bit of a dilemma, really.

Yet, Saku Koivu chose to take a smaller contract from Anaheim. It seems crazy, since he’s getting older, so the risks of injury being career-ending are greater. He’s not playing with his brother. Moving from the western conference to the eastern conference means he’ll face off against his brother more often. Thinking about the ramifications, though, it makes perfect sense. And Saku thought about it:

“I kind of felt that Minnesota’s Mikko’s place at this point. I wanted him to have his own privacy in a way and make his own name and career. And I just felt there were too many risks for us as brothers and as family members to join on the same team and kind of compete for the same ice time.

“I think Mikko was really excited about the possibility for us playing on the same team and I can’t deny, if you really think about the possibilities and only the positive side, it would have been a pretty exciting thing. But I looked at it in, I guess, a more negative way and I was thinking, ‘what if this happens or what if things won’t work out?’ And right now, we have such a great relationship and I was too afraid to challenge that. You never know what is going to happen. For me, this was a safer option and I felt myself, I felt more comfortable.

“When I spoke to Mikko today, he understood totally. I guess I looked at things as more of an older brother and I wanted to protect him in a way and I felt there were too many risks for me to sign there.”

The risks of playing together included the fact that the Wild have become Mikko’s team. Even though Marian Gaborik was the longest-established player on the team, and even if he had been healthy all year (ha!), it still would’ve been Mikko’s team. From reports, both Brothers Koivu are natural leaders. Things easily could’ve come to a head as the Elder had to submit to the Younger—and perhaps the Younger would have a hard time not acquiescing to the Elder.

But the real issue is what would happen if Saku had a bad year. Presumably, Mikko would be Captain at some point (and if the captaincy isn’t rotating with the loss of Jacques Lemaire, Mikko is a strong candidate to be named Captain). How would the younger brother deal with his leadership role with his older brother struggling (and even vice versa would be a bit of a struggle).

So, while it’s sad that Saku Koivu won’t be playing with his brother in Minnesota, it makes perfect sense. Plus, now his kids are close to DisneyLand. I wonder if he would consider that a good thing, or if he’ll rue that decision.

Oh, Brother.

Last January, I had the privilege to attend a “Wild Unplugged” event. Two members of the Minnesota Wild appeared at a local eating establishment, and fielded questions from the fans. At that event, Branko Radivojevic and Mikko Koivu (who undisputedly has the “Most fun to say” name in the NHL) took the stage. Someone asked them whom they would pick, out of anyone in the NHL, to play for the Wild. Radivojevic picked Sidney Crosby. Mikko immediately picked his big brother, a guy you may have heard of: Montreal Canadiens’ Captain Saku Koivu.

Tonight, in St. Paul, the Brothers Koivu will appear in the same NHL arena at the same time--just on different teams--when the Montreal Candiens face the Minnesota Wild. Both brothers will also wear the letter “C” on their chests, designating them as captains of their respective teams. This is the first time brothers have been captains of their respective teams since 1987, so it’s nothing to sneeze at. (This was not known until the season begin, because the Wild name a new captain every month; although Koivu the Younger is the permanent Alternate Captain for the year.) They’re brothers; they’re both excellent hockey players, and have the leadership skills to be captains of a professional team.

But the Brothers Koivu didn’t grow up playing hockey together all the time. Saku is eight and a half years older than Mikko; Mikko was 10 when his big brother was drafted, and 11 when Saku left home to start his professional career. As adults, they’ve played on the same teams in Finland, but obviously never in the NHL. They play in different divisions and under different systems but I decided to compare their first three NHL seasons (note: NHL rules have changed through the years, which could affect same stats).

Saku was 20 when he made his NHL debut, while Mikko was 22 (when Mikko was 21, the NHL was in a lockout, so it’s hard to say whether he would’ve made his debut or not). In their first three years, they played nearly an equal number of games (201 for Saku, 203 for Mikko). Saku holds the edge in most categories: goals by 14, assists by 27, points by 41 (easy math!), power-play goals by 1, power-play assists by 10, short-handed goals and assists by 3 and 1 respectively, and game-winning goals by 4. Mikko leads his big brother, through the first three years, in points by 2 (+10), and penalty minutes by 14. Saku was the better player--possibly--through the first three years. Unfortunately, I couldn’t locate stats such as “minutes played” and as in most sports, defensive stats are hard to find, usually because they’re harder to calculate.

As for their leadership, Saku was named captain in his fifth year, while Mikko was named captain in his fourth. Again, that’s not a comparable fact, because Mikko was older entering the NHL. Even more important is the timing. The Canadiens name captains for the year, where the Wild name captains by the month (it does not have to change. Reports are surfacing that Mikko will hold the captaincy of the Wild in November as well). There would be more chances for Mikko to be named Captain than for Saku.

Tonight: Brother versus Brother. More importantly, which brother will Mr. and Mrs. Koivu be rooting for in St. Paul? It should be noted that Saku was in St. Paul last night to go out to dinner with his parents. Mikko was in Dallas playing in a hockey game.

I got nothin’

I’ve got nothing today. Really, I thought about this long and hard, but…nothing.

Here are the only things on my mind right now:

• The biggest influence on my life as a sports’ fan, and quite possibly as a writer, turns 54 today. Happy Birthday, Dad!
  
• Mikko Koivu might return to play today. He thinks he’s ready, and coach Jacque Lemaire thinks he’s ready. But, as of yet, there’s no room on the roster. I want to say Mikko Koivu randomly!
  
  
  
• Marian Gaborik and Lemaire aren't getting along. My take is that it's a personality conflict. As I would like both to stay in Minnesota, they need to learn to get along.
  
• The Twins have done nothing about Santana yet. No trades, no contract signing. In fact, other than the Mets being readdressed, there’s not much changed since November. (Speaking of: Mr. Smith, I’d like to mention the second worst possible time to announce a trade would be the day before TwinsFest. The worst time would be during TwinsFest. The best move would be to sign him to a new contract just before or early in TwinsFest. Please keep this in mind.)
  
• The Swarm start their season on Saturday night against the Toronto Rock. I hope that’s their team name, and not actually a rock that’s being sent from Canada. As Michael Kilby has been traded to another team, I think Nick Inch might be my new favorite player. Stay tuned for updates. Also, the Swarm did not do pirouettes across the field during the Swarm Open House/Practice last Friday. Rachel and I were disappointed.
  
• I had seven--SEVEN!--orange Sweet Tarts in the fun size packet I ate this morning.
  
• Congrats to Ryan on winning the Victoria Times Bowl contest. I couldn’t compete based on the fact of not being able to name more than two bowl games (the Rose Bowl and the... um...Super Bowl? Oh, the Orange Bowl!), and having no idea what teams were playing in any bowl game.

Suspended

At one of my favorite “everything sports news, non-blog” sites, Yahoo Sports, there was a mailbag question to Ross McKeon. Dwayne Bugler asked, “Why doesn’t the NHL suspend a player who injures another with an illegal hit for the same length of time the injured player is sidelined? “

McKeon’s answer was simply: “While this would be the most fair result in terms of punishment fitting the crime, it’s not practical because there’s too much uncertainty with injuries – how long someone will really be out, etc – and can you imagine all the gamesmanship this would invite? ”

This is near and dear to me because Minnesota Wild player Mikko Koivu* was injured by Vancouver Canuck Mattias Ohlund. While Koivu did illegally elbow a player (and was assessed a penalty for it), Ohlund swung his hockey stick at Koivu, cracking a bone in his leg. No one should ever--ever!--hurt one of my favorite players intentionally!

The situation would’ve been fair if Ohlund--or another Canuck player--had leveled Koivu at a later point in the game. It would be even more fair if it were a completely clean hit. That’s what hockey revenge should be about--make your statement, but don’t get in trouble for it. If Ohlund had injured Koivu on a clean hit…well, I still would’ve been sulky about it because it's Mikko Koivu and I have enough trouble with my favorite player Marian Gaborik atttempting to remain uninjured so I don't need my second favorite player injured too, but I would not have been so irate about the situation.

It would be fair for Ohlund to sit out as long as Koivu is out, but McKeon has a point. There’s too much uncertainty. I like the suspension for a number of games, particularly in hockey. (However, it should be actual games played. If a player is suspended for a year, and there’s a lock-out that year, that year shouldn't count towards the suspension--there’s no punishment because everybody sat out. More on that later.)

Suspensions, from my brief research and limited knowledge, seem to be set at the discretion of the Commissioner. I think the suspension should be based on the injury, rather than the crime, if it's not presently. For example, broken bone is ten games, cracked bone is five games, concussion is four games, no injury (but a play worthy of suspension) is three games--something a little more concrete, something more a reminder of what you’ve done to the other team. Sure, the same illegal move could have a ten-game suspension for one guy, and a three game suspension for another, but that’s the point: you better be careful what you do, because you never know what the result will be. Todd Bertuzzi likely didn’t mean to injure Steve Moore as seriously as he did, but nonetheless, he did hurt him seriously--he intentionally made an illegal move, and it turned out worse than he imagined. That decision had more serious consequences than he intended, but nonetheless, they happened. (In this case, I don’t believe Bertuzzi should have to sit out until Moore can play again, so I think the year suspension was a very good one. While his year suspension was mostly a lock-out year, he was also not allowed to play in Europe, which many players did. However, I think he should have had to serve at least a partial suspension during the next season. The league's reasonsing was the 17 games he sat out the year the incident happened, as well has his remorse, and lost salary and endorsements. Yes, he’s remorseful about the incident, but I’d like to see him try to make amends beyond apologies--donating time and money to spinal injury research, for example. Maybe he does. That's neither here nor there.)

Anyway, that's my thoughts on something I don't really understand.

Happy Thanksgiving!

*I love that kid. Sure, he’s a turning into great hockey player, but there is no name in the NHL--and I daresay the world--that’s more fun to say. Mikko Koivu!