Monday, October 30, 2006

I earn 5 times what you chimps can ever make!

I see that I failed to answer my own question. Bad Jordi. Bad Jordi!

I don't know if there's some outstanding member of the Canadiens community. I might be missing something huge here. Of course there's the obvious "legends" of sorts who get invited to charity hoo-haas so they can relive their glory days or maybe Patrick Roy since fans just love to claim him. Jose Theodore is apparently quite active in it but his name is taboo and as soon as anyone mentions his name someone will always mutter "Propecia!". But it seems more like no one should ever ever become too dedicated to a place with fans likes these. I don't know, maybe it's because anyone can get booed away so easily. But there isn't a name that jumps into mind when it's asked this. You can list the friendliest people or the people more likely to be part of a charity event, but there's no man who will go out of his way all the time to make people happy. Unless you count Kovalev apparently giving a couple of people free rides on his plane when he was with the Rangers or something.

But that doesn't mean people don't try to help out in charity. There was already a charity golf tournament, which raised oodles of money to help kids. but I reckon it's more of an obligation. Hell even Markov turned up and he got lost on the way. And he lost his information card to help him if he got lost. Thankfully Perezhogin found him, but not before he found out he really sucked at golf. By the way, digging for Perezhogin helped me find that he did his part for charity, but not before he helped a goalie convulse and bleed on the ice.

Kovalev recently did his bit to help kids. I have a soft spot for him because he helps add some sort of colour to the team. I'll be honest, he's a bit of a nutcase from his hit on Tucker to his recent argument with refs to get himself thrown out of the Bruins game. Youppi certainly has a knack of making Gainey smile. And Komisarek did it before Commodore decided to try shaving his hair.

However who makes the cut as the #1 figure of purity and goodness? Like what Iginla is to Calgary, Saku Koivu is arguably a lot more to the Canadiens. He's got hero written all over him, even if he may never learn French. Probably the biggest story of him is when he was diagnosed with cancer not too long ago.

Except for a strange metallic taste in his mouth and a loss of appetite, Saku says he felt fine for the first few days in the hospital, where he was deluged with get-well cards. But as soon as he was sent home, shot full of ultrahigh-dose chemotherapy drugs, he closeted himself in the dark, writhing in pain. For three days, he couldn't bear to speak, hear noise or see light. He couldn't get out of bed. Listening to him scream, his parents, who had flown in from Finland, were convinced he was dying. Hanna thought so too.

What little Saku remembers, he describes this way: "I just needed to sleep, to close my eyes. My head was killing me, I was throwing up and the pain, the fire that was in me -- it was like ... it was like ... " He falls silent before he can find the words to finish.

Apart from all the support (including those by Lemieux and Lance Armstrong), Saku Koivu pretty much cheated death. His Non-Hodgkin Lymphonia has a 50% survival rate, not really good odds. And not only did he promise to return to the ice, he promised to keep the date for his wedding with his fiancee.

And if Koivu wasn't going to be traded away as per the "curse" of captains, some higher being was kind of trying to kill him. That included the more recent eye injury which threatened his career. And like Roloson's injury threw his team into mayhem, Koivu's injury possibly guaranteed Montreal's elimination from the playoffs more than before. But apart from his occasional headaches, he's still all fine and dandy. And he's playing a pretty good game recently, obviously Koivu's built like a rock. So why is it all important, hearing about a guy get all banged up and throw up? Because he provides inspiration to people. He's become known for his character not just on the ice, becoming an unrivaled figurehead for the team. And to seal the claim that he is just a natural leader, he was voted in as a member of the International Olympic Commitee in the Athletes' Commission. And he sticks up for his teammates, not exactly physically but in the press. He's like the guy everyone loves. I love him. He deserves 4 mil and more. But he's Finnish so that's probably why.

In other news, Roger Crozier Award winning goaltender Cristobal Huet gave his loot from the award to charity. Nice bloke ain't he? There's even an ebay auction for a charity "Cristobal Huet Experience" item. I don't read French from never taking it (but I do a mean Japanese) so it offers:
  • 1x Huet
  • Bedding
  • Leaf & Habs stationery
  • Burning money (for when you're drunk)
  • Montreal, especially one of the big buildings
  • An Airline
  • And a shirt to keep you warm
Of course theres an english translation but this way is much more fun.

And please, please, please, help me make a new question to change the topic to.

3 comments:

Shan said...

I agree, Saku seems like a genuinely kindhearted person.

aquietgirl said...

Ooh, I was just thinking about a new discussion topic.

I know a Philly fan who you probably would expect to be a Philly fan. His attitude in all affairs is akin to the Broad Street Bullies. He even kind of looks like Bobby Clarke, and every time I think about the Flyers I think of him. So the question could go something like this: what kind of a person would you expect your team to be? It's an exercise in anthropomorphizing teams ... is this coherent?

Jordi said...

That is pretty awesome. That should be a creative challenge. You know. So people can draw little stick figures of what they'd be like.