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BOSTON — The Montreal Canadiens will see the return of their captain tonight.
Saku Koivu, who has missed the past three weeks with a fractured bone in his left foot, proclaimed himself fit enough to play in the sixth game of their first-round playoff series against the Boston Bruins at the TD Banknorth Arena.
The Canadiens have a 3-2 series lead and hope tonight to clinch their first series in four years.
To help the Montreal cause, the Canadiens will not have Koivu back but also veteran blueliner Francis Bouillon. He hasn't played since he suffered an ankle injury in a game on Mar. 29.
"I wouldn't miss this for the world," said Koivu, who was hurt when he took a shot off his left foot in a Mar. 28th game against the Buffalo Sabres. Koivu remained in the game to help set up the game-winning goal in overtime.
"The conditioning part of it doesn't concern me at all. The adrenaline will be pumping. At this time of the year, in a game like this, if you can just be out there you're not going to miss the chance. It's been a while for me to be part of the playoffs and this is the time of year you want to be a part of it."
Koivu did indeed feel part of the Canadiens today because he became the latest member of the team to have his hair trimmed down lower than a brush cut, a trend that was started by Montreal forwards Guillaume Latendresse and Tom Kostopoulos just prior to the playoffs.
"I can't tell you who did it," Koivu said, smiling. He added that Latendresse, who has been the barber in most cases, was not the culprit. "Look at the other guys there was no way I was going to let him touch my hair."
The Canadiens captain will wear a protective guard on his left skate as well as his right in order to balance out the feel on his skates and as a precautionary measure.
Even though Koivu only has been back on the ice for the past four days, he kept in shape with long sessions in the gym and on the stationary bike.
Koivu said it was difficult missing the first five games of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
"All the things I've gone through I was able to put this in perspective," said Koivu, who beat non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer seven years ago. "The timing wasn't the ideal one because you don't want to miss any playoff games. It was tough to watch the games, but I thought the guys played real well.
"You just can't feel 100% part of the team not playing. That's why I'm eager to play tonight."
Bouillon, too, is excited to return to action. "I've been looking forward to this for some time now," he said. "I'm excited."
Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau believes that Koivu's return to the lineup will give his team more than a morale boost.
"It's great news, his and Francis Bouillon," Carbonneau said. "They were a big part of why we feel we finished in first place. Like I've said, experience you can't have enough of."
Montreal's power-play specialist Mark Streit (hip) skated this morning, but will wait until after the pre-game warm-up before determining his availability. He missed the fifth game.
The Canadiens won 25 times on the road in the regular season, only two less than the league-leaders, the San Jose Sharks. They split the two games in Boston earlier this week, including a 1-0 shutout win in the fourth game.
On the Bruins side, coach Claude Julien said that he'll likely have veteran defenceman Aaron Ward back in the lineup. He missed the fifth game, a 5-1 victory for the Bruins, because of hyper-extended knee injury.
Julien, who was the coach of the Canadiens in 2004 when they overcame a 3-1 deficit to win the series in seven games, is hoping to accomplish the feat again.
"I'm going to say the same thing I said yesterday when somebody asked 'is this déjà vu' and I said only if it happens again."
