Motivation Quote by Saku Koivu

A pro athlete rarely admits vulnerability without wrapping it in the safe language of grit, and Saku Koivu’s “It’s been tough for me being away from the game” is exactly that kind of controlled confession. The sentence is plain, even understated, but it lands because it’s doing two jobs at once: acknowledging pain while reaffirming identity. “The game” isn’t just hockey; it’s routine, status, purpose, and the social world that makes an elite athlete feel legible to himself.

Koivu’s wording is telling. He doesn’t say he’s been scared, angry, or lonely. He says it’s been “tough,” the athletic catchall that communicates endurance without asking for sympathy. That restraint is the point. In sports culture, especially in hockey’s stoic tradition, emotion is permissible mostly as perseverance. The line signals struggle, then immediately frames it as something he’s capable of bearing.

Context matters with Koivu because his career is bound up with absence: injuries, the physical toll of leadership, and most notably his public battle with cancer during his Montreal Canadiens tenure. Away from the game can mean away from competition, but it also hints at being pushed outside the one arena where he has agency. For a captain, separation is a loss of control as much as a loss of play.

The subtext is a quiet plea: don’t reduce me to my setback. Even sidelined, he’s still part of the sport’s moral economy, where showing up matters. The line invites fans to see recovery not as downtime, but as another kind of work.