Patrick Roy is taking his rightful place in the Hockey Hall of Fame today, and frankly, it’s taken all weekend to decide what to say about him. He hasn’t made things easy lately, on himself and on his fans and defenders. But that isn’t what made him a great goalie, and Patrick Roy is the best.
Patrick Roy left Montreal in a huff. As hard as it would be for Patrick to choose a team by which to identify as, here in Colorado, there has been no other goalie. David Aebischer lived in his shadow for a season and a half, after following Roy as his backup. Jose Theodore was traded to the Avs in hopes to be the next Roy, and the comparisons to the original trade could not be avoided.
If you want to really place Roy’s impact on the game, you can’t just do it in Montreal and Colorado. You have to look at the NHL and hockey as a whole. Roy was an inspiration to kids around the world, and started the slew of Quebec goalies who came along ever since. Roy made kids want to be in the net, rather than be forced in by a sibling. Kids looked up to him, as a goalie and a winner.
The last goal scored against Roy came in the 2003 playoffs, as the Minnesota Wild beat the Avs in game 6 of the Conference Semifinals. Who else would score that goal but current Avalanche Andrew Brunette. Roy was loosing a step at that point, but what do you expect from playing 19 seasons. Roy ended his career, and immediately his jersey was retired in Colorado. He deserved it.
To me, there isn’t a lot to say about Roy in Colorado, not for lack of material, but because he had one simple fact about him. He brought the Stanley Cup to Colorado. There are few players who make that kind of impact by simply showing up and being on your team. You can argue that the talent outside of the net in Colorado would have gotten the job done eventually, but I don’t believe that. As talented as the Avs were in front of Roy, they still didn’t have the netminding to win a cup. If you could trade Jocelyn Thibault for Patrick Roy, you would make that trade in a second, and that’s exactly what happened. Hell, if you could trade Jocelyn Thibault for a used Ford Pinto, you wouldn’t even kick the tires, you would just drive off into the sunset. Patrick Roy build this franchise in Denver. The Stanley Cup win in the first year of play in Denver made this team seem magical. Who could say what the Avalanche franchise would have looked like if not for that immediate win, especially in a city over-saturated with sports teams. Roy was the final ingredient of the magic potion that was used in Colorado.
Like I say, there isn’t a lot to say about Roy, other than that he is the best goalie in the world, and that means even better than Marty Brodeur. And in light of his recent comments and general mouthiness, he was hired to stop pucks, and he did that better than anyone. That is what counts in the end. Good on ya, Patrick.
For more about Patrick Roy, go to Eyes on the Prize, where Reality Check has a lot more to say, and does it better.
One response to “Patrick Roy: Hockey Hall of Famer”
Hey great post, and thanks for the kind words – always apprecited.
There are tons of Roy stories flowing out of the Quebec media lately. In time I’ll get around to the best of them. Tough work this translating business.
One guy who must take alot of credit and pride is Roy’s goalie coach Francois Allaire, who had a model student in Patrick to whom to teach the butterfly style. That and Roy’s accomlishments revolutionized goaltending as a whole in the last 2 decades.
One great comment from Roy that I’d yet to get around to revolves around his brazen declarations and general assoleness in pusuit of victory. Roy said that he often lost sleep after shooting his mouth off and that it tended to make him better the next game. Kind of like put up or shut up. Since he kept putting up – he needn’t shut up.
The Saturday Journal de Montreal had 3 whole pages dedicated to St. Patrick. I’ll be grabbing tomorrows edition and getting the best of starting Wednesday night.