Why Patrick Roy is Staying Upbeat About the Colorado Avalanche

Colorado Avalanche head coach Patrick Roy has posed himself ad a player’s coach — that became clear from his first regular-season game with the Avs. (Stanchion — need I say more?) So, in a way, he has to stay upbeat as the Avalanche players face the disappointing ending to their season.

However, Patrick Roy is not having to strain to stay positive. He’s not having to search around for nice things to say in a pile of, well, let’s go with disappointing play. Instead, he’s seeing the team we all knew was in there — and he’s appreciating it.

Leadership

Firs of all, Patrick Roy can’t say enough about Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog‘s leadership. He has remarked on more than one occasion that, even when Landeskog doesn’t have the best night offensively, he’s been a passionate player on the ice. (Read: he’s punched pretty much every captain in the NHL, one way or another.)

On the flip side, Landeskog’s production of late has been outstanding. Roy said of Landeskog on The Fan Morning Show:

"“Landy, in the last two months, has been outstanding. He’s been the type of power forward we’ve been looking for and talking about. And leader on our team. He’s been a dominant player.”"

Coach Roy has a lot to say about center Ryan O’Reilly as well. He feels O’Reilly is playing “solid hockey.” Overall, Roy is very pleased with O’Reilly and his line, which includes Landeskog.

Goal Tending

It’s no secret that Semyon Varlamov is Roy’s golden boy. I don’t always agree with his esteem, but I also fully recognize that the nail on Patrick Roy’s little finger understands hockey goal tending better than I could ever hope to.

That said, Roy had some positives for backup Reto Berra. Berra isn’t what we had all hoped for in a backup — there were a lot of times we felt more confident with a rookie, Calvin Pickard, or an exhausted Varlamov in net. However, Roy acknowledges that Berra has been working hard — and the fruit of his labors have been success:

"“When you work hard, good things happen to you. I’m very happy for him to see this performance [against the Vancoucer Canucks]. Not only is it going to bring confidence to himself, but his teammates are going to look at him and say, ‘You know what, Reto has been working hard.’ I’m sure they are proud of him as well.”"

Avalanche Hockey

Patrick Roy is a winner. It can’t be easy for him to see his team’s playoff hopes dying on the vine. He acknowledges that during the post-game interview:

"“Let’s not kid ourselves. Every time we look at the standings or the results, [the Minnesota Wild] and [Winnipeg Jets] are winning hockey games.”"

Coach Roy has stated quite clearly that he’s not going to let the players take the foot off the gas now. Not that it seems like they want to, but coach Roy said, “I’m coaching to win hockey games.”

He also hopes that the young Avalanche players will learn a lesson from the tribulations of this season. He wants them to be able to look back at the disappointment they’re fighting now and use that as fuel to push themselves next year.

Like I said at the beginning, the Avs are playing the kind of hockey right now that we all knew they were capable of. If they can take the drive from now into next year, it’ll make the disappointment worth it.

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