May 28 2013; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Avalanche head coach Patrick Roy speaks at a press conference held at the Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports /
The Colorado Avalanche Alumni Game is a much-anticipated event as the Avs greats face off against their old rival Detroit Red Wings again.
The Colorado Avalanche are hosting the Alumni Game against the Detroit Red Wings on February 26. Thus far, the general consensus has been that this is a more-anticipated game than the actual Stadium Series match the following night. That’s because the Avs’ greats are hosting their old rival wings from the glory days.
In honor of that event, we’ll focus on the storied players who made the Avalanche so great back in those years. First up should be no surprise — Patrick Roy.
For this week’s alumni post, I’ll share my five favorite Patrick Roy moments from when he was a player.
My enamoredness of Roy as head coach is well documented:
Naturally, plenty of that comes from how much I admired him as a player. Truthfully, I had a love-hate appreciation of him when he was still with the Montreal Canadiens. Before the Colorado Avalanche, my favorite team was the Pittsburgh Penguins. And no other goalie in the NHL could stop my favorite shooters — Jaromir Jagr, Mario Lemieux, Alex Kovalev — as reliably as Patrick Roy. It was simply a reality that he was the best goalie in the world.
All of that before he was ever a Colorado Avalanche player.
So, without further adieu, let’s look at my top five Patrick Roy moments from his time as an Avalanche.
Next: #5
#5: Roy Fights Osgood
Fighting in hockey is controversial, but everyone loves a good goalie fight. (Or at least I think they do.)
Whenever you talk goalie fights, people inevitably bring up the epic battle between Patrick Roy and Detroit Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood.
The fight came in the thick of the rivalry between the Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings. It was during a regular season game on April 1, 1998. Trailing 2-0 in the third, the Avs needed a spark, and Roy was ever a fiery one. He saw his chance to challenge Osgood, and Chris had no choice but to accept.
The goalie fight resulted from an all-out scrum. Eventually the officials called 46 penalties for 228 minutes in the game. Unfortunately, Detroit went on to win the game.
Now, no one is ever going to accuse Osgood of being in the same league goalie-wise as Roy. However, even I have to admit he held his own in the fight.
That said, Patrick Roy is the clear winner — he wrestles Chris Osgood down like a cowboy with a prize steer at the rodeo!
For some reason Chris Osgood hasn’t accepted his invitation to play in the Stadium Series Alumni Game. My guess is he’s intimidated by Patrick Roy’s prowess both in net and at center ice.
Next: #4
#4: Patrick Roy Burns Jeremy Roenik
The Colorado Avalanche met the Chicago Blackhawks in the second round of the 1996 Stanley Cup playoffs.
By the end of the fourth round the series was tied at two apiece. Three of the four games had already gone into overtime. In other words, things were getting chippy.
Jeremy Roenik, then of the Chicago Blackhawks, complained about not being awarded a penalty shot during Game 4, according to the Denver Post. He also pointed out that he’d scored on Roy during a breakaway, suggesting he would have scored on the penalty shot and tied the game, which Colorado won 3-2.
Patrick Roy responded that Roenik wouldn’t have scored on the penalty shot anyway, so it didn’t matter.
At that point Roenik got clever:
“I’d like to know where Patrick was in Game 3, probably up trying to get his jock out of the rafters.”
The Colorado Avalanche were shut out in Game 3 while Chicago scored four times on Patrick Roy, including that breakaway of Roenik’s.
Patrick Roy’s response to Jeremy Roenik is now infamous:
“I can’t hear what Jeremy says, because I’ve got my two Stanley Cup rings plugging my ears.”
I remember hearing that interview live and thinking, “Did he really just say that?”
His arrogance hadn’t become legendary in Colorado just yet. That Stanley Cup ring quote changed that legend status — and is still one of the most beloved lines among Avalanche fans.
Next: #3
#3: Roy Declares “No more rats.”
I have a memory of color analyst Peter McNab remarking that Patrick Roy once told his teammates they only ever had to score two goals because he was never letting in more than one. Unfortunately, I’ve searched in vain for confirmation of that quote, but it was just an off-hand comment during a game in the 1990s.
One comment that I can confirm is that Patrick Roy told his teammates “No more rats.”
During the 1996 Stanley Cup playoffs, Florida Panthers fans started celebrating every Cats goal by throwing plastic rats onto the ice. By the time the Panthers entered the actual Stanley Cup Finals, a veritable tidal wave of rats cascaded onto the ice every time Florida scored.
The Colorado Avalanche took the first two games of the series at home in McNichols Arena. However, the series then moved to Miami Arena.
While Colorado’s Claude Lemieux scored first, Florida got two quick goals to take the lead by the end of the first period. Both times a deluge of rats came flying down to the ice.
Most goalies during the playoffs had half-crouched in the net or skated over to the bench when the rain of rats came down. However, Patrick Roy stood proudly in his net, practically daring a plastic rat to hit him.
Not only that, after the second goal, Patrick Roy skated over to the Colorado Avalanche bench. He uttered just three words to his teammates: “No more rats.” In other words, no more rats would be raining down on them because he wasn’t allowing any more goals.
He was as good as his word. It was just the first period of Game 3 and just the first game of the two-game stand in Florida. It didn’t matter. Patrick Roy made a total of 32 saves in that game and a ridiculous 63 saves the following — the game went into triple overtime — to ensure there would be no more rats.
And that the Colorado Avalanche would win the Stanley Cup.
Most people love the second Colorado Avalanche Stanley Cup best because of the Ray Bourque story — Joe Sakic handing the Cup to Bourque is one of the most iconic gestures in all sports. I value that moment, too.
However, that first Stanley Cup will always be my favorite.
Next: #2
#2: Roy Dekes Gretzky
Patrick Roy has ever had a flair for showmanship. On November 16, 1997, though, he took that flair to a whole new level.
The Colorado Avalanche were visiting the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden. It was a routine early-season game, but the Avalanche were getting routed pretty good. The score was 4-1 late in the third period.
With just 3:30 left in the game, Patrick Roy came out of his crease to play the puck. Nothing too unusual — until he kept going. He skated right past his two defensemen — you could even say he split the D.
As he got near the red line, two Rangers — one of them the Great One himself, Wayne Gretzky — approached. Patrick Roy simply effected a neat spin-o-rama and stepped over the red line before relinquishing the puck to teammate Adam Deadmarsh.
Goalies don’t do that. Goalies aren’t allowed to play the puck past the red line. And…. goalies just don’t do that.
Well, not just any goalie does that, but then Patrick Roy wasn’t just any goalie. Even his opponent in that game, Jose Theodore, remarked on that in a Hockey News special:
“That’s Patrick. Patrick does things that he’s the only guy that could do it. I just couldn’t believe it — he looked pretty good.”
At the time, then-coach Marc Crawford speculated that Roy may have stepped over the red line to avoid the rule against goalies playing the puck over the red line. However, Patrick Roy was renowned for being superstitious — and his stepping rather than skating over the red line was well-documented.
During an interview with The Fan Morning Show, Roy remarked that he made his play because he was trying to give his teammates some spark.
What needs to never be lost in the retelling of this story is that Patrick Roy the goalie split his own D and deked Wayne Gretzky.
Next: #1
#1: Patrick Roy Comes to Colorado
While I was still a Pittsburgh Penguins fan, my then-boyfriend — a Boston Bruins fan — and I talked about what would get the legendary Patrick Roy out of Montreal. We universally agreed: nothing. He was untouchable.
We didn’t take into account his legendary pride.
Patrick Roy and Mario Tremblay had had an acrimonious relationship dating back to when Tremblay was still a player. In 1995, he became the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens. That means he was essentially Roy’s boss.
Tremblay tried to act tough with the future Hall of Famer and then superstar of the team. Legend has it that he even shot a puck at Roy’s throat during practice. However, nothing beats his actions during the game against the Detroit Red Wings on December 5, 1995.
Patrick Roy had an atypically bad night. He allowed a total of nine goals in 1 1/2 periods. Roy, already angry from an earlier encounter with Tremblay, became more and more furious when the coach refused to pull him.
Finally, partway through the second period, Tremblay motioned for Patrick Roy to come off the ice. Roy walked stiffly by him and hissed at the Canadien’s president, Ronald Corey, that that had been his last game in Montreal.
The Montreal Canadiens then got a terminal case of the stupids and traded Patrick Roy to the Colorado Avalanche for a song.
It may seem odd to make this bittersweet moment my #1 favorite in Patrick Roy’s history. A part of me acknowledges he probably should have always been a Canadien.
However, that end in Montreal was a beginning here in Colorado. We already had a solid team — the addition of Patrick Roy made it stellar. Without Patrick Roy, we wouldn’t have had those glory days of the 1990s and early 2000s. We definitely wouldn’t have had that first Stanley Cup, and maybe not the second.
We might not even have Patrick Roy as our head coach right now if not for that end in Montreal.
So, even though it was a bitter ending for the Montreal Canadiens, bringing Patrick Roy to the Colorado Avalanche was a sweet beginning. Because of everything he has meant to this team, that moment is my favorite Patrick Roy memory.
