Colorado Avalanche Future: 3 Possible Scenarios
Cut Off the Head: Patrick Roy
When a team does poorly, especially when it under-performs, the coach is often the first person to take the blame. Already last season some people were grumbling that Patrick Roy is an ineffective coach. However, he may have gotten some slack because of all the injuries.
This season, the grumblings are much louder. The Colorado Avalanche are looking to miss the playoffs again. That Why Not Us season looks to be an anomaly.
If problems of focus and consistency can be blamed on a captain, they most certainly can fall at the coach’s feet as well. Patrick Roy hasn’t always had the best systems, and sometimes it seems his players don’t listen to him. If a coach has lost the locker room, he’s ineffectual, right?
Here’s why I say there’s no way in hell GM Joe Sakic is firing Patrick Roy:
Stay with me — there’s more to it than that.
Josh Kroenke ultimately makes the decisions because, hey, he owns the team. However, he’s always been content to dabble with his other team, the Denver Nuggets. It’s highly unlikely he’s putting pressure on Joe Sakic as long as all these opponent fans can keep filling up his arena — and Colorado as a destination state make that a certainty.
Therefore, Joe Sakic would be little inclined to fire a man with whom he won the Stanley Cup not once but twice. That’s a tight brotherhood, and breaking it is probably something like divorce. Sakic simply has no reason to do so.
I repeat: no reason. Not only is Patrick Roy insulated, but he doesn’t deserve to be on the hot seat. A lot of the Colorado Avalanche’s problems could be laid at Sakic’s feet as well as Roy’s, especially when it comes to personnel.
That said, I also firmly believe Roy and Sakic have a plan on which they’re working together. Roy has one more year on his coaching contract with an option for a fifth. I believe Roy and Sakic’s plan expects to come to fruition by the end of that fourth year.
Therefore, I bet the farm that Patrick Roy isn’t getting moved off the coaching seat this off-season. He and Sakic are in this together.
Over the summer — especially as contracts, drafts and free agency get sorted out — I’ll go more in-depth into what Sakic and Roy’s plan is for the team. I’ll also draft how far they’ve come.
So, the Colorado Avalanche are still disappointing compared to what we want them to be. We, Avs Nation, may see a big change unfold over the summer. However, the changes might not be as big as we all expect.